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This is filler copy. It is not meant to be read. It has been placed here solely to demonstrate the look and feel of finished, typeset text. These words are here only to provide the website reviewer with a basic impression of how actual text will appear in its final presentation.

In the 1970s, the governor of Texas and State Legislature asked the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to evaluate rail for intercity travel. Below is an abridged version of the article published on this study in the April 1977 issue of the Texas Transportation Researcher.

Historical Overview of Rail in Texas

In the early 1800s what is now Texas was a vast undeveloped area. Lack of adequate transportation precluded the development of the state’s inland resources.

The first railroad [in Texas was operated] in 1853. Up until 1930, when approximately 17,000 miles of track existed in Texas, virtually all of it served both passenger and freight operations. [This] early railroad construction allowed inland developments to grow [as] did the demand for intercity transportation.

As a result, in heavily traveled corridors, an interurban rail service developed. This operation provided frequent, inexpensive service and provided the conventional railroads with their first significant competition. By 1915, although the interurbans operated over only 3 percent of the track-miles in Texas, they were serving 20 percent of the intercity travel demands.

[However, from] 1920 to 1930 rail ridership decreased by nearly 75 percent. [With] the development of paved highways, the flexibility of auto travel caused it to be extremely popular, and travel by this mode increased rapidly. Rail remained, however, the premier mode of travel for long intercity trips.

After World War II, commercial air service rapidly became the most popular mode for servicing long distance travel. The bus had become the least expensive mode of travel, and the flexibility of the auto caused it to be the desired mode of travel for short trips. As fewer persons used the rail mode, its financial condition deteriorated. The U.S. Congress responded by enacting the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970, which created Amtrack. Between 1970 and 1975, train-miles and passengers served in the state declined by 40 percent.

Conclusions and Recommendations

• The existing transportation capacity in both the Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio corridors will be inadequate by 1990. It is recommended that action be taken to increase transportation capacity in those corridors.
• Some increased capacity will be provided by the air mode. However, this increased capacity, by itself, will not be sufficient to serve increasing passenger and freight travel. Some improvement in either highway capacity or rail passenger capacity will be needed.
• An initial comparison of highway versus rail suggests that improving highway capacity (i.e., expanding I-45 and I-35 from their present four lanes to at least six lanes) may be the better approach. It is recommended that a study be undertaken to more accurately determine the feasibility and cost of that alternative.
• In order to accommodate projected travel demand, any increase in capacity should become operational between 1985 and 1990.
• The State of Texas should become involved in multimodal intercity transportation planning. Without such planning, it is quite possible that the cost and congestion associated with intercity travel will, based on current design standards, become unacceptable. This will adversely affect the economy of the state.

Now

The song “City of New Orleans” tells the story of a lonely train with “15 cars and 15 restless riders” making its way along the 500 miles from Chicago to New Orleans. The lyrics would have you believe that this proud, stately way of travel belongs to a bygone era.

But the Age of Rail just might be returning.

While no solution to congestion is inexpensive, simply building more roadway has become increasingly cost-prohibitive in the last decade or so.

“At one time, building more highway capacity was judged the most cost-effective way to meet mobility needs,” explains Curtis Morgan, program manager of TTI‘s Rail Research Program. “In fact, TTI research conducted in the 1970s proved that point.” (See the historical story above for more on this study.)

Now, more than 30 years later, new factors, such as changing demographics and a burgeoning state population more on the move than ever, have changed the equation significantly. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) predicts that, over the next 25 years, the population of the state will increase by 64 percent, and road use will grow by 214 percent. By comparison, state road capacity will only grow by 6 percent if funding remains at recent historical levels.

“Given these projections, we asked TTI to provide recommendations on where to invest resources for developing the statewide transit system further,” explains Orlando Jamandre, TxDOT‘s project director.

