Obviously I'm not the only one out here pining for commuter rail because Houston recently did a preliminary feasibility study to explore one. And about 10 years ago, Austin and San Antonio teamed up to explore ways to cut traffic on I-35 in anticipation of 58 percent population growth, up to 4 million residents, by 2020, but I just returned from a weekend in New Mexico with a simple question: why doesn’t Texas have a commuter rail connecting its major cities? For six dollars roundtrip, you can ride to Santa Fe from Albuquerque or vice versa. In Texas, we have our oil-loving trucks and planes.
From SF to ABQ or the reverse, it’s four dollars one way. The 60-mile trip takes about 85 minutes and the view is classic New Mexico – adobe homes, desert stretches and mountainous backgrounds – throughout. No need to take this line underground like a subway, the commuter train recreates your car trip only you don’t have to worry about getting speeding tickets, blowing a tire, hitting a dead carcass, texting-and-driving or spending money on gas.
Six years ago, I had the pleasure of interning for Southwest Airlines in their Dallas headquarters. One day I saw Herb Kelleher smoking a cigarette in the lobby (yeah, smoking was allowed in the executive offices) and thought to myself, “I can’t believe that guy started this business with a dinner napkin.” It’s true, Southwest’s story started with Kelleher, a champion attorney in the ‘70s, and some business colleagues drawing three dots on a napkin representing Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. This was long before Austin had close to 800,000 people.Why hasn’t someone done the same thing for a commuter train? Of course the airlines would be pissed, but what if you gave Southwest, Continental and American (all Texas-based) first dibs on the opportunity to brand the lines themselves? i.e. “You’re riding the Continental Express line to Dallas…” or “Welcome to the Southwest Terminal…” I think even Kelleher would listen to the pitch.
Is there money in this for businesses? Sure, if they promote public transportation enough there is. I’m sure there are millions of dollars to be made in this business off of long-distance relationships and family visits alone. Instead, what we have is people with cars in Austin driving to see people with cars in Dallas or Houston or San Antonio. It’s beyond me.
Ford and GM will be pissed, but what have they done for us lately besides give us trucks that run 14 miles to the gallon and haul four elephants we don’t own. Why doesn’t Detroit open its plants back up and learn how to become best-in-class in train building?
Of course, Texas’ long-storied loathing of public transportation would likely stifle any attempts at such a train, at least if this came down to needing some huge public bond or tax hike. That’s precisely why it would take a pioneering and outspoken business person (like Mark Cuban), a behemoth company with ties to the transportation industry (maybe an Exxon-Shell partnership) or perhaps a politician with oodles of political capital (like Houston Mayor Bill White) to lead the push toward a less isolation-driven, car-heavy culture.
I’m imagining the best way to get this done is as a public-private partnership where private money lays down the track and buys the first set of trains while public money grants the land and pays for any new additional costs (i.e. maintenance, staffing, etc.) until the venture breaks even around year 15 or 20. After that, the private guys will love to pay for everything and reap all the profits (and prevent crappy eminent domain issues when they try to build more strip malls), but the state should maintain oversight to prevent businesses from running the thing into the ground like Amtrak or Greyhound only to become an even greater liability for the government.
Need more revenue than the passenger fees? You could sell exclusive Wi-Fi rights to AT&T for an annual contract of millions of dollars and even sell ad space to local businesses depending on what direction the train was going. Need dinner when you arrive in Dallas, well check out Pappadeaux’s two trains up. Need to get a last-minute gift for the wife after a business trip? Well, thanks to the ad there, you know there’s a florist just two blocks from the train station. Or how about building in the cost to major events like ACL and Dallas Cowboys games and making the money back by charging bands to show their videos or granting local networks exclusive broadcasting rights.
The train itself should be launched with no fewer than six Texas-based Fortune 500 companies agreeing to pay up to 50 percent of monthly passes for their employees for both business and personal travel. They’ll be saving money on flights, gas and their employees can still get work done!
These trains could offer quiet cars or business trains that offer private conference calling capabilities along with food, movies and all the other amenities of British Airways and JetBlue flights at a premium to encourage business travelers and luxury automobile owners to ditch the gas-guzzling Benz on their next trek to Dallas from Houston.
Once the initial private money funds the lines and the first few trains, the public money can ensure routine upgrades and additions to the trains themselves (with help from the federal government) and profits could be split between the private institutions and the cities depending on how many trains are going to/from their cities and how many passengers are riding them.
The governing board could be a mix of business leaders, mayors, academic institution leaders, public transportation gurus and environment wonks. Make former Austin Mayor Will Wynn the chairman and Lance Armstrong the vice chair. Mack Brown and Mothers Against Drunk Driving could talk at halftime during the Texas-OU game and encourage fans to ride the “Tailgate Train” instead of driving. This board would become a launching pad for political office, which isn’t a bad thing, because that would give incentive to people who need to ensure its success.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers or details worked out. This thing wouldn’t be cheap. It’d probably cost a billion or two just to get started. But the federal government would probably cover a quarter of that and Texas residents who are willing to contribute $100 annually (pay when you get your car inspected) to the public fund can get a $200 discount on their annual pass. Just 50,000 people doing that (Al Gore could make a personal request to Democratic voters) gives the state $5 million in year one and a statewide marketing campaign could quintuple that number in two years if they let the brainiacs at GSD&M and LatinWorks do what they do for Wal-Mart, Budweiser and tons of other brands.
There are tons of best practices that can be leveraged from other cities in the US and abroad, not to mention airports and Europe’s rail industry. Between the alternative energy innovation in West Texas and the academic work at UT, Rice and elsewhere, Texas has the brainpower to do such a thing. We have Texas-based businesses with the funds and business objectives to do such a thing. And we certainly have the environmental consequences to do such a thing. All we need is the people willing to do such a thing.
Who’s with me? Texas-OU weekend isn’t far off.
Nice. You and my pops could talk Commuter Rail shop allllll day. :)
But "hit a carcass"? Of what? I haven't hit (or created) a carcass once in my many, many RT car trips between ABQ/S.Fe. Watch out for them chupacabras though!!! Nasty.
Posted by: NGP | September 25, 2009 at 12:46 PM