Texas Transit Association

Let’s be unflinchingly honest: In Texas, “transportation” is a euphemism for highways. There’s nothing wrong with highways. Texas needs them, and the Transportation Department is good at building them. But the highways are congested. At some point, TxDOT must seriously consider moving people from city to city by rail – as France, Japan and a growing number of other countries do well and efficiently.

Running Off Road
03/27/2003 Dallas Morning-News Editorial

Passenger rail shouldn’t be a stepchild
Passenger railroads are to Texas what Hansel and Gretel were to the woodcutter’s wife: unwanted stepchildren.

For evidence of that, look no further than the Texas Transportation Department, which has separate aviation, motor carrier and turnpike authority divisions, even a bridge division, but no rail division. Indeed, its rail functions are subsumed into something called the transportation planning and programming division. Even then, rail is relegated to that division’s “multimodal section,” where officials also consider such advanced transportation methods as walking and bicycling.

Let’s be unflinchingly honest: In Texas, “transportation” is a euphemism for highways. There’s nothing wrong with highways. Texas needs them, and the Transportation Department is good at building them. But the highways are congested – as anyone who’s ever made the white-knuckle drive to Austin on Interstate 35 could attest. So are the airports. Texas can’t build enough highways to cope with the doubling of its population of 21 million that is expected by 2040. At some point, it must seriously consider moving people from city to city by rail – as France, Japan and a growing number of other countries do well and efficiently.

Creating a rail division in the Transportation Department would be an excellent place to start.

Ah, you say, Texas already has a Railroad Commission. Yes, but the commission has very little to do with railroads. Its principal function is to regulate the state’s oil and natural gas industry.

Ah, you say, Gov. Rick Perry proposes to build a statewide network of transportation corridors, one of whose features would be high-speed passenger rail. Yes, but the project is moving slowly. Many people doubt that it will be built. Furthermore, its focus is predictably moving toward – you guessed it – highways.

The 2003 Legislature should not adjourn without putting rail on an equal footing with highways.

A good idea lacks vital groundwork

The goal of bipartisan legislation filed by two area Texas lawmakers is commendable – a regional mobility authority that can bring relief to North Texas’ woeful traffic congestion problems.

But state Sen. Kenneth Brimer of Fort Worth and state Rep. Steve Wolens of Dallas should have worked out the details with local leaders before they submitted a bill with such sweeping implications for the six-county area that would be under the transportation authority.

The authority would have vast powers to deal with traffic congestion, including supervision of area mass transit systems and the creation of toll roads on existing freeways. The legislators filed the companion bills because they fear North Texas will face federal sanctions if air quality problems are not resolved soon. On that count, they are right. But the already existing Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition and the area’s four county judges were taken aback by the legislators’ decision to file the measure without reaching a local agreement on the role of the mobility authority.

The legislators have acknowledged the surprised response. Mr. Brimer’s staff says meetings are being held this week with all lawmakers from the six-county area. And a session is planned next week with many of the people who have been working for years on mobility issues in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“We’ve got to look at North Texas as a region and not as a collection of cities,” Mr. Wolens said.

He’s right. An umbrella agency that will enable all cities in this area to be part of transportation planning is a good idea. But it is time to pull those cities together for serious discussions about how a regional mobility authority would service this area. Without an agreement, the bill filed by the two lawmakers has little chance of passing.