Proponents say a Houston-Galveston line could roll again in 5 years, bypassing traffic concernsReviving Texas' oldest railroad
By HARVEY RICE Houston Chronicle Jan. 28, 2007
GALVESTON — A passenger train between Houston and Galveston could begin rolling along the oldest rail line in Texas in as little as five years, according to members of a study group trying to make it happen.
The group is working on a blueprint for the city of Galveston, which it expects to complete in June, that will specify the costs and construction needs for reviving passenger service that ceased in 1967.
The passenger line is needed to ease steadily worsening traffic congestion on the Gulf Freeway and reduce automobile pollution that is contributing to the Houston area's failure to meet federal clean-air standards, proponents say.
The commuter rail line would cost far less than light rail or expanding the freeway, allow an increase in rail-freight service and offer an efficient evacuation route from Galveston when hurricanes threaten, they say.
"It has all the elements that would make it eminently possible," said study-group member John Bertini, chairman of the Galveston Railroad Museum board.
Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas says City Council support for passenger rail is unwavering. "Trains could play a key part in an evacuation," Thomas said.
The line also is supported in principle by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (a Republican whose district includes Galveston), Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.
Everything depends on the plan being devised by the study group.
"The challenge for all this is how to fund it and the operating subsidy," Eckels said. "I'm anxious to see the results."
The blueprint is "essentially a cookbook that will take and show what the operation should look like and what it will take to get there in terms of construction and operating," Bertini said.
The group of consultants, engineers and planners envisions a train running from an as-yet-undecided station in Houston at 59 mph along the 140-year-old Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad, said consultant Barry Goodman, Goodman Corp. president.
The passenger line would make four to six stops before arriving at the Galveston Railroad Museum, housed in the former Galveston passenger terminal. Debarking passengers would exit through the museum to board a trolly, electric bus, horse-drawn carriage or cruiseship shuttle.
Goodman, whose company is leading the study, said Galveston plans to build a transportation hub next to the railroad museum to allow connections with buses and taxis.
Proposed stagesThe passenger line might be built in two stages, the first running from League City to Galveston and later extending to Houston, Bertini said.
"For the leadership of the region to ignore the possibility to rebuild a rail corridor that has been there 100 years, that can be done at a fraction of the cost of building highway capacity and would reduce pollution ... it would be irresponsible for that opportunity to be ignored," Goodman said.
The Houston-Galveston corridor is better suited for passenger rail than other routes because it has heavy traffic in both directions morning and evening, Bertini said. Other routes have heavy traffic in one direction in the morning and the opposite direction in the evening, he said.
Unlike other traffic corridors, the Houston-Galveston route is heavily traveled on weekends as well because Galveston is a prime tourist destination for Houstonians, he said.
Consultant Rick Beverlin, a Goodman associate, said the only effort he was aware of to calculate the number of commuters in the corridor was a 2003 study on park-and-ride use by commuters living in League City and Clear Lake who worked in Galveston. That study showed about 10,000 commuters, he said.
The final study will include an estimate of commuters and potential rail ridership, Beverlin said.
"We're not at a point where we have any real cost estimates, but I think the money to pay for this will be a combination of funding sources," Goodman said. Sources could include federal money and debt financing, or taxes from a regional mobility authority or a railroad district, according to Beverlin.
Union Pacific Railroad, which operates the line from Houston to the Galveston Island bridge, is waiting to see whether the study group can devise a plan that won't interfere with its freight operations, said Joe Adams, special assistant to the UP chairman. "The project would be feasible, but it would take a very significant investment in rail capacity," Adams said.
Coordinating serviceThe most difficult challenge will be to coordinate the passenger service with freight service at the north end of the route and at the railroad bridge to Galveston Island, he said.
Only six to eight freight trains ply most of the freight line, making coordination easy, Beverlin said. But 40 or more freight trains a day use a 3- to 4-mile-long segment at the north end of the route, he said.
Adams said the bridge to Galveston Island, which opens a span for barge traffic, could be a choke point because barge traffic has the right of way. Beverlin and Bertini said trains would have the right of way if a scheduled train route were in place.
The study group is working on several solutions to those problems, including the construction of a separate track for passenger trains on some parts of the route or sidings near the bridge that would allow trains to wait, Beverlin said.
Adams said the railroad is cooperating with the study but will not support the plan if it hinders freight operations.
Bertini said keeping Union Pacific happy is an important part of the plan. "It's their railroad, and we've got to be sensitive to that and we've got to bring benefits to them," he said.
Upgraded freight lineGoodman proposes to offer Union Pacific upgraded track in return for use of its right of way, allowing it to increase the speed of its freight trains. Freight trains run at 25 mph to 30 mph now because it's more economical for the railroad to lower speeds than to upgrade the track, he said.
The upgraded rail would allow Union Pacific to carry more freight from the increasingly busy ports at Houston, Galveston and Texas City, Goodman said.
Officials in Galveston and Harris counties have been discussing a passenger railroad for several years, but the bump in gas prices has intensified interest, Goodman said.
The service ended in 1967 because more people were using cars and fewer were using rail. The Texas Limited, housed at the Amtrak station at 903 Washington, a privately owned enterprise that offered weekend rail trips between Houston and Galveston, ran on weekends from 1989 to 1994.
The passenger-rail study is an extension of several federally funded demonstration passenger runs done in cooperation with Amtrak on weekends in 2002 and 2003. The demonstration attracted enough riders to be deemed a success and led the Galveston City Council to finance the $350,000 study last year with a federal grant.
"I can't see how we wouldn't have the political will to move forward," Yarbrough said. "If we can agree on the concepts, good. People can wrestle down each issue."
Bertini said the study group will meet with representatives from all of the cities, counties and political subdivisions along the proposed route.
"There also will be one for the public, so we build in their input for the plan," he said.
mailto:harvey.rice@chron.comhron.com
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