Amtrak’s move is an expensive one for the T
Ouch! Moving Amtrak trains to the Trinity Railway Express tracks between Dallas and Fort Worth will cost the Fort Worth Transportation Authority $1.07 million per year!
As people often say when something is hard for someone else to swallow, it’s complicated.
In the end, it’s probably worth the cost for the transportation authority, also known as the T.
The payoff is that the T’s planned TEX Rail commuter trains will be able to use a 2-mile section of Union Pacific Railroad track north of downtown Fort Worth when TEX Rail begins service to Grapevine and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, expected in 2018.
The T, under pressure from city officials to get TEX Rail up and running, clearly was the most desperate party in the Amtrak negotiations.
For years, Amtrak’s Texas Eagle route has used Union Pacific tracks between Dallas and Fort Worth through Arlington. But those tracks also are busy with freight traffic, which means frequent delays for Amtrak.
Union Pacific wasn’t a happy host for Amtrak, either. When the T came asking for trackage rights north of downtown, UP leaders drove a hard bargain: Get Amtrak out of our hair.
Amtrak typically indemnifies owners of the track it uses, but it refused in this case.
So the T ends up paying the $1.07 million a year for a $21 million insurance policy against Amtrak’s liability for its trains on the TRE tracks.
Even Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which co-owns TRE with the T, refused to help, saying it wasn’t part of the T’s deal with Union Pacific.
T President Paul Ballard told Star-Telegram reporter Gordon Dickson that he expects the annual cost to go down as the insurance company gets more comfortable with the risk.
The National Association of Railroad Passengers estimates that Fort Worth had 58,431 Amtrak passengers on the Texas Eagle route last year. The TRE serves about 7,500 riders per day, and TEX Rail is expected to have more.
This story was originally published December 15, 2014 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Amtrak’s move is an expensive one for the T."