Posted on 01/27/2007 11:17:34 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Trans-Texas Corridor, and the TTC-35 component that will parallel Interstate 35, is the best solution to the congestion facing Texas highways, and I-35 in particular.
Not only would it relieve traffic congestion, it would also expand economic opportunity along its path.
What citizens need to realize also is that from the start, part of the long-term answer to relieving that congestion, and part of the TTC plan, has been passenger rail.
Ottis Foster is correct in his Dec. 16 guest column, Trucks on rails, off I-35 regarding rail being a key part of the solution to the increased traffic and approaching gridlock on Interstate 35.
Expanded use of rail would improve safety and reduce congestion on I-35.
The Texas Department of Transportation is aggressively pursuing rail improvements to help ease congestion along major traffic corridors in the State.
While Foster suggests a piecemeal approach to rail planning with construction paid for by a tax increase on truckers, TxDOT favors a comprehensive planning process that involves private-sector investment in transportation improvements.
Purchasing right-of-way along I-35 for freight rail while disregarding the need to plan as well for passenger rail would be extremely expensive and would not simplify the process in any way, contrary to Fosters assertion.
Just to add another travel lane along I-35 in each direction that would meet todays highway safety requirements would require purchase of additional right-of-way.
It likely would have a significant impact on towns like Troy, Bruceville-Eddy, Lorena and West, without considering rail.
However, putting passenger rail on the back-burner for several years ignores the growing congestion problem along I-35 and puts the burden on future generations to solve it.
The Trans-Texas Corridor concept includes provisions for high-speed freight and passenger rail.
Under the plan, passenger rail will be built as needed and as private-sector funding makes it feasible.
We already have interest from the private sector to fund the development of a new 600-mile freight-rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico.
The Trans-Texas Corridor plan recognizes the problems Foster highlights, but the TTC plan provides for solutions that are planned logically and are funded by private-sector investment, not taxes.
Richard J. Skopik is Waco district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.
It's not as if you get on the TTC, and you can't get off. True, if you want to bypass Dallas, you stay on the TTC.
But whereas the TTC will be highspeed, once you hit the offramp you're back to normal traffic. There will be passenger service from San Antonio to Dallas. It won't be entirely on the TTC.
How long before that superhighway/railway stretches through Mexico, Central America, all the way to the tip of South America?
"Surely someone in Austin can look at current highway maps and see how inconvenient and boneheaded the same old, same old thinking is."
Sure, they could but, this deal provides them with the retirement funds they so *richly* deserve.
I don't know if there's a thread yet but, the new toll roads in the Austin area will not grant free travel to police and emergency vehicles.(unless there is an actual emergency) The toll roads commission said they told their *investors* there would be very limited exemptions from tolls and that was a promise they intended to keep.
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