I would say this is a good answer to a lot of lines back then.
Slim and none. Texas has all these factions vying for recognition and proposing all sorts of exotic high speed rail service(including one down the median of I45) that will costs bilions to implement and are just not viable. No one seems to understand conventional trains at reasonable speeds on existing track in the so called 'Texas Triangle'. In the Houston to Dallas market there are two routes anyway. The route mentioned above is the longest and would costs the most to implement and would be the slowest. The BNSF route, however, is lightly used and is only 249 miles long and supported passenger service long after the SP route service was discontinued. It also had four hour service. Some day service will return.......if you live long enough.
The problem with the BNSF ( former BRI ) is that access to the the Amtrak station is tough (a few back up moves) FW&D and RI both served the Union station (now part of the ballpark)
Not quite. Texas has received a $15 million grant from the HSIPR funds for Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Assessment for a Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston Core Express Service. This is NOT a feasibility study, but a project with sufficient funding to generate a detailed EIS and alternative route analysis that is a major critical step if a Dallas/FW - Houston HSR service and route is to be built.
I don't know the rail topology of Houston, but surely it would be possible to add some curves to avoid backup moves. When I was in Houston I noticed lots of abandoned trackage and looking at Google Earth there is plenty more.
If it was a streamlined, nonstop train with track priority like the Sunbeam, then it very well could have done that schedule at 79 mph, but there would be no padding.
The Sunbeam only made three stops. A crew change at Ennis, a water stop and meet at Bremond and the stop at College Station. The morning train, the Hustler which used the same train set, made multiple stops and took around 6 hrs. The Amtrak Houston connection to the Eagle took 6 hours and only made a few stops.
George, the Sunbeam/Hustler service was discontinued in 1955/56. The Sam Houston Zephyr lasted until around 1965. It was a pretty rough ride for sure, but an exciting one. One summer they had to substitute old heavy weights with six wheel trucks on the train. I rode in the vestibule most of the way to Dallas just to listen to the music.
Thanks for the info.
Houston to Navasota through Hempstead is 70 miles from the SP station. Houston to Navasota through Spring from Union Station was 72 miles. Running time now would be about the same.
From what I have heard, there are three routes to be studied:
The huge populations of Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth, should supply ample traffic to support that route without the need for intermediate stops to support it.
The UP line is 15 miles longer and has much more traffic than the BNSF and it would be considerably slower. The big complaint I hear all the time is that the BNSF route misses a lot of in-between population centers like College Station.......but then so does the I45 corridor. When passenger trains still ran between the two cities, the BNSF route was by far the fastest with trains doing the 249 miles in four hours. Since 1965 both Houston and Dallas have expanded exponentially. To even match that four hours would take a lot of crossing eliminations in both cities. The I45 idea is a huge boondoggle. Anyone that thinks this would work needs to drive it first. The interestate would have to be completely rebuilt. There is no way to put tracks down the median as it now exists. So if you really wanted to start up passenger service between Houston Dallas at a reasonable costs the only option is to use the BNSF route.
The primary advantage of rail over flying is the fact that it can service intermediate stations. How on Earth can a 6 hour Dallas - Houston train be more attractive than an hour long flight or 4 hour drive?
The Texas Chief, later Amtrak's Lone Star used a totally different route through Fort Worth, not Dallas. The Dallas - Houston fastest timings were 4 hours on the BNSF(B-RI Joint line) and 4hrs 25 min on the UP(T&NO route). The T&NO's Sunbeam was discontinued in 1955 and the B-RI trains in 1965. Amtrak did briefly in the 1990's run a connection to the Eagle on the UP route, but it took 6 hours. If you wanted to spend the money as Illinois is doing to speed up the BNSF route you could probably do it in less than 4 hours with 90 or 110 mph speed limits. Right now the most congested corridor is I35 between San Antonio and Fort Worth and Dallas, but that route is over 300 miles and even with improvements it would still take 6 hours just to get to Fort Worth and another hour to get to Dallas from there. But the Eagle uses it now and is well patronized inspite of there be plenty of hourly flights on the route by SWA. The I35 route has numerous population centers along the route which probably helps. The other leg of the so called Texas Triangle is San Antonio to Houston and that route is 200 miles which is easily done in four hours even though the heavily padded Sunset Limited schedule allows almost five. Texas is just a big place. Houston to New Orleans is over 360 miles and the fastest time I could find for that was just under 8 hours. Amtrak allows over 9 hours for the Sunset. You can drive it in 6. Houston to the 'valley' (Brownsville) is another 360 miles. Houston to Amarillo would be over 500 miles. All this is why SWA is so successful in this state. Why spend all this money on trains when you can be there in a hour by plane.
