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Texas Transportation Thread (Roads, Rails & Skies)

171K views 226 replies 50 participants last post by  jonathaninATX 
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#71 ·
"High Speed and Intercity Rail: Connecting Texas" Conference

http://events.r20.constantcontact.c...trant?llr=gbublqsab&oeidk=a07ea93ixed90e367e7

When
Thursday March 26, 2015 from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM CDT
Add to Calendar
Where
Texas Southern University
3100 Cleburne
Sterling Student Center
3rd Floor
Houston, TX 77004

"High Speed and Intercity Rail: Connecting Texas"
Texas Southern University - Department of Transportation Studies hosts its Spring 2015 Conference: "High Speed and Intercity Rail: Connecting Texas." The conference features a Breakfast and Luncheon Keynote Speaker as well as two panel discussions with industry leaders and experts on rail, regional planning, local transportation, and development.

Breakfast Keynote Speaker - Lisa Nungesser, Ph.D., Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.

Luncheon Keynote Speaker - Allan Rutter, Texas Transportation Institute, Former U.S. DOT Federal Railroad Administrator

Panelists:

Robert Eckels, Texas Central Railway

Maureen Crocker, Gulf Coast Rail District

Joe Black, Lone Star Rail District

Mark Werner, Texas Department of Transportation (Rail Division)

Peter LeCody, Texas Rail Advocates

Kevin Feldt, North Central Texas Council of Governments

Alan Clark, Houston-Galveston Area Council

Lauren Barrash, The Houston Wave

Ashby Johnson, Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization

John Breeding, Uptown Houston Association
 
#75 ·
The long-awaited Montana Freeway in far east El Paso is becoming a reality:

Montana Expressway? Images Show View of Future US 62/180 Freeway



A local design firm has unveiled renderings of what an eventual new East El Paso freeway may look like once completed. Plans were revealed by the Texas Department of Transportation in 2013 that show a miles-long stretch of Montana Avenue becoming an expressway east of Yarbrough Drive.

Neomedia Design Group of El Paso posted several images online depicting multiple major intersections along the freeway, including at George Dieter Drive, Saul Kleinfeld Drive, and Rich Beem Boulevard.

Major interchanges will include direct connector ramps at Loop 375/Joe Battle Boulevard and Yarbrough Drive/Global Reach Drive.





Initially the freeway was to begin taking up traffic just east of the airport but will instead begin further east on Montana Ave. Presumably it could eventually go as far east as Hudspeth County if current development trends in that area continue.
 
#83 ·
#77 ·
That as well as the fact that for decades El Paso saw little new freeway infrastructure investment. That became one rallying point for those that promote El Paso seceding from Texas. The state legislature finally came around 10 years ago and now it's raining freeways in El Paso.

I-10 is a serious bottleneck because it not only serves a growing El Paso but the global supply chain. It connects the ports in LA to the factories and warehouses in the Borderland and to major cities in Texas and the Southeast. A similar bottleneck existed for the Union Pacific rail lines going through El Paso until a huge new intermodal yard was built in nearby Santa Teresa NM.
 
#91 ·
T ready to buy TEX Rail cars for Fort Worth commuter line

The northwest corner of Loop 820 and Iron Horse Boulevard, in North Richland Hills, is one spot where The T plans to build a TEX Rail station . | Rodger Mallison Star-Telegram



By Gordon Dickson

gdickson@star-telegram.com

Efforts to start the proposed TEX Rail commuter train service by 2018 are gathering steam.

Fort Worth Transportation Authority board members recently approved the purchase of eight self-propelled diesel rail cars to operate on the proposed 27-mile rail line and agreed to enter into several contracts that will help get the project underway. The rail would carry an estimated 10,000 or more passengers per day from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine and Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport’s Terminal B.

The T agreed to a contract with a firm to handle preparations for TEX Rail construction, which could begin next year, approved the purchase of several properties to make way for the project, and OK’d a final design contract for two stations in North Richland Hills.

“This is really the first major milestone for the project,” said Bob Baulsir, the T’s vice president of TEX Rail and procurement.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/traffic/your-commute/article20144886.html#storylink=cpy
 
#95 ·
Full Article: http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/loca...in-project-saved-in-late-night-vote/27760843/

WFAA said:
Bullet train project saved in late-night vote

DALLAS – The private plan to build a bullet train between North Texas and Houston has survived, despite attempts from a Republican state senator to kill it.

