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AUSTIN — Callie Forsythe and her mother, Kristin Forsythe, were looking forward to Franklin Barbecue’s famed beef brisket last Sunday. But Amtrak got in the way.
The once-a-day Texas Eagle train left San Antonio on time at 7 a.m. However, it took four and a half hours to get to Austin instead of the scheduled two hours and 23 minutes.
The 11:30 arrival meant it was too late for the Forsythes to get in line at Franklin Barbecue, which usually runs out of brisket by the early afternoon.
The restaurant is closed Monday. Nevertheless, the mother and daughter from Cincinnati — San Antonio was their primary vacation spot — still enjoyed Austin on the second day of their visit. They found several good coffeehouses and brew pubs.
By Monday evening, they were ready to get aboard the Eagle for their return trip to San Antonio. But their two-hour delay on Sunday morning now seemed like no big deal — the return train was more than five hours late.
The scheduled 6:30 p.m. departure time kept changing, the delay growing longer with each update. The Texas Eagle finally arrived in Austin at 11:20 p.m. It departed the station at 11:40.
“We had a good time in Austin,” Kristin Forsythe said. “We just wish the train wasn’t so late.”
The southbound Texas Eagle arrived in San Antonio at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
People board Amtrak’s northbound Texas Eagle, which runs from San Antonio to Chicago, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021 in Austin.
William Luther, Staff / Staff
Amtrak schedules allow an extra hour or so for the trip — in case the train’s delayed after leaving Austin. On this night, the train took almost three hours to get to San Antonio, beating its scheduled three and a half-hour time.
Last year, the Texas Eagle was only on time — within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival — 48 percent of the time, according to Amtrak data.
More trains ahead?
While the train between San Antonio and Austin isn’t often on time, that could improve, and the frequency could increase, under President Joe Biden’s $1.1-billion infrastructure plan — maybe.
The U.S. Senate’s approval Tuesday of the plan would pump $66 billion into Amtrak, the federally subsidized corporation that runs passenger train service in America. It would be an unheard-of windfall for the neglected intercity rail system whose current subsidy is $3 billion.
The once-daily Texas Eagle that goes from San Antonio to Austin and on to Chicago would be retained but two more daily trains would be launched between San Antonio and Fort Worth or Dallas, each with a stop in Austin.
Service between San Antonio and Houston would also be increased from three times a week to three times a day.
The House of Representatives still must approve the plan.
The bill approved by the Senate, however, does not address a big issue for Texas passenger rail. Amtrak says railroads like Union Pacific, which own the tracks between San Antonio and Austin, are not fully complying with federal law, which gives passenger trains priority over freight trains.
Train tracks are seen out the window of the last car on Amtrak’s northbound Texas Eagle, which runs from San Antonio to Chicago, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.
William Luther, Staff / Staff
In an Amtrak report card for 2020, UP got the fifth-lowest score of the six major railroads Amtrak relies on to run its trains. UP got a B-minus score, or 2.7 on a scale of five.
A UP spokeswoman said the railroad is cooperating with Amtrak to improve its service, including “working to update the schedule on this line, a schedule that hasn’t been updated for several decades.”
“We are looking at the route and we are looking for ways to improve the schedule that will work for the customers as well as Amtrak and Union Pacific,” the spokeswoman said, referring to the San Antonio-Austin line.
Beyond that, there’s an even bigger obstacle to achieving Amtrak’s vision for more frequent train service in Texas: the state legislature.
Under the infrastructure plan, the federal government would cover 90 percent of the operating costs in the first year of operation of new Texas trains and others nationwide. But by year six, Texas would have to pay 70 percent of the operating cost.
Over the past decade, however, the legislature has refused to appropriate funds necessary to capture even a sliver of the $19 billion the federal government has made available to states for passenger and freight rail service.
“This is an auto-oriented state,” said Peter Espy, director of rail at the Texas Department of Transportation.
His department has no dedicated funds for rail service, so it would depend on the Legislature for such funding. What does that mean for the possibility of additional Amtrak trains if the infrastructure bill passes Congress? “Until we’re directed to do it and funding is provided,” Espy said, “I don’t see anything happening along those lines.”
Rail advocate Peter LeCody, president of Texas Rail Advocates, offered this assessment of TxDOT: “It’s a highway department.”
The department’s current budget allocates about $7 billion for highway construction and renovation.
What passengers see
Callie and Kristin Forsythe said they’d met a lot of train buffs and elderly, retired passengers on their two-and-a-half-week train journey across America — mostly people who don’t need to worry about getting somewhere on time.
Their fellow passengers were friendly, they said, and they were particularly impressed with service in California, where conductors were upbeat and buses met the trains at stops to facilitate local sightseeing.
In Texas, though, things were different. The Forsythes wondered why no city buses in San Antonio or Austin connected with the Amtrak trains. Or why the Uber driver who took them to the Austin train station after a day of sightseeing didn’t know there was an Amtrak station in the city.
“He said he has never taken anyone to the train station,” Kristin Forsythe said.
She saw a missed tourism opportunity for San Antonio and Austin.
“You would think they would offer tours from the stations to local wineries or attractions,” she said.
Kristin Forsythe said she understood why Amtrak personnel in Texas seemed less lighthearted than elsewhere. As she spoke, a man walked repeatedly in and out of the one-room Austin Amtrak station to scream at ticket agents about the train being late.
It’s little wonder the nerves of Amtrak workers might be frayed, she said.
Tracks an issue
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the Texas Eagle is more often late leaving Chicago and heading south than it is heading the other direction from San Antonio.
The total travel time between Chicago and San Antonio is 20 hours and 10 minutes — assuming the train is on time. He said the Texas Eagle operates on the tracks of five different railroad companies, creating more potential for delay.
