Hopes dim for passenger rail linking Parker and Palo Pinto counties to Fort Worth

Apr. 4—Parker County residents have commuted west to Metroplex jobs for decades, with Palo Pinto County denizens more recently joining that commute as Metroplex migrants move west.

Maybe it would be nice for them to take the train, escaping the sun exploding on their windshields going and coming, perhaps catching up on reading instead.

That's a hope the nonprofit Texas Rail Advocates holds. But, as Bob Dylan said when he became a Christian, it's a slow train coming.

It hasn't even left the station.

"It's not an easy thing to do, to get rail service," Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody said of the odds the nonprofit group faces in its mission to reestablish passenger trains to the Lone Star landscape.

The group also works to expand freight rail, to both ease highway congestion and the resulting air pollution.

LeCody indicated it takes a village, actually a string of them.

"You have to have a lot of county governments, the cities along the route, the (economic development corporations) involved," he said. "All of these agencies really have to be on the same page to petition for service. Until that happens, nothing will happen."

It can be done, LeCody said.

As evidence, he points to a March 10 announcement that Amtrak, the national passenger rail company, is teaming up with the private advocacy group Southern Rail Commission and local officials along the route in seeking a grant to begin a process linking Atlanta, Georgia, with Fort Worth.

"It looks like we're on the doorstep," LeCody said of that effort.

But Fort Worth, with rail links already stretching north, south and east, remains Where the West Ends in contrast with its historical motto.

LeCody also is a member of the Interstate 20 Central Corridor Working Group, studying ways to improve the portion of that east-west artery from Dallas County to Palo Pinto County.

A small part of the working group's assignment is to study and recommend opportunities for multiple types of transportation including passenger rail.

"With a lot of the population going west out of Fort Worth ... you've got to look at other modes of transportation," he said. "There's going to be a lot of improvements to I-20. Rail has kind of been like an afterthought, but in the I-20 corridor there's been a lot of discussion about modes of transportation and how we get there in the future."

Questions since mid-March to the Texas Department of Transportation, which established a rail division in 2009, about passenger rail west from Fort Worth did not receive a reply other than a request to clarify that question. The clarification, sent March 16 asking if local officials have reached out to TxOT about passenger rail, did not receive a reply.

Meanwhile, a March 2 request on results of a 2021 TxDOT online survey about passenger rail along I-20 has not received a reply other than a request the next day for LeCody's contact information.

LeCody said he, too, has requested those survey results.

David Hawes, executive director of the Mineral Wells Economic Development Corp., told a chamber of commerce audience last summer that he looks at a property with an eye to what it can become in 20 years.

Hawes acknowledged " ...the need for rail to come out here from Fort Worth — especially for the (under renovation) Baker Hotel."

A Mineral Wells native, Hawes also is a former 30-year zoning official for Houston. He emphasized that, whether for bus routes or train service, potential ridership guides decisions.

"Nobody's going to put a train out here to Mineral Wells when there's no ridership," he said. "It doesn't mean we shouldn't start planning for the future. ... I'm sure the city of Mineral Wells would be excited about it."

Still, Hawes added, simply a weekend route to Crazy Town, for downtown shopping, festivals or a few nights in the Crazy Water Hotel or the Baker, probably would not yield a return on investment to justify the expense.

But he did invite LeCody to make a pitch to the economic development corp. board.

"I'd like to meet him once, so I can inform the board and he can make a presentation," Hawes said.

A spokesman for the city of Weatherford summed up how unlikely prospects are for linking the city with passenger rail from Cowtown.

"We currently have limited information from Texas Rail Advocates," Blake Rexroat wrote in an email. "However, we have staff that work with the North Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG), and we have not been informed of any projects that would bring passenger rail to our area.

"Whether it be roadways or rail systems, we understand these discussions take years in advance before any construction takes place. We are always open to learning about potential projects from NTCOG, TxDOT and outside groups. However, our understanding is that passenger rail is highly unlikely at this time."