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[quote user="blue streak 1"] [quote user="Sam1"] The most effective start-up route in Texas would be from Fort Worth to San Antonio. It could draw passengers  directly from Fort Worth, Arlington, Waco, Temple, Austin, San Marcos and San Antonio. [/quote] SAM1:  You make a good case.  do you have the populations in the service areas of both this route and for comparsion the CHI - STL route?  The figures would seem to be similar although the connections are not as good at DAL - FTW?  [/quote] The combined 2010 population for the Chicago and St. Louis SMSAs was 12.3 million.  The combined 2010 population for the DFW, Austin, and San Antonio population was 10.2 million.  The average increase in the population for the Chicajgo and St. Louis areas from 2000 to 2010 was approximately 4.1 per cent, which was well below the average increase for the Texas SMSAs. I did not look at the population figures for the cities between DFW and San Antonio, with the exception of Austin, and I did not look at the population numbers for the cities between Chicago and St. Louis. Both routes have several mid size cities that probably have populations of 100,000 to 250,000. If Oklahoma City is included in the numbers, the populations of the two corridors appear to be very close. It is 284 rail miles from Chicago to St. Louis.  It is 283 rail miles from Fort Worth to San Antonio. However, the  current Eagle route from Fort Worth to San Antonio includes a 35 mile dogleg that could be eliminated if the former MKT route was rebuilt.  In any case, the mileage is similar. It is 206 miles from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City, making the total distance from OK City to SA 489 miles. A key point lies in the fact that cities in the south and west have been growing at a significantly greater rate than the cities of the northeast and middle part of the country, although there are exceptions. Accordingly, it seems to me that if the national government is going to increase the investment in intercity passenger rail, it should look to corridors other than the ones that it has invested in heavily.
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