Dallas Business Journal Article
Hope its not too late to change this. There will be a meeting on Oct. 27 at The Brazos Center.

I agree, I hope it's not too late to change this. While I'm happy BCS won't be part of this boondoggle, I hope we can still stop the whole thing. Will end up being a big waste of taxpayer funds just like amtrak.

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Travis Kelly, vice president of government relations for Texas Central Railway, said there was an effort to connect to Bryan-College Station, a major university town that doesn't have access to interstate highways.
So far, the future ridership from Texas A&M University and the cities doesn't justify the cost to build that connection, Kelly said.
"We just weren't able to get the numbers to work to serve Bryan/College Station," Kelly said.

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Seems reasonable. They're planning 68 trips per day. B/CS couldn't generate enough ridership to justify the cost of running the line through here.

Does BCS really want that going through their town anyway?

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Ideally, the train would start near downtown Dallas while Houston's station could be built just north of downtown.

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Has anyone been to the neighborhoods "just north of downtown" H-town recently? Not the nicest place in the world to build a fancy rail station.

Kind of surprised the TCR people came to that conclusion in light of the expected population growth at both TAMU and BCS in general. Does anyone know if they conducted a potential rider likelihood survey?

Really nice neighborhoods don't want a rail station.

Dang now we'll never be able to hang with North Haverbrook

Downtown to downtown or GTFO!

Am I the only one sick of republicans with their stupid Simpsons monorail references?

Bcstx- yes. What makes you think he is a republican

Good. Hope the whole thing falls apart.

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They're planning 68 trips per day.

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That's a train every 21 minutes.

If we allow 340 minutes (4 hours) a trip, they'd need 5 (probably 6) full trains to achieve that. Which is going to need a double main line (or the train 21 minutes before, or the one 21 minutes after, has to be sidelined while the first trains "comes back").

TRE (Trinity Railway Express) does not run that frequenty on its Dallas to FT Worth run.

Amtrak's failing was in completely ignoring the wishes of the potential ridership base. Only 4 runs a week--2 north on Tuesday & Thursday; South only on Monday & Wednesday. So, you could not take the train to DFW or Houston for just a weekend (or a football game)--it had to be a 4-5 day outing. The run from CS to Dallas was not fast, either. It was typically 4 or 5 hours, a very long time without a club or diner car (or with any number of children). So, not convenient on w/e; not convenient for business travel, no 'special' trains for Move-in, Football, Graduation, or the like. And they were Surprised when this did not work out.

Some more numbers:

The N700 Bullet train on which the TX system is based has a capacity between 546 (8 car configuration) and 1,323 (16 car configuration) passengers. With 34 trips each way each day there is enough capacity to move between 17,816 to 44,982 passengers PER DAY. Over the course of a year (accounting for half the number of runs on Sat & Sun) we can estimate capacity to move between 5 and 14 MILLION people riding the train each year? That seems like quite a lot of demand just between two cities. Am I alone here?

Capacity (8 cars)
524 passengers/trip
x34 round trips/day
=17,816 passengers/day
x 6 days / week*
=106,896 passengers/week
x52 weeks/year
=5,558,592 passengers/year

Capacity (16 cars)
1,323 passengers/trip
x34 round trips/day
=44,982 passengers/day
x 6 days / week*
=269,892 passengers/week
x52 weeks/year
=14,034,384 passengers/year

* 6 days a week used to account for reduced runs on Sat & Sun

According to their website (http://texascentral.com/the-facts/), the track will be a double stack line with an 80' wide footprint. Their plan is to use existing right of ways as much as possible. The project is a privately funded joint venture, which means it can most likely build quicker than the typical govt. funded boondoggle.

Amtrak only changed to the schedule mentioned above (approx 2 replies before mine) when they were basically looking for an excuse to get rid of it so they could just use the rails locally for freight.

The first few years I was at A&M, Amtrak ran once a day to Dallas (morning, around 10 or 11 a.m.) and once a day from Dallas (left there early evening; don't remember the exact time, probably 4 or 5 p.m.). I did take it home to see my parents some weekends, and it was great. It took about 4 hours to get there (about the same it took me to drive there), and it did have a dining car (don't think they had a ton of choices but at least chips and Cokes, maybe sandwiches).

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Amtrak's failing was in completely ignoring the wishes of the potential ridership base. Only 4 runs a week--2 north on Tuesday & Thursday; South only on Monday & Wednesday. So, you could not take the train to DFW or Houston for just a weekend (or a football game)--it had to be a 4-5 day outing. The run from CS to Dallas was not fast, either. It was typically 4 or 5 hours, a very long time without a club or diner car (or with any number of children). So, not convenient on w/e; not convenient for business travel, no 'special' trains for Move-in, Football, Graduation, or the like. And they were Surprised when this did not work out.

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The wishes of the potential ridership base are often out of touch with economic reality.

Why in the world would you expect it to stop in BCS?

There is not really a reason for a stop to be made here. Honestly I would question things if they did include a stop in BCS.

Thank goodness

I could see BCS getting 4-8 stops per day, but not 68.

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Does BCS really want that going through their town anyway?

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No

train = transients = robbers = people on the corner asking for money = home invasion = fast getaway back to Houston or Dallas = College Station becomes just like Austin or Houston or Dallas

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College Station becomes just like Austin or Houston or Dallas

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We're going to get some good restaurants and bars???

You build a station in B/CS if you ever envision expansion to the Austin/San Antonio corridor. B/CS becomes the hub for the entire operation.

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train = transients = robbers = people on the corner asking for money = home invasion = fast getaway back to Houston or Dallas = College Station becomes just like Austin or Houston or Dallas

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You couldn't be more right. All those folks stealing TV's and waiting at the station for the train with their loot.

I guess that is why they call it the "getaway train"....

I hear the train a comin'
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when,
I'm stuck in College Station and time keeps draggin' on
But that train keeps a rollin' on down to San Antone...

I hope they change their minds.

I will tell the police that I know in the Dallas Metroplex that they are liars based on recent comments.

All the stuff they said about DART must have been a lie.

What are you talking about?

I see that a lot of people are misinformed.

HSR will benefit the area greatly, especially the Bio-Corridor.

You could take this to the big airports in Houston without having to be worried about being dropped off or long-term parking.

Who would want to hop on a train take it to Houston or Dallas for the day, get around on their transit systems (METRO or DART) and then head back home. All of this without having to worry about gas, tire pressure, traffic, drunk or tired driving and so on...

Soooo many benefits but I see that there are many people here that are stuck in a past that does not exist anymore and they do not like to see change.

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I see that a lot of people are misinformed.

HSR will benefit the area greatly, especially the Bio-Corridor

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There is no doubt that a HSR would greatly benefit BCS. The issue is that BCS would not benefit a HSR that runs from Houston to Dallas enough to justify the costs of a stop here.

The additional costs of a station, additional line, longer travel times, greater time spacing between trains and a long list of other issues that would arise would not justify a stop in BCS. Not to mention the most important one being that BCS does not have a need to bring that many people in and out from Houston and Dallas on a daily basis.