Amtrak and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) have agreed on the scope of a feasibility study for new Amtrak service between the Bossier City – Shreveport area in Northwest Louisiana and along the Interstate 20 (I-20) corridor to Dallas and Fort Worth.
Members of the East Texas Corridor Council (ETCC) were joined by TxDOT and Amtrak officials recently to formally recognize the start of work to study new service by conventional trains with a maximum speed of 79 mph.
The report by Amtrak will estimate order-of-magnitude capital requirements and operating costs needed to provide state-sponsored passenger rail service, with trains making up to seven intermediate stops and operating up to two daily round-trips.
The study will consider factors such as potential schedules, train operating costs, revenue and ridership, railcar and locomotive requirements, and capital needs for route infrastructure improvements to accommodate new passenger service.
Rail capacity modeling will be performed by Union Pacific Railroad, which owns much of the route.
The rail segment between Marshall, Texas, and Fort Worth is served now by the popular Amtrak Texas Eagle, as part of its Chicago-San Antonio/Los Angeles route with one daily frequency in each direction and intermediate stops in Longview, Mineola and Dallas.
