MASS TRANSIT in dallas (Houston, San Antonio: airplanes, rail, stations)

[aceplace]

It's even better than that, Lh. If it all works out, a single trainset would be able to pick up passengers at the individual DART rail stations, then enter the high speed line for the dash to Houston. When it arrives at the Houston intermodal station, it could potentially join the local LRV line and distribute passengers downtown, to the medical center, to Reliant, etc.

This means you can park your car in Plano, get on a train, and end up at a football game in Houston... all with no transfers.

I'm assuming that the track guage of Dallas and Houston are the same, and the systems are otherwise mechanically compatible.

This scheme would be possible because the HSR trainset would never travel on private railroad trackage, and does not have to meet the crash durability standards of regular rail passenger cars.

Such a scheme would have a strong competitive advantage over air travel within Texas, at least to the major cities. And it would not be long before smaller cities such as Midland, Tyler, Abilene, Corpus Christi, etc, would demand similar service.

And such a scheme would encourage more cities in Texas to develop their own light rail systems, making the network even better.

[aceplace]

Funding for such a HSR scheme is an open question. How could txDOT find the money?

One possibility is to expand existing highways beyond their present capacity and include the rail lines, and charge tolls for the upgraded lanes (and the rail, of course). The prospect of toll road usage could even fund new roads, such as a Waco-Bryan-Houston freeway, or an Austin-Houston freeway.

I know that governor Perry proposed a gargantuan scheme to build enormously wide pathways across the state, but there would be enormous resistance to this in rural areas, and the rail option would be deferred for decades, according to his scheme.

My scheme would be more modest, and would just enhance existing roads, with minimal impact on agricultural land, and would provide a strong and sexy motive for going forward... the prospect of a brand new service for urban Texas that would give people something they do not now have.

Would Southwest Airlines object, as they did to HSR plans 20 years ago? Perhaps, to a degree, but Southwest has much more demand for new service than they did 20 years ago, and a reduction of service to the Dallas-Houston corridor would free aircraft for additional service elsewhere, and be cheaper than buying new jets. It would also have the benefit of freeing gates at Love Field (and Hobby) for longer, more lucrative flights elsewhere in their network.

One advantage of my plan is that it separates track construction, maintenance and ownership from railcar ownership and operations, meaning that a company such as Greyhound could run railcars as an alternative to buses, and on the same cost basis. It would not have to construct and maintain roadways. A railcar would be cheaper to operate than a bus because of the inherent mechanical efficiency of rail, and would be faster, so it could deliver more revenue-miles per vehicle than a bus. Needless to say, the level of comfort and the quality of the experience would be superior to Greyhound bus service, perhaps with several classes of service, as they have in Europe.

How much would it cost to lay track on an existing, graded hard-surface road? Probably not that much, maybe a couple of million per mile, if economies of scale and automated tracklaying procedures were developed.

[Synopsis]

A rail line from Houston to Dallas would be a fantastic alternative to flying or driving. Someone else mentioned it earlier, but the fact that you wouldn't have to go through an hour or two of pre-borading time going through security, boarding the plane, de-boarding, and then renting a car would alone save enough time. A 100 mph (or faster) train could make the trip in two hours or even less. I like rail travel; it's much more scenic than sitting in shiny metal tube with only inches of space between yourself and someone that is sick or what not.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by Synopsis

A rail line from Houston to Dallas would be a fantastic alternative to flying or driving. Someone else mentioned it earlier, but the fact that you wouldn't have to go through an hour or two of pre-borading time going through security, boarding the plane, de-boarding, and then renting a car would alone save enough time. A 100 mph (or faster) train could make the trip in two hours or even less. I like rail travel; it's much more scenic than sitting in shiny metal tube with only inches of space between yourself and someone that is sick or what not.

Exactly. If your seatmate starts bending your ear about his grandchildren, or whatever, you can always get up and go to the clubcar. Actually, being able to get up and walk around is an enormous advantage over air travel.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Exactly. If your seatmate starts bending your ear about his grandchildren, or whatever, you can always get up and go to the clubcar. Actually, being able to get up and walk around is an enormous advantage over air travel.

I couldn't agree with you more. I used to travel by air all of the time and it didn't bother me, but with today's cramped seating and all, I can hardly stand flying. I even hate the smell of airports these days; I get depressed at the thought of flying.

[Guerilla]

They are doing this in California:

Welcome to CA High-Speed Rail Authority

[lh_newbie]

Wow! I'm a bit surprised my question about HSR got such an overly positive, obviously thought out responses. There's some great ideas here. What can we do to get this info together and in the hands of people that can move the idea forward?

Talking about it is all fine and dandy, but we can't get anything implemented by ourselves. I would love to see a financial study done to determine if it would be economically feasible, what the adoption rate would be and such.

I have to believe that with the intra-regional rail systems being build (Dallas and Houston are obviously the most advanced and have long-term plans for further, rather extensive development), this sort of solution would offer a solution to travel within TX without the need of a car, which is VERY interesting to me. I love our state of Texas, but my wife HATES road trips - this would certainly give us a wonderful, inexpensive way for people to go between different areas and experience what the other has to offer.

I would think there would be a positive economic impact - promoting tighter integration of businesses within the participating cities and easily accessed tourism options.

Opportunities I could see:

- As someone mentioned, regional airlines could use their planes for more lucrative flights - increasing their revenues without the capital requirement of more planes
- Ever been on a cruise out of Galveston? Over 50% of the people on the boat are from Texas. That number would increase even more by putting Dallas on a 3 hour train ride through Houston to Galveston. I have to believe the cruise industry would put their political muscle behind such a plan
- Sporting events with local rivalries (Houston -vs- Dallas) would certainly see increased pedestrian traffic. Heck, a 2-3 hour commute without having to drive - that's VERY interesting!
- Texas State Fair.... yeah, that'd dramatically increase attendance. Those trains would be 100% at capacity every single time.

That was just a quick 2-minute thought of benefits to such a solution. How do we get all this data compiled and work on contacting the right people?

Brian

[mpope409]

Fine. Whatever. But before we worry about rail from Houston to Dallas (which will give the country another reason to believe that these cities coincide with each other) we need to get each individual city's local rail situations cleared up. Which will be a long while from now.

What I would be in full support of, though, is a high-speed rail from Houston to New Orleans. A city that's a smaller version of itself. That would be great.

Dallas-Houston? Thumbs down.

[aceplace]

I disagree with you, mpope. I think that Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio should combine their forces and offer the public the benefits of all their advantages, instead of being bitter rivals of one another.

Just in the same way that Boston-NYC-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington are one stellar urban area with many attractions for the visitor.

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by mpope409

Fine. Whatever. But before we worry about rail from Houston to Dallas (which will give the country another reason to believe that these cities coincide with each other) we need to get each individual city's local rail situations cleared up. Which will be a long while from now.

Two comments:

1. Who cares if people think our cities coincide with each other?
2. I very much disagree that we need to have local rail cleared up. Both Dallas and Houston have a clearly defined plan with lots of stations and steadily increasing ridership. Why run these sort of plans serially? I say run them in parallel, especially since a rail line this long would take a long time to plan and execute anyway. I would assume the earliest a HSR system could be run would be 8-10 years - and that's assuming the best.