Texas Transit Association

… in the Austin area. Long sought-after commuter rail between Georgetown and San Marcos might also free up land for more highway lanes on Austin’s MOPAC freeway.

Railroad’s price for move: $500 million
Negotiations could lead to commuter train route and more lanes for MoPac
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN, March 23, 2004

Union Pacific, engaged in a multifront negotiation to move most of its freight trains off a congested and coveted Central Texas rail line, has made its opening bid: $500 million.

That uncannily round number is the shiny nugget embedded in a report that the Nebraska-based rail giant submitted last month to the Texas Department of Transportation.

That figure is what the railroad says it would require to take an existing freight line that meanders south and then west from Taylor to San Marcos, straighten it, flatten it, double its capacity with a twin track alongside and, in the process, create a high-speed alternative to running freight through Austin.

That move would, as a transportation consultant involved in talks with Union Pacific says, “open up a world of possibilities.”

Among them: commuter rail from Georgetown to San Marcos and, eventually, on to San Antonio; two added lanes to MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), probably toll lanes, which could decrease congestion on that road and provide money for other transportation projects; a reduction in freight trains from about 25 a day to as few as five at dozens of street-level crossings from Round Rock to San Marcos; and increased freight rail traffic in the greater Interstate 35 corridor, perhaps taking thousands of 18-wheelers a day off that crowded highway.

“If we could move them off of that track, it would serve as the steppingstone for a lot of solutions,” said Elizabeth Christian, owner of an Austin public relations firm and volunteer chairwoman of the Greater Austin Chamber’s transportation committee.

Even as various entities from the governor’s office to local officials are working on finding the right words and numbers to move Union Pacific to move, a different cast is looking for the money to make it all possible.

About two dozen local political and industry leaders, led by Christian, will decamp to Washington from March 29 to March 31 to plead the Central Texas transportation case in various congressional and government offices.

“One of our number one goals is to see if we can get (Union Pacific) out of the corridor and see what we can do with MoPac,” said Pete Winstead, an Austin lawyer and former chairman of the Texas Turnpike Authority. “That’s going to be our key ask.”

But the federal money, assuming Central Texas is able to extract some, won’t be enough to make the Union Pacific move. Christian, thinking out loud, said the Austin delegation is hoping to secure up to half the cost.

The other possible contributors: the state Transportation Department; Capital Metro and VIA, its San Antonio counterpart; the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority; the City of Austin; and counties from Georgetown to San Antonio. The final financial mix of contributors, however, is as uncertain as the actual cost.

“All of us will sit down and say, ‘What is it that you are trying to accomplish, and what can everyone bring to the table?’ ” said Amadeo Saenz, assistant executive director for engineering operations at the state Transportation Department. “And then we’ll see how this money can come about.”

But if that all sounds complex and unsettled, Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, last week gave at least sketchy details on a larger effort that figures to further complicate the Central Texas situation.

Problems and opportunities associated with aging freight rail lines cutting through urban areas such as Austin are a statewide and national phenomenon. Williamson, while giving few details, said there is a parallel negotiation going on with Union Pacific to address several situations around the state. Williamson has in mind using the state’s leverage on Union Pacific to perhaps lower the cost to taxpayers.

“Look, they’re a business, and they’re in the business to generate a profit,” Williamson said. “So we go to UP, and we say, ‘You might not particularly want to spend money doing this, but you want us to help you do this over here. Well, we’ll help you do that over here if you’ll help us spend money there. You get what you want, and we get what we want.’ And we think those opportunities exist in the state in more than one or two places.”

Williamson anticipates having that sorted out in time to take a proposal to the Legislature for action at next year’s session.

In the meantime, the only tangible piece to this puzzle is the Union Pacific proposal.

Essentially, the railroad suggests a significant face-lift and upgrade of a single track that currently connects the larger satellite towns east and south of Austin.

That line diverges from the Union Pacific system at Taylor and runs through Elgin and Bastrop (including a unique bisection of Bastrop High School) before jogging east to Smithville. Then it turns back west and runs through Lockhart on the way to San Marcos, where it rejoins the north-south line that runs through Round Rock and Austin.

The proposal would, first of all, skirt that Smithville detour by building a 14.7-mile stretch from Bastrop to Red Rock. A second track would be added through the entire 76.9 miles, which would be about 12 miles longer than the westward Taylor-to-San Marcos stretch that runs through Austin. Union Pacific would change the route in some places, straightening out curves, and in other places would flatten the grade. Track in Elgin and Bastrop (including the school section) would be retired.

The company proposes removing 18 at-grade intersections with car traffic at a cost of $8 million apiece.

The cost detail in the Union Pacific report includes several million dollars to buy right of way in areas where the current rural route doesn’t run, including the Bastrop-to-Red Rock cutoff. Significantly, it does not include any compensation for Union Pacific surrendering its right of way in the Round Rock-to-San Marcos section.

But everyone involved says that some other party, most likely the state Transportation Department, would need to take control of that right of way so that MoPac could be widened through Central Austin and commuter trains could have precedence over Union Pacific’s remaining freight trains.

“Use or exchange of property (on the Austin line) would be a whole separate issue,” said John Bromley, a Union Pacific spokesman in Omaha. “There’s been no proposal for selling or exchanging the right of way. But that is an issue that would have to be addressed in the future.”

In the end, Union Pacific would have a dual line designed for speeds of 70 miles per hour. Though those involved on the other side don’t want to nettle Union Pacific, they did say that what the railroad is asking for would be a significant improvement over its shorter but deadly slow passage through the urban core of Central Texas. Negotiations to come, they say.

“I’m sure there will be some arguing,” Winstead said. “We don’t mind buying you a house. But heck, you’ve added a swimming pool and a den and so on. . . . The deal hasn’t been cut.”