DALLAS — The Texas House passed a bill Tuesday to allow the 14 border counties to establish rail districts to fund construction of train lines across the Rio Grande Valley to alleviate growing traffic congestion stemming from rapid population growth.
HB 2510, written by Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, allows for the creation, administration, operation, and financing of a commuter-rail district with the authority to issue bonds and use the power of eminent domain.
The bill is now headed for the Senate and then, if it passes, to the desk of Gov. Rick Perry.
“I believe this is something that’s extremely necessary in South Texas — especially Hidalgo County, which is one of the fastest growing counties in the nation — to ease traffic congestion, alleviate rising fuel costs, and provide people with a different means of transportation,” Martinez said.
The House Transportation Committee unanimously voted to approve the bill in early April. Reps. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, Ryan Guillen, D-Rio Grande City. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Mission, and Eddie Lucio 3d, D-Brownsville, lent their support to the bill and are credited as co-authors.
Martinez said he has ridden the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail numerous times while in Dallas to meet colleagues and found the system “simply wonderful and realized it was something we need in the Rio Grande Valley.”
He said there simply isn’t enough land to expand U.S. 83, the main east-west highway across the southernmost tip of Texas, so commuter rail lines are a sensible alternative in an area that is expected to see its 2010 population about 40% higher than the 2000 Census.
“This is the next commuting alternative for the people of the Valley,” Martinez said. “Fuel costs keep rising and congestion gets worse and worse. We need to find alternate means of transport and this is the first step in that direction.”
McAllen’s estimated 2007 population of more than 125,000 is up 17% from the 2000 census, while Brownsville’s current population of about 170,000 represents nearly 20% growth from 2000. Most of the smaller towns in South Texas also are experiencing population growth of 15% to 20% since 2000.
DART light-rail service began in June 1996, and ridership in that first year was about 1.4 million. Ridership on the system, which operates 45 miles of track and 35 stations, reached 18.6 million for the fiscal year ended September 2006.
When DART’s current $2.5 billion expansion is completed in December 2013, there will be 90 miles of light-rail line and 62 stations, and the daily ridership is projected to double from the current volume.
