Rail design calls for trains rolling through, not around, city
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

The route of the proposed Kansas City Southern Railroad line across Wharton County will follow the old Southern Pacific right-of-way, including crossing the north side of Wharton and passing through El Campo.

That was part of the update presented by Lee Peek, KCS general director of international engineering, during a project briefing presented to local officials Thursday. In a previous meeting, local officials had requested the railroad consider diverting around both cities.

"The design calls for the railroad to come through Victoria and El Campo," Peek said.

El Campo leaders earlier this year met with railroad officials and found they'd have to pay to reroute the track along the U.S. 59 bypass, and continue to proceed with their attempts to find funding.

"We're still working with (the Texas Department of Transportation) on that," said Chandra Spenrath, executive director of the City Development Corp. of El Campo. "We're going to exhaust every resource and effort to move it around town."

When questioned about an overpass connecting the south and north sides of Wharton across U.S. 59, Peek said that would be the responsibility of the city or state.

Those responses drew objections from Charles Roades, who was attending the briefing as a citizen. He claimed the railroad would cut the county in half, creating a permanent wall having a tremendous impact on transportation and economic development. He asked local officials to take action to force a route change.

"We're missing the boat not contesting this on a legal basis," he said. "(The railroad) doesn't care if it blocks the county in half. There are not enough safeguards for Wharton County in what is being proposed."

Roades also raised issues concerning drainage and bridge safety.

Peek and TranSystems Vice President Jim Terry, the engineer for the project, said Roades was working with inaccurate information.

All bridges along the route would be reviewed by the appropriate local official boards, Peek said, and drainage would comply with their hydrological and hydraulic - or H&H - study.

State regulations require any new construction or improvements not increase runoff or drainage flows.

The line has between 80 and 90 openings - bridges and drainage culverts - along its 90- mile stretch, according to Terry.

All of those "openings" would be replaced with the exception of the Colorado River bridge, Peek said, adding those openings would be built to the H&H study results.

If there was a difference between the railroad's study results and the on-going county drainage study, efforts would be made check the data and reconcile those differences.

In cases where an agreement couldn't be found, the cities, county and state can request that a larger bridge be built, but it would be built out of local funds and not the railroads.

In addressing the river bridge, Terry said it would be upgraded and reinforced as necessary.

"When completed, this should be the finest railroad in the state of Texas," he said.

Construction on the line is expected to start in January 2008 and is expected to take between 12 and 18 months, Terry said.

Crews would be working from both the south and north ends following a pattern of bridge crews installing the opening structures, followed by crews building the road beds and finishing up with the track placement.

Initially, the route is scheduled to carry six trains in each direction with Terry saying the company would be pleased if the traffic volume increased by 10 percent per year after operations begin.

Those trains would range in length from 5,000 to 8,500 feet in length and would pass through the city of Wharton at 40 miles per hour.

In the unincorporated areas, the trains would initially travel at 49 mph and eventually build up to a travel speed of 59 mph.

"Even without an overpass, people should not have to be waiting long at crossings at those speed," Terry said.

The design also calls for four sidings to be built along the route. General locations are the El Toro area, Kendleton area, at mile post 50 about 5 miles south of El Campo and in Hungerford.

Terry said the biggest diffi- culty with creating the sidings is finding locations approximately 2 miles long that don't have road crossings.

Spurs to handle individual industries and distributors would be negotiated between the railroad and the company.