Texas solon wants to add freight line to highway route

Texas State Rep. Mike Krusee of Round Rock has asked the state to change its plans for the Texas 130 toll road so a freight rail line can be added as the road is built in eastern Central Texas.

That could set off a chain of events desired by nearly every transportation group in the region and raises the possibility of passenger rail along MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), fewer long-haul trucks on Interstate 35 and thus better traffic flow, and special MoPac carpool lanes whose tolls could pay for noise walls residents have coveted for decades.

It’s a house-of-cards idea pegged to a goal unfulfilled by local and state officials for more than 20 years: Persuading Union Pacific Railroad to move the bulk of its freight operations off the former Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks it owns, reports the American-Statesman of February 25.

It’s also an idea transportation activists are giving stronger odds than previous attempts, with a new commuter rail district and regional mobility authority increasing the chances of doing cross-county rail.

“I think it has to happen,” said Ross Milloy, the head of the Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council, who is familiar with the freight rail push. “I think it’s critical for the whole area, critical for the state’s economy.”

Freight and passenger rail have long been sought in the Texas 130 area by those who want an alternative to driving as Central Texas struggles with its transportation needs. Rail wasn’t included in the final Texas 130 plans, partially because of money problems and partially because of a lack of political will.

Now the state DOT is studying how to accommodate freight rail as engineers for its contractor, Lone Star Infrastructure, design the first portions of Texas 130. Construction on the toll road is expected to begin sometime before spring. Krusee, a Round Rock Republican and the head of the House Transportation Committee, wants to weave in freight rail needs before the final designs are finished.

First, though, the state wants to make sure freight rail would not upend the Texas 130 schedule, which calls for drivers to have 49 miles of road to use by December 2007. The state also must notify Wall Street, where bond investors are paying the bulk of the $3.2 billion price tag for Texas 130, a tolled portion of MoPac and Texas 45 North, the planned east-west toll road in southern Williamson and northern Travis counties.

”Nothing’s been decided. We haven’t made any decisions,” said Gaby Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Texas DOT. “We don’t have answers yet.”

Krusee said he expects to announce in March that the idea is feasible and could be done without upsetting the toll road timetable. He sent letters Monday to Capital Metro and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority asking both organizations to start planning ways they can participate in a regional passenger rail, toll road and freight rail system.

As now envisioned, freight rail trains would run at 79 mph from the planned Toyota plant in San Antonio to Georgetown, following the Texas 130 corridor. That also fulfills part of Gov. Rick Perry’s plan for high-speed rail, toll road and pipeline corridors across the state.

“I’d like to see the 130 corridor have a chance at the next Toyota, the next Samsung, the next Dell,” Krusee said, “and I think to do that, we need freight rail.”

Texas 130 will have a 103-foot-wide median that could accommodate high-occupancy-vehicle lanes, long-distance commuter rail, shorter-distance light rail, more traffic lanes or freight rail. There is also room along the sides of the road and the intermittent frontage roads planned.

Trains need flatter, straighter runs in order to build up speed. To make it worth their while to shift their goods from trucks to trains, freight shippers want guaranteed speed. So the state is examining whether some of its designs – how steep a grade the highway would have, for example – would hinder freight rail.

”It’s kind of a good time to be doing it now while we are in design of 130, as opposed to later if someone came in and wanted to make it more rail-friendly,” Garcia said.

Private companies or a body like the regional mobility authority would build a rail system, not the state. Krusee, who helped form the authorities and the commuter rail district, expects to file bills in the next two weeks giving mobility authorities the power to do rail projects.

How much all of this would cost and who would pay for it are among the unanswered questions, which also includes when freight rail could be under way, but the wish-list scenario follows a line of thinking that includes high-speed freight rail along a less-developed corridor, which would entice UP to move the bulk of its freight trains off the MoPac tracks. That frees up the MoPac tracks for passenger rail, most likely a commuter rail system between San Antonio and Georgetown.

If Union Pacific refused to move, other freight railroads could use the Texas 130 area and at least help I-35 congestion by removing more trucks. That would appease road boosters, as well as environmentalists worried about air pollution from vehicle exhaust.

“It kind of hits a couple of buttons, so we are happy with that,” said Dick Kallerman, the Austin Sierra Club’s transportation chairman. “Putting in new freight rail, we definitely support that strongly.”

With a freight rail shift, the road, rail and neighborhood groups that so often battle over Central Texas transportation projects could find something they’d each like – even if they still disagree on how to use the opportunity.

“It’s Austin, Texas,” Krusee said. “Of course there is going to be opposition.”

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Copyright 2003, NCI, Inc.
Reprint from Destination Freedom, Vol. 4, No. 9.