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[quote user="henry6"] The main question of HSR no HSR or no passenger rail service lies in the 170 mile you traveled to Dallas.  Under current rail standards that would be a 5 to 7 hour journey.  Higher speed train--say 90MPH---could bring it to about three hours but true HSR would get it to under three hours.  What would it have taken to get you aboard the train?  Your fellow Texans?  How many of you? How man of them?  Which wouild be the best service for the majority of  you and them?  Next: how often.  Building from there we might someday be able to justify a service.  [/quote] To get Texans out of their cars and onto an intercity train would require a major culture shift.  The Lone Star State is a car culture state.  California has nothing on it when it comes to a love affair with the horseless carriage.   Quick, economical, dependable, comfortable, and frequent trains, coupled with user friendly stations and adequate parking, would be required to get me and my fellow Texans to use the train more frequently.  On occasion, I have taken the train from Georgetown to Dallas, but it is a pain.  And if the southbound Texas Eagle is delayed seriously or annulled, I am stuck in Dallas for up to 24 hours.   Currently, there is no serious passenger train service in Texas, outside of the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), which runs between Dallas and Fort Worth.  It is primarily a commuter operation.  The overwhelming majority of Texans, at least the ones that I know, don't even know that Amtrak operates in Texas.  Moreover, the ones that do know about it would not ride it in a heartbeat. San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Oklahoma City offers the best potential corridor for better passenger train service. These cities are linked by I-35 and are often referred to as the I-35 corridor.  Quick means the train would have to cover the distances much quicker than driving.  It does not mean, however, that the trains have to run 200+ mph.  Fares would have to be cheaper for one person to take the train as opposed to driving.  The trains would have to run on time and be reasonably comfortable.  And frequent means there would be sufficient departures so that passengers could catch the train in the morning, complete their business at their destination, and are back home in the evening.  This probably means a minimum of four to six trains a day.  Upgrading the rail right-of-way, including the construction of new station facilities in most of the cities, along the I-35 corridor would require billions of dollars.  For example, the estimated cost to shift UP's freight trains to a line east of Austin and upgrade the line from Austin to San Antonio for commuter service is $2.4 billion.  Just where the money would come from to improve passenger train service on the I-35 corridor is unknown.        I don't anticipate seeing any serious passenger train service along the I-35 corridor in my life time.  But it may happen as congestion continues to grow and the cost of expanding the highways and airways becomes prohibitive.
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