All about the community of model railroading and rail enthusiasm
January 26, 2013 / Updated September 18, 2013
By Tim Blackwell/Cowcatcher Magazine
DALLAS – On a day that another Metroplex toll road got the green light, rail advocates from as far away as London said that the future expansion of passenger rail in Texas and the Southwest can’t be achieved by a go-it-alone mentality. Creating effective commuter and light rail networks will depend on blending other transportation means with the rider experience in mind.
More than 200 freight and passenger rail professionals, policy makers and advocates filled the top floor of Union Station on Friday at the 9th Annual Southwestern Rail Conference to share updates and discuss strategies for growing passenger rail in the region and beyond. Integrating a multi-modal transportation approach to stimulate growth consumed much of the afternoon session.
Bill Glavin, rail division director for the Texas Department of Transportation, was among more than two dozen speakers at Friday’s Southwestern Rail Conference hosted by Texas Rail Advocates. – Cowcatcher Magazine
Rail advocates don’t necessarily see that project or other highway improvements as a deterrent to growing support for passenger rail networks. Instead, they believe that rail will be a much more desirable transportation alternative by connection with other transportation modes, including air travel.
“We’re not just looking at roads but also rail and multi-modal facilities,” said Texas Department of Transportation Commissioner Jeff Austin. “We’re not a highway department anymore. We’re a multi-modal agency.”
Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Curtis A. Morgan cited an example of multi-modal as it relates to passenger travel by sharing his recent travel experience to Milwaukee to study the Hiawatha route between Milwaukee and Chicago. On a Southwest Airlines flight to the region he saw an advertisement in the company’s magazine suggesting travelers should take the train from Chicago to catch a cheaper flight in Milwaukee.
“That’s multi-modal,” he said. “That’s what we’re working to achieve.”
High-speed rail works with direct airport connection
Andrew Sharp, policy advisor for International Air Rail Organisation in London, said that high-speed rail should work more closely with airports to enable passengers the most direct mode of transportation as possible. Until retiring in July, he spent 14 years with IARO, a world-wide group of organizations that focuses on linking rail at airports.
Sharp said air and rail travel in some European and Asian cities has increased in recent years because 100-plus mph trains connect directly with air terminals without additional transfers.
“Passengers don’t want to take a high-speed line from downtown London to downtown Paris and then catch a train to the airport,” Sharp said. “High-speed rail needs to reach the airports.”
Freight rail can benefit from multi-modal efficiencies, too, said Aaron Hegeman, BNSF’s director for public and private partnerships. Any freight forwarder or shippers and rail providers should collaborate to plan the best shipping mode, whether it be rail, truck or using shipping containers from companies like Conexwest which might be great for multi-modal transportation. Shipping companies dealing with containers of all varieties ought to consider using a parts supplier that they can trust to distribute the right parts where and when they need them – Delta Mark could be this supplier.
One way is to create intermodal connectors through highways linking intermodal facilities that connect to the rest of the country.
“It’s about mode optimization,” Hegeman said. “It’s the right move and the right mode as it relates to corridor capacity.”
Lone Star Rail, NCTCOG have vision of connectivity
Along with Commissioner Austin, government officials weighed in on rail and safety initiatives. TxDOT Rail Division Director Bill Glavin cited the state’s improved grade crossing safety and fewer derailments and touched on planned alternative passenger rail corridors linking Oklahoma City, Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer currently provides daily service from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth with connection on the Texas Eagle to Austin and San Antonio but schedules are limited. Local governments want to establish more frequent service between the cities to give passengers better flexibility.
The Lone Star Rail District was formed a few years ago to create a 120-mile commuter line that parallels Interstate 35 from near Georgetown, TX, to San Antonio on existing freight track, and to be a part of an eventual state-wide rail network. Planned is 75-minute express service from downtown Austin to downtown San Antonio with stops in San Marcos and New Braunfels. A new Union Pacific freight line would be constructed to the east that will enable trains to move faster through the corridor.
While the rail corridor would focus on the Austin-San Antonio commute, LSRail has hopes to fit into a state-wide passenger rail picture. LSRail and North Central Texas Council of Governments signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2011 to work toward a long-range rail plan that includes service between the Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio metropolitan areas. The memorandum provides a formal mechanism to coordinate rail planning with TxDOT and other stakeholders and to collaborate on connectivity between the systems.
LSRail Director Joseph Black said it wouldn’t be out of the question for the commuter train to connect with the proposed TEX Rail line from south Fort Worth to Plano and Richardson. Thus, a passenger could board in a Dallas suburb and travel to the south side of San Antonio. They key would be coordinating service schedules so that riders wouldn’t have to change trains often or endure lengthy layovers.
“The intention is to create a seamless system that will reduce the friction of those transfers,” he said. “When you reach a transfer point you can be assured you can make a connection.”
Freight railroads weigh in on shipping trends
Earlier in the day, Assistant Vice President Juan M. Carrreon outlined Union Pacific’s growth in Mexico, much of it attributed to increased automobile rail traffic. More than one-third of UP’s total business in Mexico comes from hauling automobiles over the six U.S. border gateways. About 15 percent of the company’s annual revenue comes from Mexico freight.
Also,CEOs from Watco Companies, Fort Worth & Western Railroad and Iowa Pacific Holdings discussed short line railroad industry growth fueled by the energy sector. Ellis gave a lively presentation on the rise of IPH, which has a portfolio of several freight and passenger railroads. He drew laughs from the crowd while poking fun at the company’s mission to revitalize struggling railroads.
He showed slides of the debilitating infrastructure of the West Texas & Lubbock Railway and San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad when IPH purchased the lines in 2002 and 2005, respectively. The lines have since been revitalized and play a key role in revenue generation for the company.
“We should be called the The Kennel Club because we only buy dogs,” he said in his opening remarks.
