Category Archives: railways

UPDATE: New Federal Rail Administration Technical Report on Texas Central Rail. Central Texas Rail identifying Land Owners

The Houston Chronicle reports this week that Central Texas Rail is moving to identify landowners to negotiate with after last week’s FRA report affirming a preferred straight route for the high speed rail.

Houston Chronicle  See Also: Houston Press  Dallas Morning News  Dallas Business Journal  

 

August 18, 2015, Information Intelligence:

The Federal Railroad Administration issued a report on the proposed path of the Texas Central Rail. Nothing salcious. But, here’s the next…

TAMU Transportation Institute: Good Economy = Bad Traffic. 7 Strategies to Combat Congestion.

Better economy breeds worse traffic. Rest assured, the Texas A&M Traffic Institute is tracking what states are doing about gridlock. See their list. More importantly, here are the strategies they suggest to counter congestion:

  • greater transportaiton investment
  • Fix existing roads & bridges
  • Increase public trnsportation accessibility
  • Fixing congestion is a LOCAL decision that needs LOCAL solutions
  • Add capacity to critical corridors
  • Give travelers options of multiple routes
  • Support…

3 State Regulatory Trends: Taxing Trains. Oil. Transparency.

3 states in recent months have strengthened regulations for tranporting oil via train. The states:

  • Pennsylvania
  • Oregon
  • Washington

What do the new regulations do?

  • greater policing of oil shipments through inspection, regulation and even lawsuits
  • Washington added a 4-cent-per-barrel tax on oil moved by trains to help pay for clean up from any accidents or derailments.
  • require freight rail companies to notify local emergency personnel when oil trains would pass through their…

4 Reasons Texas Concerned Citizens are Targeting High Speed Rail

A group of former CEOs and executives formed a group that thought it would support high speed rail for the economic devleopment opportunities for Ellis County.

Once it was determined that Ellis County wouldn’t see economic development as the train speeds through, the group shifted course to killing high speed rail.

The group wants to keep high speed rail out of Ellis County because:

  • agriculture contributes $160 million to the Ellis County economy
  • land will have to be aquired in Ellis…

Texas Central Railway Shifts to some Public Funding?

The Dallas Observer points out that the funding message for the team bringing high speed rail to Texas has shifted from all private fudning to exploring certain public funding options.

Public funding options for high speed rail include:

Trend: Private Rail Rising in the East

Boston Surface Railroad Co. is planning a commuter rail line that would shuttle passengers between Worcester, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. It’s about 45 miles.

Significant private investment in passenger rail is rare. The goal is to be up and running by 2017.

Not be outdone, All Aboard Florida is working on a $2.25 billion project to build a passenger rail from Miami to Orlando. It  also wants to being operating a limited route by 2017.

ABC News

What Collin County Dwellers Think of High Speed Rail

  • “I would vote for the free enterprise model”  but, “you are stuck upon arriving at the train station to proceed on foot, bus or by taxi to your final destination.”
  • “it will bring new business and new tourists to both cities and to College Station.”
  • “high-speed rail is a necessity”
  • “This is another example of some folks deciding they want their money-making project at the expense of landowners who are forced off their land with no benefit to themselves or to their communities. The court…

Tyler Editorial on High Speed Rail. 7 Reasons to be a No with an assist from Rep. Metcalf

Tyler Morning Telegraph brings us the reasons why high speed rail will not work in Texas:

  1. “This is Texas.”
  2. no population density
  3. no job density
  4. Texans love independence
  5. Texans love trucks (and cars too)
  6. There is no infrastructure of rental cars, hotels, meeting venues near hgh speed rail
  7. Government bailout will be required (relying on Rep. Will Metcalf statements)

Tyler Morning Telegraph

UPDATE: High Speed Rail: Magnolia & Montgomery County are Watching You.

Houston Press  & Houston Chronicle finally caught up with loyal Information Intelligence subscribers to tell us how local governments are forming commissions specifically designed to block high speed rail. 

 

Information Intelligence on July 22, 2015:

Montgomery County and the city of Magnolia formed a regional planning commission to monitor the proposed high speed rail project.The current path of the high speed rail proposal does not cross Magnolia or Montgomery County.

Both local…