By Amanda Casanova

As Fort Worth officials gear up to for the proposed TEX Rail project, a Swiss company is hoping to land the job as the builder for the commuter line.

The company, Stadler US, is working in the next few weeks to pitch the company’s modern passenger rail cars to the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. The company is a Swiss transportation business with a North American office in New Jersey.

If approved, the proposed rail will run from southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and DFW Airport. Requests for proposals could be opened as soon as late spring or summer and a contract could be awarded sometime after the fall.

According to TEX Rail officials, the proposed system will use self-powered rail vehicles, which would be less costly than electrified light rail.

“Stadler’s forte is building rail vehicles with a low life cycle cost,” said Stephen Bonina, president of Stadler US. “There are a lot of manufactures throughout the world who build inexpensive rail vehicles, and while these vehicles are cheaper to procure, they typically cost more to operate.”

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By Elaine Paniszczyn

With an average of 1,000 people moving into the state of Texas each and every day, the current widening of the state’s roadways may not suffice for long. Anybody who drives Interstate 35 (I-35) knows how traffic backs up during rush hours.

A federally-funded Texas-Oklahoma Passenger Rail Study (TOPRS) is evaluating existing passenger rail services in an 850-mile corridor from Oklahoma City to south Texas as a potential future transportation option to help reduce demands on the state’s roadways, particularly along the highly-congested I-35. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials were in Dallas Wed., April 3, gathering public input for the study. Twelve such meetings took place across the state in March and April.

“We have no preconceived notion; we’re looking for input from the public so that we can then form what the citizens of Texas want for passenger rail service,” said William E Glavin, Rail Division Director, TxDOT. “And of course the option could always be a no-bill – everybody’s happy with what we currently have.

Glavin said that public opinion varies from region to region within the state.

“It’s everything from ‘If we’re going to have rail service, it’s got to compete with cars. Therefore, it’s has to be 220 miles per hour. If it isn’t that fast, it doesn’t make any sense’ to ‘We really don’t need anything that fast. We can overlay existing freight lines; we’re perfectly happy with it taking four hours to get between Dallas and Austin and five hours to go on to San Antonio’ – so an 80 mile per hour average speed.

“An 80 mile per hour average speed means a top speed to 120 (mph), probably because of geometries and everything else,” Glaven said. “If you’re moving at a slower speed, you will probably, typically make more stops. At the higher speeds, the speed being the factor in attracting the ridership, then the fewer stops you would make.

State funding approved for air traffic control services as federal cuts loom

By Elaine Paniszczyn

Recognizing the importance of air traffic safety at municipal airports, the Texas Transportation Commission approved on Thurs., April 4, funding to pay for continued operations of air traffic control towers at 14 airports in Texas. Twenty-one percent of aircraft take off and land at these towered airports.

“Safety is our top priority, and I am glad we’re able to keep these critical air traffic control services operating,” said Texas Transportation Commissioner Fred Underwood. “As a pilot, I know firsthand how critical these services are to the safety of air traffic.”

When automatic budget cuts from the federal government went into effect last month, Texas regional airports were caught in the cross hairs and were scheduled to lose funding for positions for air traffic control services beginning April 7.

Cuts in federal funding for air traffic control services at 149 facilities nationwide are scheduled to begin in phases starting this week.

By Will Jukes

Hackberry Creek Country Club hosted Ed Lewellen for a two day conference titled 'Reinventing Yourself in the New Normal Business World' April 4^th and 5^th. The conference featured two days of talks and presentations that sought to educate businesspeople about changes taking place in the modern business world.

According to Lewellen, organizer of the conference and an experienced speaker, this 'new normal' is characterized by fluidity and individuality. Where before an employee could expect to spend their entire career in one company working as part of a team assigned to a given task, today jobs are less secure—in the next 5 years 60% of jobs are expected to be contract—and a worker needs to get noticed if they want to succeed.

Besides presentations on personal branding and making oneself an asset, the conference included an overview of the state of the healthcare and industry and the direction it will take in the near future.

Read the whole story in the April 13 edition of The Rambler.