Potential Development of an Intercity Passenger Transit System in Texas – Report on Tasks 1-5

This report summarizes the results of Tasks 1 through 5 of Texas Department of Transportation Research Project 0-5930: Potential Development of an Intercity Passenger Transit System in Texas. Rather than focus on any regional commuter or light rail systems within or radiating from individual urban areas, this project aims to determine which longer intercity and interregional corridors are most likely to need additional intercity travel capacity in the coming decades. Using these tools, the state of Texas could determine in which corridors to most appropriately invest its resources to connect different regions of the state to create an interregional, statewide transit system. The underlying analysis is based upon several factors related to: current and future population and demographic projections along 18 intercity corridors in the state; projected future demand based upon forecasts by the Texas State Demographer and other state agencies; and current network capacity and routes for intercity highway, bus, air, and rail travel. The concept plan produced in Task 5 will be further explored in the remaining months of the project to determine potential costs and benefits of implementing the concept plan or individual components.