by Paul Mangelsdorf
President
PaulM@TexasRailAdvocates.org

On October 16th, Paul Mangelsdorf and Mike Mackner met with Barbara Maley, Principal Transportation Planner and Rachel Harshman, Transportation Planner for North Central Texas Council of Governments at the Arlington headquarters. In this get acquainted meeting Barbara who works on passenger rail planning and Rachel who works on Freight Rail Planning explained their respective positions.

Rachel works with contacts at Union Pacific and BNSF on freight rail issues. She is proposing some modifications to the Trans Texas Corridor as it would affect this DFW area. Her contacts at both railroads tell her that they aren't too interested in using the Governors railroad due to tolls and the fact that on their own rights of way they already have customers predetermined. Barbara showed Mike and Paul the prominent commuter and "general ride" rail corridors were highlighted.

While these ladies work on the microcosm issues of the North Texas area TRA works on the macrocosum plans for the South Central High speed Rail Corridor. This corridor could well have the same economic impact across the region that DFW International Airport had on the DFW area.

TRA is very fortunate to have as one of its advisors, Gilbert E. Carmichael, Senior Chairman at the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. Gil has given TRA valuable guidance on several issues. On September 30th Gil delivered a key address at the Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI) dealing with the arrangement of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Gil is calling for nothing less than a realignment of the department into 2 divisions: freight and passenger. This is how the general public perceives transportation. Gil believes that such a realignment will facilitate cooperation between modes and enable them to interact in a manner that joint facilities and other cooperative measures can be realized. Gil also encourages discussion of freight challenges with MPOs. Not only is cooperation well underway in the freight field, but it is becoming more prevalent in the passenger area as exemplified by the sharing of station facilities by Amtrak and Greyhound as well as joint ticketing and baggage handling cooperation between Continental, United and Amtrak.

We wish to thank Michael Hemmer, Vice President-Law, Union Pacific Railroad for allowing Texas Rail Advocates to post his letter calling for new trends in public/private partnerships between the railroads and various levels of government as critical to future growth and prosperity of the industry. This letter first appeared in the October 2003 issue of TRAINS magazine.

As we get late word on the federal earmark of $1 million for study of the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor it will be posted on the website.

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As a result of my trip to Washington, Texas Rail Advocates will give consideration to the Swift Rail Development Act as a source of funding for the South Central Corridor, be in closer contact with the office of Senator John Cornyn and invite more imput and work more closely with the Texas High Speed Rail Corporation.

Cooperation with representatives from Oklahoma and Arkansas will also be sought.

The South Central High Speed Rail Corridor could also be a component in the rail portion of the Trans Texas Corridor. Once the study and evaluation are complete, the South Central Rail Corridor could be more expeditiously developed and implemented than any highway component. It would offer substantially more freight and passenger capacity with minimal negative environmental impact in a much shorter time frame.

Great strides can be made with more team work from all parties concerned.