For the first time ever, the Texas Department of Transportation has studied the feasability of passenger rail service from Oklahoma City to Laredo, and has determined it is a viable alternative to increasingly expensive and inconvenient short hall airline travel, and increasingly congested I-35, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The TxDOT study looked a three segments of a potential passenger rail corridor, and determined that service between Dallas Ft. Worth and San Antonio could reach speeds of 220 miles an hour, which means the trip could be made in a little over one hour.
"We have a generational opportunity right now," Peter LeCody of 'Texas Rail Advocates' told News Radio 1200 WOAI. "This would help us move forward with needed improvements along the I-35 corridor, and finally do something about relieving congestion."
Even with an anticipated stop in Austin and perhaps Waco and Ft. Hood, the trip would still be faster than taking a flight, when you add in 'getting to the airport two hours early,' and going through the security clearance and waiting at the gate.
"You would have a two or two and a half hour ride," he said. "That would be faster than going to the airport, taking off your shoes at the security gate," he said.
The next step will be an environmental study to determine actual routes.
Texas has a history of failure when it comes to adding light rail to the state's overtaxed inventory of highways and air travel.
In the late 1980s, a bullet train concept was tried and abandoned. In the 1990s and 2000s, discussions continued about the possibility of commuter rail between San Antonio and Austin, but those came to nothing. Even proposals to establish light rail systems in San Antonio have met strong opposition, even though similar systems are in place in Dallas and Houston.
TxDOT says the next step in the rail plan is to conduct an environmental study and begin to interest investors in the project.