August 15, 2024 - TRA Commentary - 

Setting the vision for the future, the Texas Transportation Commission voted unanimously in July to adopt Connecting Texas 2050, TxDOT’s latest update to the statewide long-range transportation plan, at their July meeting.

According to a news release, the plan serves as the cornerstone multimodal transportation planning document at TxDOT.

With this adopted plan, TxDOT establishes the vision, goals, objectives, performance measures, and strategic recommendations for the state’s multimodal transportation system through 2050. Connecting Texas 2050 identifies three key performance goals: Safety, Preservation, and Mobility, along with three strategic goals: Connectivity, Economic Vitality, and Stewardship.

All good words. We need good highways. We need good ports, we need good freight movement, we need good bike paths and sidewalks.

What is missing in the 125 page report, posted online, are DIRECT references and a vision on how Texans would benefit from an expanded intercity passenger rail network in the future. 

Just as the report discusses future interstates (page 28) and future bike tourism trails (page 41), there should be a section that  highlights what a decades-old Texas Transportation Institute vision spelled out. That report, commissioned by TxDOT, showed potential intercity passenger rail corridors in the state. https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-5930-1.pdf There is no such vision for intercity passenger rail in Connecting Texas 2050.

It's time to stop shuffling our feet on Texas intercity passenger rail projects. It's time for the state transportation agency to take more than baby steps in developing a passenger rail vision for the future.

• TxDOT must name primary intercity passenger rail lines as High-Level Corridors of Statewide Significance that should be developed, just like it has done with other modes in section 3 of the Connections Texas 2050 report. Designating them as Corridors of Statewide Significance helps elevate them in terms of priority for future study and the implementation of improvement projects. Show the social and economic benefits that can occur with development of more trains for more people to more places in Texas.
• These corridors deserve an investment strategy that only the Texas Legislature can deliver. 98% of TxDOT funding must, by law, go to highways. It's time for a paradigm shift. It's time for a Passenger Rail Improvement Revolving Fund, just like the state of Kansas created earlier this year. 
• TxDOT can only report on these Corridors of Statewide Significance to lawmakers and put them on their radar. TxDOT is prohibited in advocating for specific projects before the legislature. 
• The folks under the dome in Austin can't react and appropriate funding if they aren't read in to the need for Intercity Passenger Rail Corridors of Statewide Significance. 
• Do you see why state funding for rail projects hasn't moved forward? This is the vicious cycle where intercity passenger rail suffers.  TxDOT and Legislature are caught up in the revolving hamster wheel until both come together and work toward the multi-modal needs of our citizens. 

In 2009, Texas A&M Transportation Institute Research Scientist Jeff Arndt wrote "The Texas population is expected to more than double by the year 2030, which may lead some to wonder just how our already congested metropolitan area roadways will handle the load. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is challenged with meeting the mobility needs of the growing population.

The researchers found that rail systems, for the most part, meet TxDOT agency goals since they are safe, environmentally friendly, expand mobility and reduce household investment in transportation.

So what does this mean for TxDOT‘s role in urban rail planning? “TxDOT has already served as a catalyst in exploring regional rail in the San Antonio-Austin corridor and the Houston metropolitan region,” says Arndt. “TxDOT‘s ability to assist in advancing these kinds of rail projects further would be enhanced through increased funding and possibly by providing TxDOT the ability to obtain rolling stock.” https://tti.tamu.edu/researcher/the-business-of-rail-txdot-examines-their-role-in-rail-projects/

Passenger rail studies completed by TxDOT in the past have never advanced past the print stage and have gathered dust on the shelves. Let's get past the stage of creating a library of rail projects.

Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study (TOPRS) -  2017 Stalled

The I-35 corridor, running from Duluth, MN to Laredo, TX, is a congressionally identified corridor of national significance and is one of the fastest growing regions in the U.S., running through 6 of the largest urban areas and 9 of the 50 largest cities in the U.S. International truck traffic demand, intercity truck traffic demand, and passenger travel demand compete for highway capacity, creating substantial congestion inside the urban areas through which the highway runs.

The Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study Service Level (Tier 1) Environmental Impact Statement was issued by the Federal Railroad Administration on October 23, 2017. The Record Of Decision formally identified seven Selected Alternatives that would serve as the framework for future investment in new and improved conventional and high-speed passenger rail service in three regions between Oklahoma City and South Texas. The project, led by TxDOT, has not advanced.

Austin-Houston Passenger Rail Study-  2011 Stalled

The Houston-Austin corridor was considered in the TTI 0-5930 study as one of the most direct routes to connect Houston, the U.S.’s fourth largest city, which is the current terminus of the federally designated Gulf Coast High Speed Rail Corridor with the large population centers of Austin and San Antonio in South Central Texas. The 2011 study never advanced. https://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/rail/austin_houston_final.pdf

Dallas/Fort Worth to Meridian Passenger Rail Study - 2017 Stalled - Resurrected by Amtrak/Southern Rail Commission

Study completed in October 2017 to identify infrastructure needs and perform a cost-benefits analysis to implement a reliable passenger rail service from Fort Worth to Meridian, Mississippi to connect with Amtrak service to the East coast. Completed on behalf of the I-20 Corridor Council but not advanced by TxDOT until a federal Corridor Identification grant in 2023 was issued to Amtrak and the Southern Rail Commission by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Dallas/Fort Worth-Houston HSIPR Program (High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail) 2010 - picked up by Texas Central, now resurrected by Amtrak

A Service Development Planning and Service NEPA application for intercity passenger rail between the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Houston. https://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/rail/high_speed/planning_dfw_hou.pdf 

Stakeholder Developed Vision for Passenger Rail - When the Rail Division was formed in 2009, it was guided by a vision for rail services in the future, both for freight and passenger rail. This is what TXDOT addressed then and is still valid now:

"A variety of reliable passenger rail services will be offered to a broad section of the Texas population—regional and intercity, express and local. Passenger rail will be a viable transportation alternative which is cost and time competitive and connected to transit and other modes in city center stations—a product of market-driven studies of most promising corridors, offering the most appropriate service designs for those corridors. Passenger rail services and facilities will complement municipalities creating more livable, sustainable urban activity centers. Incremental expansion of frequency and reliability of passenger rail services on freight rail corridors will reduce environmental impacts of new service, will not inhibit current and future freight volumes, and will not place unmanageable risks on rail owners. As passenger rail traffic increases, new, higher speed rail services will be launched on separated, dedicated rights-of-way."   https://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/rail/plan/plan_exec_summary_0917.pdf

The Texas economy continues to explode, creating more jobs as industries continue to expand in the state. Texans deserve transportation choices. The transportation agency and the legislature must come together and address the needs of intercity passenger rail service or we will be condemned to be caught in highway traffic forever with few to no other options.

One final thought:

View the TxDOT Connecting 2050 video and count the number of times regional or intercity passenger rail is mentioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQx6QdQb2N0  Why can't our transportation agency show pictures of modern passenger trains as examples of what is possible? 

Photo credit: TxDOT