Morgan and his team examined 18 different intercity corridors, ranking them by projected needs through the year 2035. They based their analysis on

• Current and future population and demographic projections along the corridors;
• Projected future demand based upon forecasts by the Texas State Demographer and other state agencies and
• Current network capacity and routes for intercity highway, bus, air and rail travel.

Morgan’s team found that trains, along with enhanced intercity bus transit, have the potential to significantly aid in meeting Texas’ future capacity needs.

I-35 and I-45 — considered the most traveled corridors in the state — are currently at 80 percent capacity when measuring traffic between cities on a weighted, per-mile basis. TTI found that, by 2035, those two corridors and 11 others will exceed 100 percent of current capacity. In fact, some highway sections in the urban areas may be approaching or exceeding capacity now. Unlike their 1970s predecessors, the research team found that additional highway lanes — at today’s prices — may not be the most cost-effective way of addressing growing intercity travel demand.

TTI isn’t saying that trains and buses are the solution. Highway, air, rail and transit all have a part to play. Equally important, cities need to develop local transit options (like the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART, system) that seamlessly interface with intercity solutions, so travelers aren’t left without a way of getting around once they reach their destinations.

“The results of this project will help us plan how to best optimize the state’s future transportation system,” says Jamandre.

The 2007 conference was dedicated to the late Hoy Richards, shown here reviewing a report during his early years at TTI.

When the unstoppable force of a train meets the very moveable object of an automobile, the obvious dangers associated with highway-rail grade crossings can be deadly. In 2007, 338 people were killed and another 1,014 injured at these crossings in the United States.

A wide variety of stakeholders from the public sector, including state and federal transportation agencies, and the private sector, such as railroad companies, industry researchers, consultants and suppliers, have a common interest in improving safety at the more than 250,000 highway-rail grade crossings in the United States. Together they’ve helped decrease incidents at grade crossings in the last decade by 28 percent. But there’s work left to do. Bringing together these stakeholders is the aim of the biennial National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety Training Conference, hosted by the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Rail Research Program.

“The conference brings participants up to date on the latest technologies and improvements to crossing safety from a technical and research point of view,” says Ron Ries, the staff director of the Highway-Rail Crossing and Trespass Division of the Federal Railroad Administration. “It’s an excellent forum to get people together from across the country to share ideas. There are regional conferences, but this is one of the few national conferences where this can happen.”

What works on one side of the country might work on the other side. The conference helps share successes and failures, and raises the level of awareness of rail safety issues.
Dave Peterson, Senior Manager of Industry and Public Projects, Union Pacific Railroad

The 2007 conference, held in San Antonio, featured the theme “The Legacy Continues” and was dedicated to the late Hoy A. Richards, former TTI senior research scientist and leader in the highway-rail grade crossing area for more than 40 years. His enthusiasm and persistence for promoting safety at highway-rail grade crossings were instrumental in the formation of the Railroad Highway Grade Crossing Committee at the Transportation Research Board and the ITS User Service 30 for Highway-Railroad Intersections.

“Hoy Richards was a true pioneer in highway-rail grade crossing safety,” says Steve Roop, TTI assistant agency director in the Multimodal Freight Transportation Program. “The success in improving safety at these hazardous intersections is due in great measure to his efforts.”

Richards’ legacy also includes the Rail Safety Conference. He founded the conference in 1969 to get stakeholders together to improve rail safety. “The conference is an opportunity for group discussions in a roundtable format,” says Darin Kosmak, the railroad section director with the Traffic Operations Division of the Texas Department of Transportation. “The last conference wasn’t just made up of presenters. The roundtables allowed more interaction, which worked well. The last roundtable gave a summary of all the session presentations.”

Dave Peterson, senior manager of industry and public projects for Union Pacific Railroad, has attended the conference continuously since the early 1990s. “It’s an excellent source for disseminating information on changes in the rail safety arena on a national basis,” says Peterson. “What works on one side of the country might work on the other side. The conference helps share successes and failures, and raises the level of awareness of rail safety issues.”

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