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The Texas T-Bone High-Speed Rail Corridor is a 490-mile corridor that will connect the 16 million Texans living and doing businesses in and between the four largest metropolitan areas in Texas. Featuring new, completely grade separated, mostly elevated, dual-directional, double tracked rail infrastructure capable of accommodating passenger travel at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, the Texas T-Bone represents the future of safe, fast, and efficient transportation in this country. The Texas T-Bone will serve as a collector/distributor for the State’s major airports, providing seamless connectivity to the State’s future and existing commuter and transit systems, highways, airports, and seaports.
Extending along the federally-designated South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor, the THSRTC vision is to extend the Texas T-Bone north from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex into Oklahoma City and into Tulsa, OK and east from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, generally along the I-30 Corridor, through Franklin and Bowie Counties into North Little Rock, AR and potentially into Memphis, TN.
"There is a direct and positive correlation between the distance one can travel from a station and the ultimate success of the TOD that surrounds that station."
Transit Oriented Development (TOD), a term that was coined in the last 10-15 years, describes the dense, vertical developments that are found in the areas surrounding transit stations. Such developments offer mixed-use facilities including residential, corporate offices, and retail. There is a direct and positive correlation between the distance one can travel from a station and the ultimate success of the TOD that surrounds that station. Each high-speed passenger rail station along the Texas T-Bone will provide safe, fast, and efficient access to over 16 million Texans, making the areas surrounding high-speed passenger rail stations incredibly valuable to developers and a great revenue source that could potentially help pay for the infrastructure.
The seamless connectivity provided by high-speed intercity passenger rail will essentially shrink the State of Texas – bringing businesses closer to their customers and increasing the efficiencies of living and doing business in Texas. In addition, the design, construction, and maintenance of the Texas T-Bone High-Speed Rail Corridor will create and sustain thousands of good, permanent jobs across the State of Texas.
According to President Obama’s “Vision for High-Speed Rail in America,“ which outlines the Obama Administration’s plan to develop a national high-speed rail network, intercity passenger rail service “consumes one-third less energy per passenger mile than cars; it is estimated that if we built high-speed rail lines on all federally designated corridors, it could result in an annual reduction of six billion pounds of CO2.”The United States Department of Transportation reports that high-speed rail consumes “nearly ten times less fuel than cars and six times less than planes” per passenger mile. A June 2009 study from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California reports that, “commuter rail, at 34 percent occupancy (147 passengers) is equivalent in emissions to a bus with thirteen passengers or a sedan with one passenger.” These findings show the dynamic environmental inequities between high-speed rail and other transportation options. It should be noted that commuter rail systems are, for the most part, powered by diesel and gasoline locomotives. High-speed rail, because it is powered by electricity, will compare more favorably to diesel powered modes. The Brooking's Institution report, “Expect Delays, An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States,” found high-speed passenger rail in Texas specifically will reduce fuel consumption by “the equivalent of 25.2 million gallons of gasoline in 2030 and pollutant emission by 313,540 tons in 2030.”
The potential for carbon free, clean power generation for use by electric high-speed rail trains is groundbreaking. Texas takes the lead in wind generation in the nation with more than three percent of Texas’ electricity coming from wind turbines. This creates the possibility of high-speed rail travel from, for example, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to the Houston metro area without emitting pollutants into the environment, making it an environmentally friendly and energy efficient mode of transport.
THSRTC considers the 490 mile Texas T-Bone High-Speed Rail Corridor to be developed as the first phase of what will be a high-speed intercity passenger rail system that will provide safe, fast, and efficient passenger transport to and through the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and throughout the country.
Interstate 30 Corridor
The North East Texas Rural Rail Transportation District (NETEX) is represented on the THSRTC Board of Directors by its Chairman, Judge Paul Lovier. NETEX owns 100 miles of rail right of way between Wylie, TX and Mount Pleasant, TX and operates a short line freight rail service on 65 miles of the corridor. As enthusiastic proponents of the Texas T-Bone High-Speed Rail Corridor, NETEX seeks to develop an extension of the Texas T-Bone within the corridor connecting east Texas to DFW International Airport. The Cities of Texarkana and North Little Rock, AR are likewise represented on the THSRTC Board of Directors by their Mayors, Horace Shipp and Pat Hays, respectively. The vision of THSRTC is to develop high-speed rail generally along the I-30 corridor from the DFW Metroplex to North Little Rock, AR.
Oklahoma & Arkansas High-Speed Rail Extensions
Extending from DFW International Airport, high-speed rail will directly connect from the DFW metroplex to Oklahoma City, OK. Connecting along the federally designated South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor, the new rail infrastructure will connect Oklahoma City to the City of Tulsa, OK. As travel needs continue to grow, the two corridor extensions of the Texas T-Bone High-Speed Rail Corridor will supplement air and auto passenger travel. As the work progresses on the development of the preliminary design of these corridors, the growth of potential high-speed rail ridership will be monitored for the timing of development of the north and northeast branches of the South Central High-Speed Rail Corridor. THSRTC’s vision will result in a multi-modal transportation network connecting Texas’ major metropolitan centers with extensions thereof from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex east along Interstate 30 and north into Oklahoma and east into Arkansas.