State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) lost his attempt on Thursday night to end the privately-funded project.

"Late this evening, in a 6-4 vote, I came up short in my attempt to ban the use of state taxpayer dollars to support the construction of a high-speed railway in Texas," Schwertner said in an e-mailed news release Thursday night.
 
#98 ·
Some good news...

TEXRail chooses Stadler's FLIRT cars.

Officials working on the proposed TEX Rail commuter train project have gone from being a laughingstock to ordering rolling stock.

After enduring years of doubts about their ability to pull off construction of the 27-mile commuter rail line from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine and DFW Airport, TEX Rail officials on Tuesday officially inked a contract to order rail cars.

The T President/CEO Paul Ballard, left, and Stadler Rail CEO Peter Spuhler after signing contracts for new TEX Rail cars from Swiss maker Stadler Bussnang AG at Intermodal Transportation Center in Fort Worth.

The T President/CEO Paul Ballard, left, and Stadler Rail CEO Peter Spuhler after signing contracts for new TEX Rail cars from Swiss maker Stadler Bussnang AG at Intermodal Transportation Center in Fort Worth. | MAX FAULKNER STAR-TELEGRAM
The $106.7 million order with Switzerland-based Stadler Bussnang AG is enough to pay for eight rail cars and enough parts to cover 10 years of maintenance. The rail line is tentatively scheduled to open by the end of 2018, and is on course to receive enough federal grant funding to cover roughly half its nearly $1 billion total cost.

The Federal Transit Administration last week gave approval for the T to advance TEX Rail into the engineering phase preceding construction. The move authorized the T to place its order for rail cars.

“We’ve gone from being a project on life support to a project that’s full of life,” said Scott Mahaffey, board chairman of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, also known as the T, which is responsible for TEX Rail.

Mahaffey and several other T officials took part in a signing ceremony Tuesday at the Intermodal Transportation Center in downtown Fort Worth. Joining him at the ceremony was Peter Spuhler, Stadler owner and chief executive.

Spuhler said Stadler was considering opening a manufacturing plant in Lewisville, adjacent to the Denton County Transportation Authority’s maintenance yard, to build the TEX Rail cars. The Denton agency also uses Stadler rail cars, but a different model.

Manufacturing the rail cars in North Texas would help Stadler Rail comply with federal Buy America laws. Those laws require that the cost of components produced in the U.S. make up more than 60 percent of the cost of all components and that final assembly of rolling stock take place in the United States.

In addition to selling rail cars to Fort Worth and Denton, Stadler has a contract with a commuter line in Austin.

“We’ve got three members from Texas, and I think this is a very strong investment in Fort Worth,” Spuhler said after the signing ceremony.

He said a handful of other possible locations for a manufacturing site, including one in Utah, were still under consideration. A final decision on where to build the Stadler cars should be made during the summer.

Wherever the manufacturing plant is built, it likely will create 80 to 100 jobs, another Stadler official said.

FLIRT cars

The specific type of rail car planned for use on TEX Rail is a Stadler FLIRT, an acronym for Fast Light Innovative Regional Train. It is known for providing an extraordinarily quiet ride, panoramic windows and level boarding so people with disabilities don’t have to navigate steps.


Denton’s A-train operates with a similar model.

TEX Rail is scheduled to serve 10 stations, including two stops in downtown Fort Worth, stations in Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Grapevine and a terminus at DFW Airport’s Terminal B.

The projected average daily ridership is more than 10,000 in its initial year of service.

The T is on track to get a full-funding grant agreement from the federal government by early 2016, possibly sooner, said Bob Baulsir, the T’s vice president of TEX Rail and procurement.

Also, the T plans to install new railroad tracks and concrete ties along most of the 27-mile TEX Rail track, and that work is scheduled to begin next year, Baulsir said.

The T has $25 million on hand to place the order for the cars and has access to state and federal grant funds as well as millions of dollars in its fund balance to cover costs if full federal funding is delayed. The T can also issue debt if necessary, Baulsir said.

The rail cars are a type known as diesel multiple units. They are self-propelled, with the engines embedded in the passenger cars, so a locomotive isn’t needed.

The operator rides in a control room at the front of the lead passenger car.

The TEX Rail cars will be the first Stadler FLIRT models to operate on diesel fuel, Spuhler said. Stadler FLIRTs in places such as Estonia are electrified, he said.

