Issues Related to Public Support of Passenger Rail Services on Existing Freight Rail Lines and/or Rights-of-Way

(PI: Chandra Bhat, CoPIs: Prof. Mike Walton, Jolanda Prozzi, Randolph Resor, and James Blaze)

Given the projected growth in the Texas population in the next decade – about 30,000 new residents per month - combined with increasing miles of interurban travel per capita, and the forecasted increases in freight movements - especially once Mexican trucking companies are allowed to operate into the U.S. - it is clear that substantial demands will be placed on the already heavily used transportation infrastructure of the state. Increasingly key elements of the Texas highway system are overwhelmed by traffic increases, resulting in congestion and increased travel times, safety, and air quality concerns.

Railroads are thus often looked upon as a key element of a greater intermodal solution to reduce roadway congestion with associated societal and environmental benefits. It is widely hypothesized that rail service (particularly commuter rail on existing tracks) can be less costly than highway expansions. It is, however, foreseen that TxDOT will face many challenges, and in some cases opposition, when the agency proposes to accommodate both passenger and freight trains on the same track or the same right-of-way (i.e. commuter or inter-city passenger rail service on existing freight rail infrastructure or passenger and freight rail operating in the same Trans Texas corridor). The objectives of the proposed research are to outline and explain these issues and concerns from both a transportation agency and the private railroads’ perspective, provide guidance on dealing with these issues, and to provide a forum for dialogue between the public sector and private rail communities in Texas in an effort to enhance Texas’s rail system.