For motorists, the trains that chug through Fort Bend County in Texas every hour are a five-minute delay on the way to work or the grocery store – but numerous elected officials believe the same rail lines also could be used to deliver people to the Texas Medical Center and downtown Houston. So, they have initiated a study of a 27-mile commuter rail line from Rosenberg to just south of Reliant Stadium as an option for improving traffic flow in the fast-growing western suburbs, reports the Houston Chronicle.

“It is really not a rail study,” said Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen. “It is more or less a mobility study, and rail is obviously a part we are looking very closely at.”

The $300,000 study, conducted by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC), should be completed next month. If rail is shown to be feasible, Fort Bend officials will ask the Texas DOT to take a more extensive look at a commuter rail line.

The state put up $175,000, while the Metropolitan Transit Authority and HGAC each paid $62,500 to fund the study.

Earl Washington, senior transportation planner for HGAC, said the study focuses on general mobility in the U.S. 90A-South Main corridor. The rail component looks at key issues such as noise, grade crossing safety, ridership, cost and compatibility with Union Pacific’s freight operations.

Washington said an agreement with the railroad is vital.

The Omaha-based UP owns the right of way and runs about 24 trains daily on the line, its primary west-east corridor, said director of public affairs John Bromley.

Bromley said the company is not against participating in a passenger service as long as the commuter trains do not interfere with freight operations.

“We are always willing to sit down and talk to folks,” he said.

Owen said that if the current study proves rail is feasible, a second, more detailed study would be needed to look at engineering, environmental and other issues. This stage could take two years and possibly cost $2 million to complete. Then, a government agency to plan, finance, build and operate the line would have to be created.

Owen said the legislature likely would have to establish a commuter rail district that could issue bonds. The bonds would finance the construction of the line, which could cost $3 million to $5 million a mile, he said, and that any bond issue would be subject to a public referendum.

Planners envision a line running from the center of Rosenberg, alongside the UP tracks into Houston. Washington said a Fort Bend commuter line probably would connect with Metro’s light-rail line near Reliant Stadium.

The commuter line would require one or two tracks adjacent to UP’s, Washington said. It also would require a bridge across the Brazos River at Richmond.

Each train probably would carry about 200 people; estimated travel times range from about 42 minutes from Rosenberg to just six minutes from the Westbury station.

A recent survey of Missouri City residents found a 67 percent support for rail.

“I believe we should put this on a referendum and let the people vote, and I don’t think there is any question how it will turn out,” added Stafford Mayor Leonard Scarcella.

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R), who blocked Metro from receiving federal dollars to build its light-rail line, said last year that he would support a commuter line for Fort Bend if the county’s residents want it.

“If the voters make a decision that they would like to go forward on this, then we are not going to stand in the way of it,” spokesman Jonathan Grella said last week.

DeLay has explained his opposition to Metro’s light-rail project by citing an alleged lack of an overall transportation plan and the lack of a referendum.

A Houston referendum that could have stopped work on the project by prohibiting use of city streets was held two years ago after Metro started construction on the rail project, and three of four voters approved proceeding with the work.

Scarcella and other rail enthusiasts believe the line’s primary customers would be the people who work at the Texas Medical Center.

“It would also provide a lot of mobility for people who have to go to the medical center for treatment who can’t drive,” Scarcella added.

Exact figures on the number of people who live along the rail corridor and work in the Medical Center are hard to determine. Both Scarcella and Owen said they have heard that as many as half the employees at the medical center live close to the U.S. 90A corridor.

Mary Schifflett, of the Texas Medical Center, said that about 61,000 people work there each day. Of that, she said, about 22 percent live outside Harris County, and the majority of those people reside in Fort Bend.

Determining ridership will be a key element of the feasibility study.

Washington said early indications, based on rail projects in other cities, show that about 3,000 to 5,000 people would use the line each day.

Although rail proponents say a line would ease traffic congestion, none is touting the project as the cure-all to the area’s air pollution and traffic problems, “but it will be a major component of a solution,” Scarcella added.