Even if the Texas Eagle is on time, the 7 a.m. train takes two hours and 23 minutes to get from San Antonio to Austin, about an hour longer than the typical driving time.
While riding the train can be more relaxing than driving on a congested I-35, transportation consultants say no one is going to give up their car without more frequent service that arrives in Austin at least as quickly as vehicles.
“Why would anyone take a train that takes two and a half hours to go from San Antonio to Austin?” asked Dallas-based transportation consultant Karl Ziebarth.
He said more frequent and faster service could help get people out of their cars and out of the often bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-35 between San Antonio and Austin.
Last Monday, the 7 a.m Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Austin did not have any delays, arriving on time on Austin at 9:23 a.m. But progress was erratic, with the train stopping and starting multiple times.
A Union Pacific spokeswoman said the maximum speed between San Antonio and Austin is 70 mph. “There are over 25 specific locations, however, where the speed limit is much lower due to curvature and other environmental/safety issues,” company spokeswoman Robynn Tysver said.
A train trip between San Antonio and Dallas takes about seven hours, three more than by car.
That won’t change anytime soon.
“We have no need for higher speed limits on any of our lines in Texas,” Tysver said. “Furthermore, no passenger agency has proposed funding a speed limit upgrade either.”
Other states’ examples
Other states have worked with Amtrak to provide better train service between cities.
Wisconsin, for example, currently contributes $5.2 million and Illinois gives $1.6 million for train service between Chicago and Milwaukee.
The train runs seven times a day on the 92-mile route, which is 12 miles longer than the route between San Antonio and Austin. Last year, 403,112 riders used the service. The number of passengers had been steadily growing until the COVID-19 pandemic.
New rail cars for the trains, scheduled to be delivered next year, are owned by the state of Wisconsin. But the state didn’t have to pony up any money from its regular budget for the cars; the Federal Railway Administration awarded $25.7 million to Wisconsin.
Texas state Rep. Leo Pacheco, an advocate of rail service between San Antonio and Austin, said he doubts there will be expanded train service between the two cities anytime soon. The Democratic House member from San Antonio said some of his colleagues are too focused on highway funding.
Pacheco understands why so few use the train between San Antonio and Austin.
“It’s not convenient or reliable,” he said. “Someone can bike faster from Austin to San Antonio.”
Amtrak data shows 29,135 passengers departed from or arrived at the San Antonio train station on the near East Side in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2020. The previous year, before COVID-19 reduced the number of passengers, the San Antonio station saw 50,272 passengers passed through the station.
Those numbers includes passengers taking the Texas Eagle and the Southwest Limited, which runs east from San Antonio to New Orleans with a stop in Houston and west to El Paso and ultimately to Los Angeles.
Good deal, long wait
Mike and Julia, a couple from Washington, D.C., got off the train in Austin Monday morning who declined to give their last names. They had toured the Alamo and River Walk during their first two days in San Antonio and decided to take a day trip to Austin to see the state Capitol building and other attractions.
The couple, who declined to give their last names, said they didn’t mind the train’s slow speed and liked the fact there was plenty of legroom and that the seats reclined.
But 14 hours later was a different story. Waiting for a train that was now five hours late, they said they wished they were back in their hotel in San Antonio.
The $33 dollar Amtrak round trip was a good deal, and they’d had a good time in Austin. Still, enough was enough.
“This is a long wait,” Mike said.
The 15 people in the Austin Amtrak station had their choice of soda, water or cookies from two vending machines while they waited for the train to San Antonio. But the nearest restaurant is more than a half-mile away. And when the train finally arrived, the cafe car — with its candy bars and Hebrew National hot dogs — was already closed.
Long an issue
The issue of regular train service between San Antonio and Austin has been in play for at least two decades. Various plans have been considered, with proposals ranging from high-speed rail to conventional trains.
In 2016, a 13-year effort to start regular commuter service between San Antonio and Austin was scrapped and the so-called Lone Star Rail District was dissolved.
Tracks again were the major issue: Union Pacific said it couldn’t accommodate regular commuter trains on its freight line between San Antonio and Austin — meaning an expenditure of at least $60 million would be required to build new commuter tracks.
Since then, Espy said, transportation officials have had little appetite to renew efforts for regional rail between the cities.
The new federal funds in the infrastructure bill could give Texas another chance for improved rail service between San Antonio, Austin and other cities, said LeCody, the rail advocate.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.
But it’s one Texas may miss, said Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of policy and government affairs at the Rail Passengers Association in Washington, D.C.
Competition will be intense among states for new Amtrak routes under the infrastructure bill, he said. States such as North Carolina and Virginia are already lining up for routes and are willing to put up state money as matching funds.
State funding seems unlikely in Texas.
“Unless you find state support, it’s likely going to stall,” Jeans-Gail said.
He said states also may be asked to help pay portions of capital expenses for new trains for expansions, in addition to operating costs. That’s a bad omen for states like Texas that are already reluctant to commit funds for rail.
For now, the only thing certain is the one daily train between San Antonio and Austin — and its erratic schedule.
Callie and Kristin Forsythe got back to their San Antonio hotel near 3 a.m. Tuesday. They had only an hour or two of sleep before they were up for the 6:30 a.m. departure to New Orleans on the Southwest Chief.
Despite the challenges, they said they were enjoying their train vacation. And while the ride between San Antonio and Austin wasn’t the most scenic, Callie Forsythe said looking out the train window is always interesting.
“You don’t normally get to see people’s backyards, these fields, these countless interesting junkyards, lumber yards, tires or boats, or different kinds of cars,” she said. “You never get that driving on the highway or taking a plane. It’s a very different perspective of the U.S.”
randy.diamond@express-news.net
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