OPINION

And what will the commuter after going to Austin by train? He will still need to Rent-a-car from wherever he gets down.

Trains and public transport will never be in demand in this country as long as gasoline is cheaper than in most other countries.

I welcome $5 per gallon for gasoline by increasing taxes heavily. This will encourage public transport, decrease govt debt, encourage innovation in renewable energy, reduce crude imports, decrease demand for crude and shake up the Royal families in Middle East. Except Iran, all these American allies are dynasty-based rulers.

DART and AMTRAK are a big joke. They will never succeed in getting more commuters as long as gasoline is less than $5 per gallon.

Austin has better public transit than Dallas.

Mass transit in the DFW area sucks. I wonder if the toll road operators have something to do with this? We need to get away from the money factor and start focusing on the quality of life. Unfortunately, to many are shortsighted and only look at the 'for profit' motive.

The DFW will be ranked in the top five cities as the worse traffic congestion in the not to distant future. Our leaders have it all wrong.

Jack B, the DFW will also probably rank in the top 5 for largest metro cities. I love all these folks who want to sink us even further into debt so we can ride a fun train! JD is close to right about the gasoline prices. I would still drive even at $5 a gallon, even $7. I may trade in the SUV for something a little more gas friendly, but certainly no Hybrid. Then with all the poor people riding in the cattle cars to our states liberal mecca(Austin), I'll be able to blow right through that stinkhole and be in San Antonio in no time at all. You are absolutely right!! The gubment should spend all the money getting people out of my way on I-35, I-45, I-20 and I-10!!!!

Amtrak is a joke and should be done away with.

"Freight trains dominate and have priority on the tracks'

Good, we should be moving more freight by train.

That would help clear traffic more than a few people on a train.

Harry, I agree wholeheartedly. Our tracks are vacant and roads/highways are overflowing with big rigs - traffic and accidents. It might not cure all the ills of traffic, but it sure would help.

Southwest Airlines vetoed the only real effort to build a high-speed train system in Texas about 25 years ago. Apparently they were scared enough of it becoming a success that they saw it as a threat called their "boys" from Congress to kill it.

Maybe they were worried that they would loose the big government subsidies to keep Love field open.

For our honeymoon,we rode the Texas Eagle to San Antonio and back.
On the one hand,it was a nice relaxing ride.
On the other hand,the diner was closed on the FtWorth-San Antonio segment,so unless you wanted to get c-store food in the lounge-Hot Pockets/Chips/etal.-you needed to bring your own!!

And on the Temple-San Antonio leg,the UP constantly put us in the hole between San Marcos and san Antonio!!

However,given the chance,we'd probably ride Amtrak again.

I've noticed in New Mexico,their version of DART-The Road Runner had tracks running in the median of I25 from Albequerque to Santa Fe.

Why not try it in Texas?Lay track in the median if I45 from Dallas-Houston and run trains!!
Hell,we'd love an alternitive to I45 when visiting
my family in Houston!!

@ Justice Denied - right on! or should I say 'ride-on'
@ Julie B - what are you smoking? WHAT mass/public transit is there in Austin - buses?
While Austin has Dallas beat on the bicycle front right now, if all goes well for those of us in the neighborhoods in-town working with the City of Dallas, you will see vast improvements on this front over the next few years - stay tuned.

DART is one of the best success stories in the nation - ridership has far exceeded the goals. I wish I could ride it more to work, but as I have to be out of the office frequently, I have to have my car. I go to Austin a lot for pleasure and business and the traffic there is horrendous.
For all others, if you really studied this issue, you'll find what Frank Feuerbacher says is true, but Burlington Northern, along with the ruling politicos of Arlington (ie the Vandergriffs who own auto dealerships), are behind stopping mass transit in the area of the Metroplex that most needs it. Arlington is the largest city of its' size in the nation with no public transportation.
Thats right, NO BUSES, NO MASS TRANIST - in a city with a major state university. You should hear the students at UTA complain about this.
The story goes that Mass Transit equals poor people and Arlington doesn't want poor people, plus Vandergriff needed to sell cars.
That aside BN has fought long and hard to give up it's rightaways. Just drive from Oak Cliff thru Grand Prairie and Arlington to FW along HWY 180 and envision what that stretch of mostly deserted railway right-away could be
And then we have Perry and Co in Austin trying to steel land to give to foreign interests for tollroads.
People, stop being so narrow minded, look at Europe and Asia and get with the program - we HAVE to have more Mass transit.

Price of gasoline in UK is about $7/$8 a gallon. Pubic transport is awesome and plenty.
Price of gasoline in India is $4 per gallon ( A school teacher gets $300 per month salary). 90% people use public transport. The Bombay local trains for local commute carry 5 million commuters per DAY!!

Compared to the money that Americans make, $2.62 per gallon is cheap. Very cheap.
Time to decrease the federal income tax, property tax and double the prices of gasoline.

Justice Denied,

A better indicator of the success of mass transit is population density. India has 927.508 people per square mile of area. The UK has 659.608 people per square mile. The US has only 83.035 people per square mile. Additionally, most of our cities are more spread out the cities in Europe. Both of these factors add several orders of magnitude to the difficulty of developing mass transit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density

JR, you are wasting your time giving facts to America hating Eurotrash. They all just want to get on the shiney Choo-Choo twain. Driving themselves is a resposibility, so of course the gubmnet needs to take it over by offering mass transit!!! YYYAAAYYY, GUBMENT!!!!!!