Texas Railbuilding Public-Private Partnership Proposed

[StillGrande]

Article in today's Dallas Morning News on the state's proposal to help the railroads build new lines and capacity around cities to help with traffic gridlock.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/031305dnmettxdotrail.64a9b.html

(you may have to register. Can't help that).

Basically the state is proposing to offer $100 million a year for up to $1 billion in grants to help relocate some traffic and evidently help build new yards too.

[bobwilcox]

What kind of accountability should railroads face if they get money from government? Should it go past just making sure the money is spent honestly?

[oltmannd]

That's a good question!

I think you'd be able to satisfy the state and the RR by letting an outside contractor do the analysis to determine a project's cost and benefits. If benefits were subject to a change in the RR's operation, then such a deal would have to include some sort of penalty if the RR did not enact the changes included in the analysis.

Conrail took PA state money for the double stack clearance project and was required to run a certain volume of traffic over the route once the project was done. I think it included establishing service to the port of Phila, too.

For sure, state money will come with strings, but I think there's enough win/win in many cases to allow workable compromises.

[Anonymous]

The one thing that worries me is the statement that the money will come from "unidentified sources". Translation: We do not have any idea where to get the money. With the Texas legislature trying to find money to reduce our onerous school property tax I think there is a slim chance of locating 100 million in my lifetime as much as I would like to see it occur..

[dldance]

the money would most likely come out of the enterprise development fund and would be paid out over many years - so there is some possibility of it happening. The enterprise development fund also paid for the rail expansion in San Antonio for the new Toyota plant.

dd

[StillGrande]

Projects that government proposes that they really want seem to find a way to be funded. Policies to placate angry constituents don't. The trick is to get a politician to believe a) it is important and b) it was really their idea to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Since the railroads didn't like open source railroad tracks of the Trans Texas Corridors plan, this has come up.... I doubt seriously whether any current railroad would be interested in being beholding to the state.....

However, this might be what is needed to build HSR in the Texas triangle of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.....

[Anonymous]

DO I HEAR THE GOAST OF THE OLD UNION PACIFIC WITH JAY GOULD AND COMPANY SOMEWHERE? SURE THE RAILROADS JUST LIKE THE AIRLINES AND TRUCKING COMPANIES WILL BE HAPPY TO USE SOMBODY ELSES MONEY TO DO WELL, WHO WOULDN'T?

[Anonymous]

Texas, similar to other states, has seen a large number of railroads operating in the state reduced to two, UP and BNSF. UP is now running two major lines east/west, and two major lines north/south through the bulk of the state, whereas BNSF is running one major line northwest to southeast, and two lines ending in the DFW area, one from the northwest and one from the north....plus its main line southwest to northeast in the panhandle....The rail patterns do not match the interstate highway patterns.....

Another state with similar problems is Arkansas. The main interstate is east/west, whereas the two major rail lines are southwest to northeast.....