(The following story by Gordon Dickson appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on September 13.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Downtown Fort Worth’s congested train tracks could be separated by a giant, tunnel-like trench or an overpass within 10 years as part of a $300 million plan to relieve rail gridlock.
The long-distance tracks of two major rail companies — Fort Worth-based BNSF and Union Pacific — intersect downtown in an area known as Tower 55, near the Interstate 30/35W Mixmaster. The idea of separating the intersection by running one set of tracks over the other is considered a short-term fix, so that trains don’t have to wait in line to get through the intersection.
The long-term goal is to build a new rail line bypassing the Metroplex in rural areas west of Fort Worth, but that project may take 20 years or more to complete, said Mike Sims, senior program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, based in Arlington. Texas voters in 2005 authorized the creation of a rail relocation fund to pay for removal of freight lines from populated areas, but this year the Legislature didn’t authorize funding for it.
Quick fix needed
Many of those lawmakers attended a Tower 55 briefing Wednesday in Arlington to hear from regional planners, who stressed the importance of quickly fixing train gridlock.
Trains cause traffic problems by blocking road intersections, and they expose nearby residents to diesel emissions and hazardous cargo.
“Even without a bypass, we need to make these immediate and short-term improvements,” Sims told about 150 elected leaders from across the Metroplex and railroad company officials at the briefing.
The train trench or overpass in downtown Fort Worth would be the biggest part of an estimated $300 million in public improvements — all related to rail — funded over the next decade, Sims said. A variety of financing sources will likely be available in the next decade, including state emissions reduction funding, railroad rehabilitation money and possibly proceeds from development contracts with private companies, he said.
Goal: passenger traffic
Rail companies have committed in principle to help regional planners solve train-related problems, and to open up freight lines to passenger rail traffic, but have not yet specified where and when any changes would take place.
But some projects will be easier than others, rail officials say. For example, Union Pacific officials still say it would be difficult to allow passenger service on the company’s busy tracks through Arlington. But the company is more optimistic about helping the Fort Worth Transportation Authority runs its Cotton Belt line from southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the UP chairman’s special representative Joseph Adams said after the meeting. That proposed commuter rail route, which is under environmental review, would include a couple of miles of Union Pacific tracks in north Fort Worth.
The North Texas region is the nation’s largest inland port, and will continue to prosper with the efficient movement of goods by rail, said Hillwood Properties senior vice president Russell Laughlin.
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck, a physician and longtime advocate for passenger rail in his city, said fixing the region’s train gridlock is a public health matter.
“The diesel exhaust we know is a concern,” he said. “These folks living near where the trains are stopping are at real risk.”