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Sold-out South Central High Speed Rail Corridor Conference issues a call to action
(DFW Airport) - Rail industry professionals addressed a sold-out conference at DFW Airport, Friday, January 28 to showcase the South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor and what should be done to develop it. The high-speed corridor, one of eleven designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation, has not yet received any attention. The corridor is “Y” shaped with one leg from Tulsa/Oklahoma City to the Dallas-Fort Worth area; another leg runs from Little Rock through Texarkana to Dallas-Fort Worth and the third leg extends from the DFW region to Austin and San Antonio. The corridor was designated by the USDOT in 2000.
Other corridors in the country are operating higher speed passenger and freight rail service, are now implementing improvements or are in the planning stage for development. The rail conference, sponsored by Texas Rail Advocates, brought together rail professionals; national, state, regional and local government agencies and representatives; rail advocates and leaders of business and industry to hear about the potential of the South Central Corridor.
Texas
State Representative Tommy Merritt (East Texas) spoke out for a dedicated
rail division within the Texas Department of Transportation to coordinate
all passenger and freight rail development in the corridor and to be
a single voice for development of all rail projects in the state. Representative
Merritt’s vision for Texas’ transportation
future includes high speed passenger rail service. Representative Merritt
believes that in order to reduce congestion and emissions from road vehicles,
passenger rail is the only way to achieve these goals.
| Opening remarks were delivered by Mike Sims,
Senior Planner, North Central Texas Council of Governments. Mr. Sims
urged all attendees to take note of this important corridor and urged
that all parties need to unite to develop it.
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Those attending the all-day conference included representatives from U.S. Congressman Kenny Marchant and Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office. Both are on the U.S. House Transportation Committee. U.S. Congressman Joe Barton and Michael Burgess also sent representatives. The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and DFW Airport were represented along with chambers of commerce from Dallas and Tarrant counties. Area mayors, city council members, county governmental agencies, mobility councils, rail advocates and business and industry decision makers also attended.
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Gil Carmichael, Chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver, urged the conference to support the development of “Interstate II ” as he calls it, noting that the government helped build our national interstate highway system and now it is time that attention is called to our deteriorating rail systems. |
Drew Galloway, Senior Director, Strategic Planning for Amtrak, spoke on the formation of Amtrak’s policies guiding rail corridor development and technical support. The Amtrak Strategic Plan calls for development of state corridor initiatives. |
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Joe Kyle from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s
Rail Division spoke on the success story of the Heartland Flyer, which
Amtrak operates from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth. The daily service has
exceeded projections and has been growing in popularity with passenger
increases since its inception.
This corridor train though, is threatened with abandonment by September
2005 if state and federal legislators do not help fund this service.
The Heartland Flyer operates on the north leg of the South Central High
Speed Rail Corridor which could be upgraded to handle higher speed passenger
trains up to 110 miles per hour. At present, the train operates at a speed
cap of 79 miles per hour.
Kathy Batky-Tarpley from BNSF Railway (Burlington Northern
Santa Fe) spoke about how the railroad engages in public/private partnerships,
making it a win-win proposition for business, industry, the public and
the railroad. BNSF Railway is the host railroad for the Heartland
Flyer and consistently runs the train over their system with a high degree
of reliability in on-time performance. Mrs. Batky-Tarpley is General Director,
Public-Private Partnerships for BNSF Railway.
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John Cikota from the Federal Railroad Administration explained the national corridors and current development status along with the reminder that government agencies can not lobby for rail service. |
Mario Medina
from the Texas Department of Transportation took several questions from
the audience. One question raised was to see if TXDOT would improve the
Texas section of the Heartland Flyer to reduce travel times (ODOT has brought
the speeds up from 50s to 79mph using federal funds). He discussed the
proposed Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), which does not expect to formulate
plans for any rail service until after 2025. The only rail project on the
horizon from TXDOT is the proposed Austin-San Antonio reroute of Union
Pacific freight service. TXDOT has no other ongoing plans or direction
to develop the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor at this time.
Editors Note: Please note that these are two separate projects and ultimately can compliment each other, but in reality, there is virtually no envisioned overlap. The first Federal step is a corridor study that information can be shared for planning the TTC without spending scarce State funds.
Fredrick K. Plous of Chicago-based NewTrains Leasing System gave a
very convincing presentation at lunch about the success of California’s
system of 60 daily state-supported Amtrak trains. This service has
grown phenomenally in the past 10 years and in 2004 carried more than 4
million passengers on three routes. Mr. Plous’s presentation
focused on the 137-mile Capitol Corridor route connecting San Jose with
Oakland and Sacramento. On the 90-mile core segment between Oakland and
Sacramento, 12 daily round trips now carry nearly 100,000 passengers per
month, up 9.9 per cent in the last year. Mr. Plous suggested
the Capitol Corridor be used as a model for development of intercity corridor
passenger trains in Texas. Mr. Plous made a second appearance when
he concluded the Conference with a call to action, urging TRA members to
make personal visits to their state representatives and senators to ask
them to reach out to the Texas congressional delegation on behalf of a
$2.2-million federal earmark to fund a study of the South Central High
Speed Rail Corridor.
Tom Janaky of Colorado Railcar (a key conference sponsor)
gave a very interesting presentation about the DMU (diesel
multiple umit) just before lunch.
This multiple unit self propelled train is a successor to the Budd RDC (rail diesel car) wich was used by many railroads in the late '40s and through the '50s and 60's for passenger service on branch lines. The DMU is usually a two car train and has been widely used in the Alaskan terrain as a sightseeres preferred mode to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
The DMU comes in a bilevel configuration as well as single level. The state of Florida has purchased DMUs from Colorado Railcar intending to use them in commuter service. There is interest in the DMU for service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It would be ideal for use in service between Marshal/Longview and Dallas/Fort Worth.
Gary
C. Thomas is President/Eexecutive Director of Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
Thomas is responsible for a 13-city transit system over a 700-square
mile area with bus, light rail, commuter rail, paratransit and high occupancy
vehicle (HOV) lane services. He administers the goals and policies of
the DART Board of Directors, including the largest public transit expansion
in North America. He also directs the agency's top managers and 2,750
employees, emphasizing a strong customer focus to ensure that transit
riders and taxpayers receive the best transit service available.
Panel members answered questions about the economic benefits
of rail from the standpoint benefiting industry as well as a passenger
transportation perspective: regional passenger service interacting with
local rail and bus transit. Panel members agreed that the Dallas/Fort Worth
area has the potential to become the Southwest major rail transportation
hub much like Chicago.
The panel was lead by (from L to R) Gary Thomas (DART), Curtis Morgan (TTI),
Joy Smith (Amtrak), and George Chilson (NARP President).
Call to Action
At the conference close, a “call to action” was issued by Texas Rail Advocates. The four steps for action are:
Conference Sponsors
Texas Rail Advocates Board
(L to R): Kevin Ruble, Paul Mangelsdorf,
Taylor Sharpe, Dick Watkins, Beau Smith, John Radovich, and Peter LeCody.
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Conference Materials:
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