Guest Plastic Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 While Houstonis making plenty of prepations for light and commuter rail theres none for old style rail.We are running into less and less lines for tfrieght trains. The line along Westpark was done away with for The Westpark Tollway,the one along the Katy FWY for he expansion, there are plans to take the the one that runs along White Oak Bayou up to 1960 adjacent to Willowbrook Mall down. The line along Mykawa could be gone also. Th eone along Hempstead Highway could be taken away for The 290 HOT Lanes. The ones along 146 are lready gone. Im hoping they don't take the one's alone HWY 90 Alt down for the expansion of South Main. With all these lines down for expansion and creation of freeways will there be anyway for freightline to get into Houston.The only ones that wouldn't be impacted are the ones that run in Northeast Houston. Are the trains already having trouble getting into Housotn with 2 of the 3 main line sthrough the West side of town already gone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CE_ugh Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 While Houstonis making plenty of prepations for light and commuter rail theres none for old style rail.We are running into less and less lines for tfrieght trains. The line along Westpark was done away with for The Westpark Tollway,the one along the Katy FWY for he expansion, there are plans to take the the one that runs along White Oak Bayou up to 1960 adjacent to Willowbrook Mall down. The line along Mykawa could be gone also. Th eone along Hempstead Highway could be taken away for The 290 HOT Lanes. The ones along 146 are lready gone. Im hoping they don't take the one's alone HWY 90 Alt down for the expansion of South Main. With all these lines down for expansion and creation of freeways will there be anyway for freightline to get into Houston.The only ones that wouldn't be impacted are the ones that run in Northeast Houston. Are the trains already having trouble getting into Housotn with 2 of the 3 main line sthrough the West side of town already gone?There are no plans to abandon any major lines in the City of Houston for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I agree, the loss of all these freight lines could have a negative impact on moving freight in and out of Houston and the port of Houston.However, I don't think we'll see any more losses in the future. The tracks along 90A (South Main) have received the consolidated traffic from the old Westpark and Katy Freeway tracks, and is now very busy. It will not be removed and may ultimately be double-tracked.My understanding is that the freight tracks on Hempstead/US 290 will remain and will not be taken for freeway/toll lanes.HCTRA had an interest in the tracks from Oak Forest to Willowbrook, but the last I heard on the subject is that the railroad (Burlington, I think) did not want to sell or enter into any arrangement with HCTRA, so HCTRA dropped its plans for building anything. Those tracks appear safe for now.As for the Mykawa tracks, I don't know about them but there appears to be two rail yards along it, so I would expect it to remain.As for the SH 146 tracks, I believe TxDOT bought the abandoned right-of-way for use in widening SH 146.A few years back there was a proposal to consolidate all railroads entering Houston onto 3 corridors. I believe they were US 90A, Hardy, and Beaumont Highway (northeast). That idea went nowhere, but TxDOT does seem to be pushing their rail relocation plan so it is still possible some consolidation could happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnu Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 As for the Mykawa tracks, I don't know about them but there appears to be two rail yards along it, so I would expect it to remain.The Mykawa tracks are Burlington-Santa Fe owned and i believe that is their only unshared trackage into Houston.Everything else is pretty much UP. So I don't think they would give that up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CE_ugh Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 The Mykawa tracks are Burlington-Santa Fe owned and i believe that is their only unshared trackage into Houston.Everything else is pretty much UP. So I don't think they would give that up.Also its there main line to Galveston and the Valley. Also I thought they shared it with UP and KCS to give them a shortcut to UP's line to Brownsville Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Plastic Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 As for the tracks along WIllowbrook Mall,they'r enot gona sell it. That's oen tollway Houston could have seen some advantage form.I wonder if theyre ever get the smart idea to elevate the highways. Elevate the highways so the commuter and friehgt rains can run under. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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