The state was to send its package by midnight to get as much as $8 billion for Texas from the federal dollars set aside to build infrastructure across the country, Karen Amacker of the Texas Department of Transportation, said.
The proposal is actually a pre-application to the Federal Rail Administration. Final grant requests are due in August, she said.
“Some of us have to look at the future of Texas, which is growing,” Jones said, “and not just at today.”
Earlier, Jones had worried aloud about whether Texas would have enough information ready by Friday to make a good case for the Texas T-Bone, which would tie together Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, with the possibility the southeast-bound line to Houston would link up in Temple.
Jones said that members of the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corp. assisted TxDOT officials in the preparation of the pre-application materials.
Amacker said Friday she could not confirm whether the Texas T-Bone was part of the overall state proposal. But, she said TxDOT did meet with the T-Bone alliance, which includes cities, counties and private-sector partners.
The list of projects will be available Monday, she said.
Since so many areas of Texas are clamoring for highway stimulus funds, TxDOT has had to take a neutral approach to its recommendations, Jones said.
That means the plan may not specifically identify Temple as the linking hub. Other proposals put forward in the past have mentioned Killeen as the spot.
“I’ve got no problem with that,” Jones said. He noted, however, that when high-speed rail was originally proposed for Texas two decades ago, the plan was for about 700 miles of line. The Texas T-Bone would take about one-half that, so the infrastructure value would be an asset to be considered.
Amacker said the government is asking for pre-applications just to get a feel for what the states might seek when actual plans are sent later in the summer.
The $8 billion would not be enough to build all the rail projects in the works across the nation, but would be a down payment of sorts, she said.
Last April, President Obama announced his “Vision for High-Speed Rail” and issued detailed application requirements for those seeking money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Department of Transportation appropriations acts.
“Hooray for President Obama,” Jones said, “and you won’t hear me say that very much. But, he got this right. We do need a greener, more efficient transit system in this country.”
In addition to the stimulus funding, the Texas T-Bone project is drawing support from U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. They have requested about $1 billion through regular appropriations channels for the T-Bone.
