$600,000 study to examine Freeport-Rosenberg rail line
Plan would keep cargo containers off local freeways
Texas transportation officials Thursday approved $600,000 to study a rail line connecting Freeport and Rosenberg, which will need tens of millions of dollars and private investment to keep an anticipated flood of cargo containers from landing on Houston-area freeways.
“We trying to move the ball a little bit further down and we’re kind of on our own two-yard line at the moment,” said Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers, a backer of plans to upgrade road and rail connections to Freeport, about 60 miles south of Houston.
The money, $480,000 from federal funds aimed at state highway planning and another $120,000 from state development credits available to the Houston region, was approved by the Texas Transportation Commission.
Transportation commissioner Laura Ryan of Houston said if freight volumes increase at Freeport without rail improvements, the added cargo “will go right into our congested area.”
Area officials said the rail line and a plan to widen Texas 36 around Houston’s western edges to accommodate freight would have regional benefits by taking trucks off Texas 288, where they join the fray of travelers headed into some of Houston’s worst chokepoints.
Port growth
With the state commitment, the Brazoria-Fort Bend Rural Rail District — made up of local officials in the two counties — will hire a consultant to “analyze the economics, environmental opportunities, constraints, potential alignments, and preliminary costs,” according to the transportation commission.
The study would focus on development along a possible 65-mile rail line between the Port of Freeport and a proposed railway logistics facility near Rosenberg. The rail line is needed, officials said, to handle an anticipated surge in cargo coming into Freeport, especially from larger ships crossing from Asia via an expanded Panama Canal.
In a study prepared by the rail authority shortly after it was formed in January 2015, analysts estimated Freeport cargo volumes would increase from 1.1 million containers in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2035.
Internationally, signs already point to port growth. Tonnage of cargo shipped through the Panama Canal was up 22 percent in 2017, the largest increase in the canal’s 103-history, according to an analysis released Monday by Moody’s Analytics.
The canal’s expansion was driven by demand for larger ships, some carrying up to 12,000 TEUs, the 20foot containers used as the measure of shipping. Ships that large require channel depths of more than 50 feet, something only Freeport and Corpus Christi are allowed to accommodate.
Officials also have said Freeport would benefit from having rail competition, as it currently is served only by Union Pacific Railroad. The closest a competitor comes is the BNSF Railway hub in Rosenberg.
Meyers stressed that officials want to study the potential for rail improvements but would need a private company — a major or mid-level railroad company or other firms — to join them in planning and building the tracks.
“We just want to show it’s possible and beneficial,” Meyers said. “I can say the counties have no intention of building a rail line and running a rail line.”
New rail yard coming
As Houston grows along with port traffic in Freeport and the Port of Houston, elected officials said rail will take on greater importance, despite being ultimately built by private interests. On Monday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told the annual meeting of Transportation Advocacy Group-Houston Region that the private carriers will need encouragement and possibly support for major projects.
Railroads already are investing. On Thursday, Union Pacific announced the company started construction this month on a major rail yard near Hearne, a $550 million project that’s the largest in the railroad’s 155-year history.
It is expected to create between 500 and 550 construction jobs during two years of work.
When completed, Union Pacific said the yard could sort up to 1,300 railcars daily and employ 350, many in jobs that pay double the average salary in the Hearne area. The so-called Brazos Valley yard would relieve rail congestion in the Houston area by allowing many trains to flow through the region and then redistribute railcars to various routes in Hearne.