Dick Ruddell says it's "a little too early" to settle on a date when commuter trains will start running between southwest Fort Worth, Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.
Ruddell, president and executive director of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, the T, is a master of understatement.Once called the Southwest-to-Northeast train and now called TEXRail, commuter service on the Cotton Belt rail line has been a twinkle in the eyes of local transportation planners for more than a decade. Ruddell reported on the status of those plans at Tuesday's Fort Worth City Council meeting and spoke with the Star-Telegram Editorial Board on Monday.The T's projections show that TEXRail would be used for 18,000 passenger trips per day, about twice the number on today's successful Trinity Railway Express route between Dallas and Fort Worth. The project is expected to cost $750 million, with about half of that coming in federal funds.Ruddell did have progress to report. There's even a date on which, if all other mileposts are arrived at on time, passengers would climb aboard TEXRail trains. It's Aug. 29, 2016.Simply producing a detailed schedule of what needs to be done and by when was a big step toward that goal. Key initial plans have been approved by the Federal Transit Administration.Ruddell was reserved because there are still many uncertainties about the plan, starting with whether the FTA will give the go-ahead next month to begin preliminary engineering work.There are serious questions about whether all the planned federal money will be available. Congress usually puts as much as $2 billion into what's called New Starts transit funding, but continuing budget battles in Washington make that far from certain.And there are big issues to be resolved locally.The T has been planning to use "push-pull" trains like those on the TRE. But the Cotton Belt line is owned by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which also wants to use the portion from Grapevine to Addison and beyond for passenger service. All the trains would use a platform that's being built at DFW.DART wants to use sleeker, more modern-looking, self-propelled rail cars like those planned for a recently completed line in Denton County.The problem for the T is that those cars cost twice as much and hold only half as many people as push-pull trains, Ruddell said. They're also not made in the United States, and the T must use U.S.-made vehicles if it expects to get federal funding, he said.A grand but feasible way out would be to persuade a foreign manufacturer to set up a plant in the U.S. to tap demand stemming from urban transportation needs across the country. Or a U.S. manufacturer could form a joint venture with a foreign company to build cars based on the foreign design.Fort Worth Councilman Jungus Jordan, chairman of the Regional Transportation Council, said both of those routes are possible.Finally, among the big problems faced by TEXRail is track rights.The T wants the commuter trains to pass through downtown Fort Worth, but to do so they would have to use right of way owned by Union Pacific for its extensive freight rail service.Negotiations on an agreement with UP are slow but steady.TEXRail holds great promise for Tarrant County and, with the extension of commuter service to Dallas and Collin counties, all of North Texas. The need for mass transit will only grow as the region adds what the North Central Texas Council of Governments expects to be another 3 million people by 2035.Progress on TEXRail has been slow. Obstacles are ahead. With a little luck and with regional cooperation, it can happen.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
