Expanded passenger rail again on the table
A huge pot of federal rail funding and chronic highway congestion are prompting some Texas officials to again consider expanding passenger rail in Texas, according to The Texas Standard.
Congress set aside $66 billion three years ago in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for rail projects across the country, sparking some interest in increasing passenger rail service between the state’s major cities.
“It’s like the perfect storm forming, because 20 years ago if we talked about passenger rail in Texas, it would fall on deaf ears,” Peter LeCody of the Texas Rail Advocates said.
The state’s population is projected to increase from 30 million now to 47 million by 2050, sparking concerns of increased dependence on cars and more road congestion.
A plan to build a high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston with speeds of more than 200 miles per hour is back on the drawing board after Amtrak shelved it due to difficulty acquiring land and leadership issues, The Tribune reported.
The Texas Central route has acquired about 30% of the land needed to build the Dallas-Houston line, which is expected to require more than $30 billion in financing from governmental and private sources. A number of private landowners remain steadfastly opposed to giving up their land for the proposed line.
Uvalde school officer pleads not guilty
A former Uvalde school police officer pleaded not guilty last week to charges of failing to protect children killed and wounded in the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Adrian Gonzales is one of two officers who have been indicted after the slow response to the shooter by nearly 400 law enforcement personnel, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo were indicted by a Uvalde grand jury in June. Arredondo pleaded not guilty on July 10.
“Mr. Gonzales’ position is he did not violate school district policy or state law,” the former district attorney for Bexar County Nico LaHood said. LaHood is representing Gonzales.
The May 22, 2022, attack was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Gonzales, one of the first officers to arrive, was indicted on 29 charges of not confronting the shooter, even after hearing gunshots while standing in a school hallway.
Inmate phone fees to be slashed across state
Fees that Texas inmates pay to make phone calls will be cut drastically under new federal regulations to take place next year, The Tribune reported.
The Federal Communications Commission voted last week to cap the price of inmate phone calls and video calls as low as 5 cents per minute. Right now, rates across Texas prisons and jails average 23 cents a minute.
Sixty percent of the revenue from these calls goes to the contractor, with the rest going to the state.
“The FCC’s order is a massive victory for incarcerated people, their families and their allies who have spent decades fighting the exploitative prison telecom industry,” the Prison Policy Initiative wrote in a statement.
CenterPoint CEO apologizes for Beryl outages
The head of CenterPoint Energy publicly apologized for failing to quickly respond to massive outages caused by Hurricane Beryl, The News reported.
Jason Wells told the Public Utility Commission last week that he took “personal accountability” for the outages, which affected hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the coastal region.
At least 36 people died because of the hurricane. Many of the deaths were attributed to heat.
“While we cannot erase the frustrations or difficulties so many of our customers endured, I, and my entire leadership team, will not make excuses,” Wells added. “We will improve and act with a sense of urgency.”
At its peak, about 2.26 million CenterPoint customers were without power. Damage from the storm is estimated at $4.6 billion. The company is seeking permission to harden its wire system, with the costs to be passed along to its ratepayers.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: [email protected].