From the Austin American Statesman
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Talks continue on moving freight tracks
State, rail companies in negotiation.
Compiled from staff and wire reports
Saturday, March 19, 2005
SAN ANTONIO – The state and Union Pacific Corp. have been talking for months, looking for a way to move freight rails out of densely populated areas to reduce accidents and keep hazardous materials out of Texas’ major cities.
Gov. Rick Perry took a quick spin around the state Friday to say that the state and the rail giant have formally agreed to agree. And he’ll be in Fort Worth today to announce a similar accord with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
But the estimated $10 billion needed to move most freight runs out to urban areas’ rural fringes has not been identified, and specific projects have not been determined, Perry’s office said.
Moving most of Union Pacific’s two dozen or so freight runs through Round Rock, Austin and San Marcos to lonelier points east has been on the Central Texas agenda for years, actively so in the past two years. But finding the $500,000 to $700,000 to do that, and reaching terms with Union Pacific, has so far been a tricky task.
Texas has more rail crossings than any other state and consistently leads the nation in the number of vehicle-train accidents each year. Since 1984, more than 5,500 people have been killed or injured in vehicle-train collisions in Texas, Perry’s office said.
Last month, about 200 San Marcos residents had to be evacuated after seven cars of a Union Pacific train, several of them carrying sulfuric acid, derailed. And late last year, federal regulators added 10 inspectors in San Antonio after six train accidents in the area left four people dead and released toxic chemicals.
Moving the rails also would help businesses move products from the warehouse to the market and open up valuable space for road construction, said Perry, who made the announcement at a Union Pacific rail yard