This one can't get away: Dallas' huge stake in the Trans-Texas Corridor

Dallas Morning News ^ | Saturday, January 29, 2005 | Op-Ed

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Also, from the Waco Tribune-Herald:

Editorial: Come our way

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

All the residents and businesses in Greater Waco have a stake in ongoing plans to build a limited-access superhighway and a high-speed rail corridor running from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio and beyond.

Just as communities across American in the 1800s thrived or died based on the placement of rail lines, Waco is in a similar situation regarding a fast-moving plan to build a new multi-billion-dollar tollway expected to run through McLennan County.

The placement of the tollway, to be constructed by Cintra, a Spanish engineering and financing firm with approval from the state, could help or hurt the economic development and quality of life in Central Texas.

If the connections come through or near Waco with easy access to Waco businesses, new rail and highway construction would be a significant benefit for the area.

If, however, a new Texas high-speed rail system bypasses Waco, or the new limited-access North-South tollroad passes far away from Waco with little or no Waco access, then Greater Waco would suffer.

The tollroad is considered an initial part of Gov. Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor plan announced in January 2002.

That ambitious plan calls for a 4,000-mile system (up to 1,200 feet wide) that incorporates toll and non-toll roads, high-speed freight and commuter rail, water lines, oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines, broadband and other telecommunications infrastructure in the same corridors.

Either a competing or complementary high-speed rail system referred to as the Texas T-Bone, so named because of its shape, also is underway and appears to be gaining political and popular support.

The T-Bone plan includes two-track corridors, one for high-speed express trains that would run up to 300 miles an hour and one for slower trains that would make more stops. The trains would connect Texas' major airports. If constructed, it may or may not offer connections for Waco.

Texas Department of Transportation officials will hold a meeting in Waco on the limited-access super tollroad on Feb. 24. They met in November in Bellmead and met recently with McLennan County commissioners who expressed some understandable reservations about the tollroad.

Their concerns included the loss of up to 4,200 acres in McLennan County, access to Waco, access to land split by the tollroad and plans to improve Interstate 35.

Waco City Manager Larry Groth has expressed concerns over the tollroad, including whether it would create urban sprawl far from the city center and siphon industry away from Waco.

Texas needs to upgrade its transportation system, both highways and rail.

Greater Waco residents and officials need to make sure that they benefit, not suffer, from new transportation plans.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[1066AD]

Couldn't a US or even Texas company get the contract ? Why would a Spanish company be better qualified (other than their people speaking spanish LOL).

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A TEXAS company? To build TEXAS infrastructure? Oh, the humanity!

[B-Chan]

I welcome the Trans-Texas project. The naysayers are already in full swing, of course - but then again the same sort of naysaying went on when Ike proposed the Interstate System as well. Just as the Interstates revolutionized American society, the TT will revolutionize the future of Texas.

[BobL]

"Editorial: Come our way"

In the mid-1980s, there was a big-time competition among business in Los Angeles to get the soon-to-be built subway stations (for the soon-to-be built subway system), at their door steps. What could be better than having a subway stop less than a block away? Well, you guessed it - A lot. The first thing the business owners saw was their property taxes double, due to the "increased" value of their land (since it was near a subway stop) - this, even before construction began. Next, about 3 years of hell, as the streets in front of their shops were being torn up like crazy. Finally, for the 40% or so of the businesses that survived this one-two punch, the subway opened. And guess what - nothing. Like most attempts at building a train system in a car-city, the vast majority of the subway riders were simply former bus riders who had their routes canceled.

The moral of the story, of course, is to be careful what you wish for.

This corridor scheme, dreamed up by our lovely governor, will sellout right-of-ways to the highest bidder (or to whatever bidder gives the governor the best retirement job offer). But the rest of us, the other 23,000,000 or so people in Texas will have to pay Cintra not only to use their roads, but to even upgrade roads and highways that run parallel to Cintra's right-of-way. It's called a non-compete clause, and Cintra WILL demand it before they invest one red cent, much less $7.2 Billion.

So, my advice to Dallas, Ft. Worth, and Waco is that they keep this road as far away as possible - for if they don't, Cintra WILL make sure that all parallel roads rot on the vine - thus forcing people on to Cintra's roads - and to pay Cintra's tolls - now about 20 cents per mile in Canada.

(thanks again for the ping, Tolerance)

[BobL]

"The naysayers are already in full swing"

Yep - and PROUD of it. There will always be sheep that follow the governor without question. But, there will also be people like me.

[txzman]

The areas like Waco are now so large that 50 miles 'away' will hurt nothing. In fact I bet it will spawn further growth in communities like Temple, Waco, Killeen, New Braunfels.

Come on down.

[biff]

Ya know, this here Texan ain't gonna be votin any more fer Perry or his co-horts. Surely people now realize that this 'trade with Mexico' was a grand scam played upon the American public. My gawd man, the factories that moved to Mexico from the USA ten years ago are now moving to China, Indonesia, Korea, etc.
If we need new rail lines from Dallas to San Antonio to Houston, let's build it for Texas and the hell with Mexico. They and their illegal immigration already costs us too much money and this grand scheme of Perrys' is gonna cost us plenty before it is said and done.

[BobL]

"In fact I bet it will spawn further growth in communities like Temple, Waco, Killeen, New Braunfels."

