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If Amtrak carried 120 million passengers

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I drive from Austin to Dallas on I-35 at least two or three times a month. I am familiar with the highway, which by the way is being rebuilt.   With a few exceptions the median is not wide enough to accomodate a single track railway line let alone a dual track line. Through Austin, Waco, Hillsboro, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Denton there is essentially no median. Equally important, there is little land on either side of the highway, especially through the aforementioned cities. Given the scaring impact of the interstate highways on our cities, widening the footprint to include rail lines does not seem like a good idea. Even in those rural areas where the median or side right-of-way is wide enough to accomodate a single track railway line, the median is blocked in many locations by bridge supports.   The best bet for improved passenger rail service in the I-35 corridor in Texas is to use the UP line from San Antonio to Round Rock and the former MKT line from there to Fort Worth.  It parallels I-35 in many locations, but upgrading it would be very expensive.   I-35 is being widened from six to eight lanes from I-635 in north Dallas to U.S. 380 in Denton. According to the Dallas Morning News, the estimated cost for the two additional lanes, as well as relocating the frontage roads,  and rebuilding all the overpasses will be approximately $4 billion. The distance is 28 miles, giving a preliminary estimated cost of $142.9 million per mile. The highway runs through a heavily populated urban area, which increases the upgrade cost significantly.  DART's green line and DTA's railway rights-of-ways parallel I-35.  They have taken a few cars off I-35 but not many. Unless the cost of driving becomes unduly prohibitive, Texans are not going to be pulled out of their cars and trucks irrespective of what the planners in Austin and Washington want. There are too many variables to overcome.
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