The dream of passenger rail between Georgetown and San Antonio,
already a long shot because of lack of funding, was dealt a severe and
possibly fatal blow this week when Union Pacific pulled out of
negotiations for use of its track paralleling Interstate 35 through
South and Central Texas.
The company, which has been talking for
at least a decade to officials with the project’s developer, the Lone
Star Rail District, told the district in a letter Tuesday that it is terminating agreements reached in 2009 and 2010 to formalize those discussions.
“We decided now is the time to cut the ties,” Union Pacific spokesman Jeff DeGraff said.
Jerry
Wilmoth, Union Pacific’s general manager of network infrastructure,
explained the company needs to get on with the business of improving its
track and operations without the uncertainty caused by the lingering
discussions with Lone Star.
“It has become apparent that the desired track alignments and infrastructure requirements necessary to support the efficient and
reliable commingling of freight and commuter passenger rail are
unattainable,” Wilmoth wrote. “(Union Pacific) can no longer, in good
faith, constrain its growth by the conceptual discussion or previous
expression of interest between the parties.”Despite those stern
words, Lone Star’s outside counsel, Austin attorney Bill Bingham, said
the project remains viable. He said the district was talking to Union
Pacific before it reached agreement on a feasibility study in 2009 and a
memorandum of understanding in 2010, and it hopes to continue those
discussions.
“It certainly was a disappointment when we got the
letter on Tuesday,” Bingham said. “But we’ll continue on, and we’ll keep
talking to Union Pacific. I think we’ll get this project done. I don’t
know when or how.”
The San Marcos-based rail district, which has
two full-time employees and shares its director with another
organization, had its beginnings in 1997 legislation passed by
then-state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, an Austin Democrat. The district
formed about five years later, and ever since it has been studying the
possibility of installing a commuter rail service on Union Pacific’s
line as it passes from Williamson County through the heart of Austin,
San Marcos, New Braunfels and San Antonio.
But the project has
never been able to advance beyond paper and computer screens. The 1997
legislation gives the agency little taxation power — primarily the
ability, with the local jurisdictions’ permission, to tax small areas near train stations — and no permission to run on the logical route, Union Pacific’s track.
Union
Pacific’s position has always been that it might be amenable to sharing
its tracks, but only if a parallel set of tracks was built well to the
east of the I-35 corridor.
And, most significantly, Union Pacific —
which, when the economy is humming, runs two to three dozen freight
trains a day in that corridor — said the cost of that alternate track
would fall to the district. That would be more than $2 billion.
Lone Star, which is in the midst of a federal environmental study of a system,
has existed through the years primarily on federal grants and $49,500 a
year payments by most of its member cities, counties, transit districts
and other local governments. The city of Austin, Travis County, Capital
Metro and Austin Community College are among the members.
