The Texas Legislature’s cut last year of public transit funding in small cities and rural areas across Texas are beginning to take hold in communities with reduced service, increased fares. See these initial news reports on Lewisville and Brownsville.
Download: Brownsville.doc (194.5 KB).
Download: Lewsville.doc (27 KB).
The intercity passenger rail that once served Houston and Galveston from 1911 through the 1930s is set to once again run part of that distance. If successful in its Galveston to League City leg, the demonstration — dubbed the Intelligent Transportation System Rail Passenger Demonstration — of the feasibility of such might extend all the way into Houston.
This will be the first such rail line since the Texas Limited, which Houston businessman Franklin Denson launched in August 1989.
“The initial demonstrations will be on holiday weekends, when the congestion on the causeway reaches its peaks,” said Houston transportation consultant Barry Goodman, whose firm has helped develop the new rail plans. “We hope to demonstrate the effectiveness of rail passenger service as an alternative.”
“The Texas Gulfliner fits exactly into League City’s goal for economic development through tourism,” Mayor Jeff Harrison said.
Download: HouGalvRail.doc (30 KB).
Capital Metro of Austin (CMTA) has put a new hybrid diesel-electric 22-foot bus through test trials. This is the direction most Texas metro transit agencies are headed: use of diesel in conjunction with alternate fuels. Last year, CMTA=A0demonstrated a=A0low floor, 40-foot Hybrid Electric Bus. Capital Metro is looking to the future for use of more alternatively fueled vehicles to combat the Austin area’s growing air pollution.
Download: 080602hybrid.doc (63.5 KB).
The Public Transportation Division (PTN) of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has scheduled a meeting to discuss implementation of Census-related changes in transit funding programming. The meeting is set for September 5, 2002 (see download). TxDOT: “These changes will impact the level of federal funding the State of Texas receives for all the Governor’s apportionment systems beginning in FY2003. It is very important that we meet to discuss these changes and possible revisions to the methodology used to distribute the Governor’s apportionment of Section 5307 [small urbanized] funds.”
Download: Census5307.pdf (190.48 KB).
The latest in Federal News from the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) by way of their periodic Federal Flash — this one for August 16, 2002. This Flash looks at three major areas: (1) transportation, (2) agriculture and rural development, and (3) health care and social services. All three of these areas are interconnected in one way or another. This issue of the Flash explores those ways. Topics: PLACING TRANSPORTATION IN THE RURAL PERSPECTIVE; THE FARM BILL: A CORNERSTONE OF THE FEDERAL RURAL INVESTMENT; HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SERVICES IN RURAL AMERICA; WHAT DEFINES TRANSIT NEED, ANYWAY?; and TYPES OF FEDERAL SPENDING.
Download: Flash081602.doc (72 KB).
What has been in the planning at Sun Metro and El Paso’s mayors office moved a step closer to reality as proposals were presented to the public. “We feel the only way we can resolve (international bridge) congestion is mass transit,” Sun Metro director Terry Lee Scott to reporters at a news briefing. The 1.5-mile line could include electric powered buses, light rail or streetcars similar to ones that operated in downtown El Paso until 1974. Download the Associated Press report in portable document format (.pdf) requiring Adobe Reader.
Download: El Paso.pdf (82.12 KB).