I'm not sure if you want growth in the cities noted above, but building a toll road is BY FAR the best way to prevent growth.

A decade or so ago, down in Houston, the Grand Parkway was proposed as a freeway. It's basically a big loop around Houston, 20-30 miles from the center of the city. The land owners on that route agreed to DONATE their land to the state, in exchange for having the parkway run through their property.

The state changed its mind and decided to make it a toll road. Guess what. All offers were rescinded, and the owners said "you can now buy our land".

You see, the real truths are spoken when people have their own money at stake. The land owners know full well the the Sam Houston Beltway (another loop, about 10 miles from the city center) has been a disaster as for as development is concerned. People are not going to voluntarily move or work in an area where they have to pay 12 cents per mile (Beltway rate), just to go shopping, or out to dinner.

In fact, I don't believe that there has ever been a toll road built in this country where development occurred BECAUSE of the toll road. And there have been notable disasters where a ton of money was invested in a toll road to nowhere, under the thought that development would follow - never works. The only successful toll roads are roads where the development already exists. So, places like Waco, will essentially be cut off from the rest of Texas, if Cintra gets anywhere near them.

[BobL]

"If we need new rail lines from Dallas to San Antonio to Houston, let's build it for Texas and the hell with Mexico."

Not a bad point. If the purpose of the corridor is to get trucks from Mexico THROUGH Texas, rather than TO Texas, then let the feds build the routes. And the feds can take care of tolling the trucks, if they want to. What angers me is that I will soon be paying 20 cents per mile to drive on routes that used to be free (other than the usual gas tax), because of this Governor. And does anyone really think that the trucks are going to pay Cintra something like 50 cents per mile, when the drivers are lucky to make that much in the first place? No the trucks will be pushed on to our soon-to-be rotting freeways that Cintra no longer allows improvements on.

[B-Chan]

Naysay all you want, friend. Peaceful protest is the American way, and I have no problem with you doing so. Plenty of people protested the Interstate System in its day, and for many of the same reasons.

That being said, the TTC is an idea whose time has come. You can fight the future if it makes you feel better, but don't be surprised when it passes you by.

And whether you like it or not, the future is coming. In fifty years the population of Texas will be double or triple what it is now, and if business is to be done and life is to be lived those millions are going to need transportation infrastructure. If they are to have it we have to start building it today. It's really that simple.

And not just new highways, either, but high-speed rail as well. I predict that in fifty years the cost of owning and operating a private automobile will be so high that only the wealthy will bother. The rest of us will take the train. Therefore, we have to start building a new, high-speed, upgradeable rail infrastructure now.

Anyway, I'm not here to change your mind. I suspect that no amount of argument, however well supported (as mine allways are!) would be sufficient to do so. With this in mind, I must therefore simply respectfully disagree with you.

[Ditter]

Is there a map of the proposed right of way? East or west of D/FW?

[StAnDeliver]

You've got a whole friggin terminal sitting empty at DFW and somebody wants to build a high-speed toll road to San Antonio, which also has an underutilized airport. Right. Next.

[hedgetrimmer]

We've got to transfer wealth out of the country in support of the FTAA doncha know.

[BobL]

"Plenty of people protested the Interstate System in its day, and for many of the same reasons."

I wasn't around to see the debate on the interstates, but I do know that a "compromise" was reached, which allowed existing toll roads in states like Ohio and Penn to join the interstate system. However all new roads had to be free (gas tax excepted). So I doubt very much that the same arguments were being made in opposition to the Interstates, but your point may play well to others.

And you're right, I probably don't have the foresight to be willing to toss away a system that's been the envy of the world for the past 4 decades because our psycho-governor doesn't have the ba&&s to call for a much-needed increase in the gas tax. Rather, he's just doing things by decree.

And I agree that it is time to build. So, let's build, and have it done in a fair way. In a way that allows the State of Texas to keep control of its right-of-ways, rather than selling it out to private companies. The way to do that is to adjust the gas tax to make up, and then to keep up, with population growth and inflation. Once that is done, Texas will have more money for roads than it knows what to do with.

We don't HAVE to throw away a perfectly good freeway system, just because one governor can't do the right thing.

[BobL]

"Is there a map of the proposed right of way? East or west of D/FW?"

I was going to try to answer your question, but it looks like TXDOT may have pulled their Master Plan (Mien Kampf, if you will) for the corridors, off of their website.

I'll keep looking.

[BobL]

THEY PULLED IT!!!

The Governor's Master Plan - where he promises to seek out Interstates to convert to toll roads. It's all gone. The links no longer work.

I guess too many people were looking at it - and it scared the hell out of them.

[cookcounty]

"The only successful toll roads are roads where the development already exists."

There have been successful toll roads? Where? Not in Illinois.

[BobL]

"There have been successful toll roads? Where? Not in Illinois."

I only mean it in the sense that the road was heavily used, despite the tolls. That only happens when the need exists prior to the road being built, which is the case in the heavily populated areas of the Northeast and Midwest. Where the roads fall flat on their faces is when they are built to an undeveloped area, with the expectation that people will move to that area and develop it. That, historically, has not been the case.

People will stay away from a toll road, if they have the choice - they always have, they always will.