By KIM JACKSON
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

Officials with the Gulf Coast Rail District say a start-up commuter rail system could be running trains between Houston and Hempstead in the Union Pacific Railroad’s U.S. 290 railroad corridor in three to five years.

The Gulf Coast Rail District recently launched a conceptual engineering study on a proposed commuter rail project on UPRR’s “Eureka” line, which runs between the Hempstead area into the Eureka rail yard inside Loop 610 near Eureka Street.

The study was funded by federal stimulus funds through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

The project is estimated to cost around estimated $350 million.

Rick Liesse, Klotz and Associates’ deputy project manager for the study said recently the initial system would run to a stopping point near the Northwest Mall at the Loop 610/U.S. 290 interchange. He said the section inside of Loop 610 has several challenges to overcome, but the longer-term goal is to add a segment into downtown.

In the interim, Liesse said, commuters would probably offload to buses in order to reach final destinations in the Galleria, downtown, the Medical Center, and Greenway Plaza.

The long-range goal for the commuter rail system is a 20-year build-out schedule. Liesse said that would include the completion of a segment inside Loop 610, the development of express and multiple stop train schedules, the construction of a terminus/rail yard near the Loop 610/Highway 290 interchange, and connections to various commuter and light-rail lines.

Liesse said this conceptual engineering study would build on previous studies, including the Texas Department of Transportation’s Houston Region Freight Rail Study and the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Regional Commuter Rail Connectivity Study.

The H-GAC study modeled six rail stations and other locations have been suggested since, including he Towne Lake master-planned community development near Barker-Cypress Road and U.S. 290; and in the city of Jersey Village at the pending Jones Road extension.

“Just because a station is suggested does not mean it would work in the system,” Liesse said. “The modeling numbers need to work before we select stations. For example, we probably could not stop at Eldridge and Jersey Village/Jones Road on the same run because the closer the stations are the harder it is to get up to speed.”

“We are not far enough along in the study to say, ‘Here is where the stations are.’”
iesse said in the next seven months, the study team will identify impacts to freight customers on the UPRR 290 line; identify additional track requirements and impediments; pinpoint possible locations for terminals and maintenance facilities along the line, including an industrial site at the U.S. 290/Loop 610 interchange and the old Lawrence Marshall property in the Hempstead area; work through light-rail connectivity issues and opportunities with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County; identify environmental clearance requirements that could be imposed by the different federal agencies that could provide funding for the project; update and project cost estimates to get the system up and running; conduct an cost-benefit analysis; and develop an implementation schedule for the project..

“We are dealing with the Union Pacific Railroad in this process,” Liesse said. “The project has legs now because UPRR said they want to be part of the process. Prior to this they did not want to run passenger rail on freight rail lines. They say there needs to be concessions for their freight rail customers — that is a critical element.”

Joe Adams, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, has said that UPRR is poised for growth and must preserve existing freight rail capacity on its Eureka and Hardy rail lines between Houston and Dallas.

The company has plans to add a rail line on the Hardy that will allow UPRR to transfer traffic from the Eureka line so that it can be used for commuter rail.

Maureen Crocker, the Gulf Coast Rail District’s interim executive director, said a key to carrying out the U.S. 290 project is funding.

The cost of all rail projects the district has identified, including freight rail improvement projects and the baseline commuter rail system, is about $2.1 billion.

Crocker said rail will be an important option in Houston’s mobility future. She said one intermodal train can take more than 280 trucks off of the highway, and the average commuter rail car could take 125 cars off of the road.

“That would help you on 290,” Crocker said. “We have only so much space to widen our highways. We have to look at other ways to move freight and people.”