North Texas Council invites suppliers to talk high speed rail
June 20th, 2016
June 20, 2016 - TRA Newswire
Officials of North Texas cities and the North Central Texas Council of Governments played host to high speed rail companies and suppliers Monday to entice them to build several segments of proposed passenger rail lines in the state. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, Dallas Councilman Lee Kleinman and others gave their pitch to members of the high speed rail industry at the offices of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Dallas City Councilman Lee Kleinman told suppliers that "we have to look at high speed rail and multi-modal connections in our region."
While a private company, Texas Central Partners, has plans to run high speed trains between Dallas and Houston two other segments are being looked at by North Texas governments. One is between Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth which is being studied by the DFW High Speed Rail Commission and the other is between Oklahoma, Fort Worth, San Antonio and beyond which is under the purview of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Texas Central's private project is expected to clear environmental hurdles in 2017 and Texas-San Antonio & beyond is expected to complete it's first review later this year.
The DFW High Speed Rail Commission is working through potential rail alignments and should have their environmental studies completed in 2017. Michael Morris, Transportation Director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said "it might be wiser and less expensive to relocate and rebuild existing lanes in 50 year old highways and to build the high speed rail lines down the middle." The DFW project would be divided into a Fort Worth segment, an Arlington-Grand Prairie segment and a Dallas segment and rail suppliers could bid on one, two or all three segments.
Morris told the high speed rail companies that "we're not here today to have you sell yourselves to us. We're here to sell the region and its benefits to you." Forcasts show a 42% jump in population between now and 2040 and according to NCTCOG officials that's reason enough to plan ahead for transportation options.
Officials of North Texas cities and the North Central Texas Council of Governments played host to high speed rail companies and suppliers Monday to entice them to build several segments of proposed passenger rail lines in the state. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, Dallas Councilman Lee Kleinman and others gave their pitch to members of the high speed rail industry at the offices of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Dallas City Councilman Lee Kleinman told suppliers that "we have to look at high speed rail and multi-modal connections in our region."
While a private company, Texas Central Partners, has plans to run high speed trains between Dallas and Houston two other segments are being looked at by North Texas governments. One is between Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth which is being studied by the DFW High Speed Rail Commission and the other is between Oklahoma, Fort Worth, San Antonio and beyond which is under the purview of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Texas Central's private project is expected to clear environmental hurdles in 2017 and Texas-San Antonio & beyond is expected to complete it's first review later this year.
The DFW High Speed Rail Commission is working through potential rail alignments and should have their environmental studies completed in 2017. Michael Morris, Transportation Director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said "it might be wiser and less expensive to relocate and rebuild existing lanes in 50 year old highways and to build the high speed rail lines down the middle." The DFW project would be divided into a Fort Worth segment, an Arlington-Grand Prairie segment and a Dallas segment and rail suppliers could bid on one, two or all three segments.
Morris told the high speed rail companies that "we're not here today to have you sell yourselves to us. We're here to sell the region and its benefits to you." Forcasts show a 42% jump in population between now and 2040 and according to NCTCOG officials that's reason enough to plan ahead for transportation options.