City supports regional light rail proposal

Citing rising fuel costs, a united City Commission is backing passenger rail service to link Laredo, San Antonio and the lower Rio Grande Valley at the behest of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

LULAC terms the initiative as an effort, "to unite people."

"It's very expensive to commute," Brownsville Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. recently told commissioners, touting rail as an alternative to auto, air and bus transportation.

This also comes in the wake of the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of House Resolution 6003, The Passenger Rail Improvement Act of 2008 earlier this month, including an amendment that U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, promoted, mandating a feasibility study to expand high-speed rail to South Texas, Cuellar recently announced.

Pushing for the return of passenger rail service to the Rio Grande Valley that stopped on March 15, 1966, according to The Brownsville Herald archives, Ahumada presented a resolution to commissioners last week.

The resolution that LULAC's Council No. 2 requested notes that the "South Texas region is underserved in the area of public transportation and needs a transportation network that connects South Texas' major cities to each other by linking them through a passenger rail system ..."

The resolution points out that Amtrak now provides passenger rail service between Dallas and Oklahoma City, "demonstrating that they understand short-range commuter rail service in Texas."

The City Commission is urging Amtrak to create a southern triangle of convenient, affordable and timely service in South Texas.

The city followed LULAC's lead, which has been lobbying for service to the Rio Grande Valley for at least a year. They've started a letter campaign to state and national elected officials and transportation leaders.

"Over the past year many people have called our office to ask why we do not have passenger rail service in the South Texas area. With gas prices what they are, it seems appropriate that we visit the question and see what we can do to make it possible," LULAC's passenger rail committee chairman Fred E. Diaz wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters on June 13.

Diaz wrote Peters that the road to Laredo is jammed with more than 20,000 trucks a day. "It is not safe to drive by car, and the buses are packed. An improvement is necessary," Diaz wrote.

He also pointed out that the road to Brownsville is almost as dangerous and very tiring. "The ridership is there. We need to have a change," Diaz said.