During the first half of the 20th century in the U.S., trains were the most popular, most efficient means of long-distance travel. Cars weren't reliable enough, and airplanes were just being invented, perfected and mass produced. Trains offered a stable system of transport over long distances, and far-off cities and towns are more commonly found in the U.S. than in Europe, where trains remain popular today.
Texas is the largest state out of the "lower 48," with four major cities within its 268,581 square mile area -- with Dallas and Houston being the largest. Although Amtrak still operates passenger trains here, I get the feeling their slow routes from Florida to California are still in place for train enthusiasts, and to meet the old government mandate. The cost of taking a day-long train trip from Houston to Los Angeles costs just as much as a plane ticket. However, airline companies have been in a general decline in the last decade, and increasingly higher fuel costs and security measures some passengers consider ridiculous have made it difficult for them to maintain the overextended networks they've built nationwide since the 1960s. Travel by automobile has always been an option for everyone with a reliable car and a solid gasoline budget. As fuel efficiency slowly improves and electric cars are finally introduced, automobile travel might be less painless in the future for those of us who like to frequent nearby cities and towns, but when will that be? Ten years? Twenty? Houston itself is a microcosm of Texas in terms of transportation. Houston has largest metropolitan area in the state at 601.3 square miles, one third of the area of the surrounding county, and the fourth largest in the U.S., but it lacks a rail-based mass transit system. Many suburban residents commute 80 miles a day by car to work. Why?
In the last two years, the Obama Administration has cited infrastructure and rail projects as one of its high-priority focal points, aside from the obvious national economic recovery and the resolution of foreign entanglements. While some would see these investment as a waste of money, others would see it as a much overdue update of infrastructure in the U.S. I recently was at a relative's house looking at historical photos from Houston's history in a 2005 calendar, and I found something that looked out of place: a streamlined locomotive engine known as the Texas Rocket. The caption stated it ran from Houston to Dallas in the late 1930s. Although I had a feeling it might have only been used by the richest of citizens during that rough era, I still found it to be interesting, so I researched a little and found some useful stuff about this disused form of transportation (in Texas, that is) which hopefully could be one people should start using again.
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| Grand Central Station opened in 1934 (Texas Room, HMRC, HLC) |
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| Union Station, Texas Ave. at Crawford St. (Gulf Coast Chaper, NRHS) |
As stated in the above color postcard, Union Station was the largest passenger train terminal in the southwest, while also providing railcar service to Galveston along the Houston-Galveston Interurban route, which took 75 minutes in 1911 at speeds over 55 miles per hour. It's now restored and part of Minute Maid Park. Grand Central Station, pictured above, was completed in its newest form in 1934. It stood at 401 Franklin Street along Buffalo Bayou where the current US Post Office is located.
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| Sunbeam, August 1928 - nonstop service to New Orleans (HMRC, HPL) |
Streamliners came to Texas in the 1930s courtesy of the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad and the Budd Company. These great-looking, stylized locomotives presented a look of modern progress and futurism. The Sam Houston Zephyr (directly below) ran from October 1, 1936 to 1966, from Houston to Dallas along with the Texas Rocket (below). The trip took "exactly five hours," with four stops along the way. A typical trip to from Houston to Dallas by car usually takes around 4-5 hours, depending on traffic conditions. Streamliners sometimes used a petroleum distillate, but most used the same diesel-electric combination drive still used today. Trains like the Texas Eagle ran from Union Station in Houston to St. Louis in roughly 16 hours overnight.
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| Sam Houston Zephyr, leaving Union Station, Oct. 1952 (Charles C. Kiefner, George C. Werner Collection) |
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| The Texas Rocket (TRHM) |
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| Missouri Pacific Texas Eagle Train, with Houston skyline in background , 1948 (Phil Whitley/NRHS) |
Amtrak has one line, the Sunset Limited, running through Houston. It runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles. I've lived in the Houston area my old life (I'm over 30), mostly in the suburbs, but with frequent trips to and through the downtown area and car trips to cities and towns throughout the state and to bordering states, and I've never seen a passenger train in Texas.
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| Sunset Limited in Houston, Feb. 1978 (railpixs.com) |
Aside from slowly updating light rail service in the Houston area (only one line is running as of today), the Metropolitan Transit Authority has plans to build the Houston Intermodel Transit Center (below) at the north end of the Red light rail line near UH Downtown. Designed by EE&K Architects, the plaza promises to be the main transportation hub for Houston, bringing together rail, light rail, and bus activity, and will replace the current small, disused Amtrak station. Maybe one day soon Houston can actually be a modern city, and begin to compare with its counterparts up North.
Addendum (2/15/11): While researching further, I found the April 1959 train schedule below.
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| (trainweather.com) |
It's pretty sad when small towns like Teague and Waxahachie once had such easy access to cities like Dallas and Houston, and at such regular and reliable intervals, only have it replaced by less efficient modes of transportation. What's also sad is that while writing this, I found out Houston had a real train station, and that it's now part of the baseball stadium. I drive down Texas Street every day on my way home -- right by where trains used to come in, and I don't remember what that area looked like before the stadium was built. At least they didn't demolish it.
Sources:
Rails Around Houston, Douglas L. Weiskopf
Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon By Mike Schafer, Joe Welsh
"Buffalo Bayou, An Echo of Houston's Wilderness Beginnings," Louis F. Aulbach (http://www.epperts.com/lfa/BB67.html)
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