Texas Rail Advocates

News Releases

How Higher Speed Trains compare with highway travel time in Texas
(Dallas) - April 7, 2008

How quick can you get from Dallas to Houston on a train today? The answer: closer to two days. This unbelievable answer is the state of train travel in Texas today. There are no direct passenger rail links between Dallas and Houston. An Amtrak daily service was discontinued in the 90's during a budget crunch. You can fly, drive or take a bus but you can't take a train direct to Houston. The only rail link is Amtrak via San Antonio, changing trains in the middle of the night. And that can only happen three nights a week when Amtrak's daily Texas Eagle connects with the tri-weekly Sunset Limited from the West Coast. If you leave at noon from Dallas, you will be in Houston later the next day. Needless to say, few people choose that route.

But, if..... and it's a big if.... faster, more frequent rail service could be established between Dallas and Houston, how long would it take? An upgraded, higher speed passenger train running at 90 to 110 Travelling by air, allowing that the passenger is going downtown to downtown, would be at least 3 hours or more.

Here are some of the benefits of higher speed passenger rail travel
You can relax instead of worrying about traffic around you, accidents and construction zones
You can use a cell phone all the way
You can work on your laptop when you choose
You can get food and refreshments on board
You can read a book or sleep
You are using a fuel efficient form of transportation
You don't have to take off your shoes at a TSA security checkpoint

Texas Rail Advocates has done a comparison with travel times for other cities along the U.S. Department of Transportation South Central High Performance Rail Corridor. http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/647 and has found that travel times on most all corridors along the South Central Rail Corridor would be comparable with surface travel by car, sometimes faster. TRA used average travel times and rounded the answers. Mileage from TxDOT charts ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/trv/txquicklook_1.pdf.

Fort Worth to Austin - 187 miles - 3 hours by car (average 60 miles per hour) - way under 3 hours by train (average 85 miles per hour)

Austin to San Antonio - 79 miles - 1 1/2 hours by car (if you could average 60 miles per hour in this congested corridor) - a little over an hour by train that averaged 80 mph with an intermediate stop

Dallas to Longview - 125 miles - about 2 hours by car and under 2 hours by train

Upgrading of the corridor would also allow for the faster movement of freight trains through Texas, a benefit for commerce. With a public-private partnership to upgrade the existing right-of-way, improve signaling, elimination of some dangerous highway rail crossings and double-tracking the corridor, public and private sectors both benefit. While daytime rail traffic might mean some of the system would be used slightly more by passenger trains, the freight railroads would benefit from a double-tracked system during non-passenger traffic hours after 10pm and until 6am in the morning, traditionally not used for passenger corridor service.

For additional information contact Peter LeCody, Executive Administrator, Texas Rail Advocates at peter@texasrailadvocates.org