The diesel multiple units are designated as the official regional rail car for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

The rail cars will likely be used on many other rail lines, including a proposed extension of the TEX Rail line along the Cotton Belt corridor into Addison, Carrollton, Dallas, Plano and other cities.
 
#104 ·
Wow

These will be the nicest, most modern commuter trains in the whole country.
 
#106 ·
Yeah, no kidding.

I think if you gave DART's trains a new paint job, where the area around the cab was painted a dark gray or black and that section of color was to curve gently and turn into a wave of yellow and whit, it would make them look more modern and less boxy. Also highlight the doors.

....

But anyways, I came back to say; despite most people here's love for rail transit does anyone ever doubt the usefulness of some of these lines?

I traced the route of the TEX rail and there's not a whole lot along the line except suburban sprawl. I think most people in those areas drive. It will be hard to connect stations to adjacent development and its hard to imagine big ambitious TOD appearing along the line. In the end it could get a few thousand riders and that seems to be fairly few.

I dunno, to me you guys should walk before you run. How about slick commuter buses going from DT to UTA, to Southlake, etc, to create a regional network. Then if there was a huge number of riders you could upgrade to a train.
 
#107 ·
But anyways, I came back to say; despite most people here's love for rail transit does anyone ever doubt the usefulness of some of these lines?

I traced the route of the TEX rail and there's not a whole lot along the line except suburban sprawl. I think most people in those areas drive. It will be hard to connect stations to adjacent development and its hard to imagine big ambitious TOD appearing along the line. In the end it could get a few thousand riders and that seems to be fairly few.
Same questions were asked and same statements were made about DART Rail and the TRE...
 
#108 ·
Fair enough.

But at least the TRE has a downtown on either end, and it can't be downplayed how it makes a few stops in the Medical district too.

Actually if any line needed commuter rail I would love to see trains going to central Arlington. They could stop directly adjacent to the UTA campus.

I can't understand why of all cities in the metroplex, Arlington has never attempted to turn its old downtown(which merges seamlessly with a burgeoning university campus) into something of note.
 
#110 ·
You have to start somewhere.

Since Fort Worth isn't getting any streetcars or LRT of any kind anytime soon, this is a start since this train BEGINS in Fort Worth. It's useful in that it runs from downtown to DFW International/Terminal B, however, the line is also set up this way for a reason. It may be suburban sprawl (hey... it's Texas. Even Houston and Dallas deal with that and they have already well established rail systems) but the stations and path are useful for the north side of Fort Worth (a heavy industrial area), northeastern Tarrant County area and the Mid-Cities. It passes the Stockyards, which is a National Historic District and one of our city's biggest attractions. It stops in Grapevine, which is still a small town at heart with its traditional, active Main Street downtown and near the Gaylord Texan resort and one of the largest malls in the area.

After this, it will extend to SWFW, which is one of the fastest growing areas in DFW. It will also pass the Near Southside/Medical District, Texas Christian University which also has a reviving neighborhood around it. And depending on what they want to do, there may even be a station next to Montgomery Plaza and there's PLENTY going on in the area of this place, both present and future.

It's taken more than a decade to make this happen, so I'm sure they know what they're doing.
 
#109 ·
So...

I was in the metroplex recently and accidentally got onto the express lanes at the I-35/635 interchange in Farmers Branch. I immediately exited but I did end up driving underneath one of those electronic toll gantries.

Any guesses on how long it takes for them to send you a toll by mail bill?

Honestly I feel kind of cheated, the signage isn't very clear. Also most people can't expect that express lanes would be a right exit within a large interchange. I guess I'm too used to approaching major interchanges and assuming I'll be going right then going up and over.

Houston uses big PURPLE signs for its toll roads, so you will never make this mistake.
 
#116 ·
Texas bullet train gets new CEO, $75 million boost from big-name investors
The board of directors of Texas Central Partners appointed Tim Keith of Dallas as the new CEO and announced the closing of a round of development funding that brings $75 million dollars in new capital, all from Texas-based investors, into the company. The offering was oversubscribed and the funds will be used to support ongoing development activities.
Dallas developer Jack Matthews, Fort Worth fund manager John Kleinheinz and Houston entrepreneur Drayton McLane Jr. head the list of new investors who put in a collective $75 million to build the train system.

The project is undergoing a federal environmental review and could be completed as early as 2021, its proponents have said.
 
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