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Texas Rail Advocates
Economically Efficient, Environmentally Compatible Transportation the Rail Way
800 Jaguar Lane * Dallas * Texas * 75226 * www.TexasRailAdvocates.org

Our mission is to accelerate Texas's economic growth and enhance the quality of life enjoyed by its people by advancing the development of rail service to its full potential as a carrier of freight and passengers.

What Texas Rail Advocates supports:

  1. Rail Infrastructure Investment - A sustained, adequate and reliable source of funding is needed. Transportation dollars invested in rail infrastructure pay higher dividends in economic efficiency and safety, with less impact to the environment. TEA-21 needs to give freight railroads incentives to upgrade their mainlines to accommodate higher speed passenger trains and efficient movement of freight trains.
  2. Public/Private Partnerships - Closer examination of the public/private partnership method of rail funding is needed. Southern California's Alameda Corridor, as well as similar projects in the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest, are outstanding examples of new opportunities for infrastructure enhancements and expansions benefitting communities and regions as well as transportation companies.
  3. Rail Corridor Development - Federal and State funding for the development of the emerging high speed corridors, especially the South Central High Speed Corridor. This development begins with a ridership study jointly funded by the Federal Railroad Administration and the respective state departments of transportation. Texas Rail Advocates believes that the development of the South Central Corridor can complement the Trans Texas Corridor plan.
  4. Intercity Passenger Rail Service - Texas Rail Advocates realizes that this service may be different from that presently offered by Amtrak, but believes that it is critical to create a national high speed surface transportation system for freight and passengers to interconnect with and complement highway and air transportation.

Gil Carmichael's (Chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute) Transportation Vision for the 21st Century - Interstate II

Popular Mechanics Focuses on Freight Trains:

"Imagine a machine in the future that moves goods by the ton -- by tens of thousands of tons -- along specialized transportation corridors. Guided by computers, tracked by GPS and driven by powerful new engines, this revolutionary, high tech vehicle slashes America's energy consumption and leaves the air cleaner than any mechanized transport before it. At a time when highways are clogged and fuel reserves are strained, it represents a miracle technology that arrives not a moment too soon. It's been under development for more than 200 years, yet it is the transportation of the future. Meet the freight train, reborn."

That is the opening paragraph of a cover page feature on the nation's freight railroads from the January issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.

Reporter Josh Dean writes about how freight railroads have utilized modern technology to reverse a downward spiral and become once again a growth industry.

Dean writes that "railroads have helped pioneer computerized freight management, and have pushed the envelope on power, efficiency and mechanical ingenuity to move their cargo ever faster and more cheaply."
But, he said, that's just the beginning. "The innovations being introduced in the next few years will overshadow those of the past, with some of the biggest changes coming in energy efficiency. That's an arena where railroads already trounce the competition and where the nation is in serious need of problem solving."

The complete article is available online at www.popularmechanics.com/science/transportation/2170022.html