Show me how it will relieve congestion in the cities when the corridor goes nowhere close to the cities... especially the Dallas-Ft Worth area. 
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 Foster’s assertion.
Just to add another travel lane along I-35 in each direction that would meet today’s 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.
The Australian investment company that leased the Indiana Toll Road in 2006 is used to being in the headlines. It happens often.
And even though the headlines Macquarie made this week in Texas were not directly related to any toll road, critics of one of the company’s recent business ventures are drawing a parallel.
Macquarie Media Group has purchased 40 community newspapers in Texas for $80 million, according to Editor and Publisher.
Critics worry that a control of media by companies that own toll roads may lead to a spin of information. Many of the small papers included in the purchase have been critical of the privatization of U.S. highways, according to the Bonham Journal, an affected newspaper that has been particularly critical of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
“The toll roads will be under control of foreign investors, which more than frustrates Texans,” the newspaper reported in November 2006.
Truckers know the Macquarie company name from the toll-road subsidiary called Macquarie Infrastructure Group – which is part of an expanding web of investment groups spun by the parent company, Macquarie Bank.
The company arm that invests in media purchased the newspapers Wednesday from American Consolidated Media and its principal investor, Halyard Capital, according to the reports.
American Consolidated Media’s group of 40 community newspapers was founded by Dallas Morning News President Jeremy L. Halbreich, who was quoted in Editor and Publisher as saying Macquarie was interested in “expanding the platform (it) already (has) in the local community papers segment.”
The papers are mainly small, community papers averaging 5,000 in circulation.
Critics of the purchase and of the buyer say the deal could be an attempt to control information about privatized toll roads in small Texas communities.
The Lone Star State has a number of controversial proposals making their own headlines.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has his sights on the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor consisting of a quarter-mile-wide swath of truck-only toll lanes, railway lines and multiple traffic lanes from the Mexican border to the Oklahoma state line.
Although Macquarie is not involved in that corridor proposal, its partner in the Indiana Toll Road lease is – Cintra Concessiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A. of Spain.
Together, Cintra and Macquarie also operate the Chicago Skyway in Illinios and the 407 Express Toll Route in Ontario, Canada.
Macquarie Infrastructure Group operates the privately built South Bay Expressway in San Diego and the Dulles Greenway in Virginia near Washington, DC.
The acquisition of American newspapers was the first of its kind for Macquarie doing business in North America. Macquarie’s media subsidiaries own several media companies around the world, including BBC Broadcast in the United Kingdom.
Parent company Macquarie Bank reported the purchase of American Consolidated Media to its shareholders this week, according to Editor and Publisher. Macquarie Bank is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange.
– By David Tanner, staff writer
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Show me how it will relieve congestion in the cities when the corridor goes nowhere close to the cities... especially the Dallas-Ft Worth area.
The rail plan was well covered in the June-06 issue of Forbes magazine.
It's really not that complicated. Do you think truckers like being stuck (and helping contributing to) rush hour traffic?
If you route through traffic around the cities, when that's not their final destination, you take them off of your existing roads.
BTTT
bump.
All too true. For years, the mantra of the city planners was "roadless towns and townless roads." Route the traffic that doesn't want to be in the city away from the city.
Unfortunately, all too many cities fought this idea when the Interstates were being planned. They suffered under the delusion that through traffic would aid local business. Dayton, Ohio, managed to destroy its downtown by routing I-75 right through the middle of town.
Thanks for the ping!
Fair enough, but the rail lines make no sense.
Why not? It's not as if they couldn't get off the corridor if a particular city or distribution point is their destination. It's the same with trucks.
The goal is to route them around metropolitan areas if the destination is somewhere else.
You're welcome.
Explain to me why transportation planners insist on making all north-south cross-state traffic go through Dallas-Fort Worth.
Why not alternate routes from Austin/San Antonio to OK City and Colorado? Improve 281 north-south to Wichita Falls, where the Bailey Turnpike awaits.
Why not some alternative routes from Houston north to Oklahoma, Tulsa, Kansas City? Remember the I-45 gridlock during Hurricane Rita evacuation? Why not improve existing roads northward to Lufkin, Tyler, Paris, where the Indian Nation Turnpike already waits for northbound traffic?
Either of these solutions would greatly decrease traffic on I-35.
Continuing to route additional traffic to and around DFW contributes to congestion, smog, and erosion of quality of life for the counties surrounding the Metroplex. Condensing traffic is not the answer. Dispersing it is better for the entire state.
Surely someone in Austin can look at current highway maps and see how inconvenient and boneheaded the same old, same old thinking is. Not to mention how underserved much of the state is because of lobbying and political pressure from DFW leadership.
Excellent post! Couldn't have said it better myself!
;-)
Carving us up like a Christmas turkey...
Imagine what would be the effects of that same train accident on the TTC.
BTW, an interstate miles away was shut down because of smoke/fumes from the Kentucky fire -- and the fire burned for days.
How long would the TTC have been out of commission -- with that same fire right within its ROW...?
According to Post 3, the one you replied to, the planners are NOT going to send all north-south traffic through Dallas.
I can't imagine why you asked the question after looking at the planning map.
"I can't imagine why you asked the question after looking at the planning map."
That "planning map" is for TOLL roads. Mega toll roads. I was suggesting FREE roads.
Sorry I didn't make myself clear.
And we both know that map is old, the first one TXDOT issued re: the TTC. First priority and first construction in the TTC plan is to wrap tollroads tightly around DFW and shoot the route north along existing I-35.
You've seen the maps. Heck, you probably drew some of them.
From Cintra/Zachry:
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/ttc35/01%20Proposal%20for%20TTC-35%20High%20Priority%20Trans-Texas%20Corridor%20P.pdf
From the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG), representing Dallas and Fort Worth, and bound to get their way:
http://www.nctcog.org/trans/goods/TTCmaps.pdf
Same old, same old. Concentrate that traffic around the Metroplex, to the detriment of both those living there and in surrounding counties and to the economy of the entire state.
i show maps of these toll roads to my tv-viewing neighbors + they are flabbergasted.
didn'tja see this on cnn, i ask them?
If the purpose of the rail lines is to provide passenger service, should they not go from city to city?
The closest TTC-35 will get to DFW is about 15 miles east. The closest to San Antonio will be about 20 miles southeast. And according to the map, the I-69 segment looks pretty far from Houston.
I agree we need highways to ease traffic... but this is a big monstrosity with commuter rail that is unnecessary.
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