by seacoast
I was hoping that someone could explain to me the traffic, ownership, and issues around the Marathon-Alpine-Marfa area of Texas.
My understanding is that most of this track is owned by the state of Texas as part of the defunct South Orient, that this line is enjoying
a resurgence based around fracking and trade with Mexico. And from the map below, it appears that much of the area around Alpine is
owned by ?Union Pacific. Alpine is also a place where crews switch, making it a fairly busy place.
I also see that unlike Marathon, neither Marfa, nor Alpine, have quiet zones... is this going to be an issue in the coming years? I see projections
of significantly increasing traffic along the route, which presumably would be causing quite a racket... and many towns across Texas have recently
implemented quiet zones (presumably with some mixture of local, state, and federal funds).
Your thought about this area of track would be much appreciated.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-in ... nt/map.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
My understanding is that most of this track is owned by the state of Texas as part of the defunct South Orient, that this line is enjoying
a resurgence based around fracking and trade with Mexico. And from the map below, it appears that much of the area around Alpine is
owned by ?Union Pacific. Alpine is also a place where crews switch, making it a fairly busy place.
I also see that unlike Marathon, neither Marfa, nor Alpine, have quiet zones... is this going to be an issue in the coming years? I see projections
of significantly increasing traffic along the route, which presumably would be causing quite a racket... and many towns across Texas have recently
implemented quiet zones (presumably with some mixture of local, state, and federal funds).
Your thought about this area of track would be much appreciated.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-in ... nt/map.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;