1. 3/19/2016 Finding Land For Boom In Freight Trains | StateImpact Texas
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SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 | 11:36 AM
BY DAVE FEHLING
Maria Burns is director of the Logistics
and Transportation Center at the
University of Houston
DAVE FEHLING
Union Pacific freight car in Mumford, Texas
Finding Land For Boom In Freight Trains
A growing Texas economy means thousands more
rail cars are needed to keep up with the increasing
flow of oil, petrochemicals and other goods. But the
challenge is to find a suitable place to build huge rail
yards that can cover hundreds of acres and handle
thousands of rail cars a day.
Since 2009, one rail line reports a 35 percent
increase in the number of rail cars “terminating” their
trip in Texas.
“You’re talking a massive increase in movement
that’s really poised to increase a lot in the next five
years particularly with what’s happening in South
Texas and West Texas,” said Ken Medlock, an
energy economist at Rice University’s Baker
Institute.
South and West Texas is where the oil is and tank cars by the thousands are moving it
to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.
But it’s not just oil. There’s also a big expansion of chemical and other manufacturing
along the coast, plus more goods are moving through ports in Beaumont, Houston, and
Corpus Christi.
Maria Burns is a transportation expert at the University of Houston. She shows a
reporter a map of Texas marked with a web of rail lines and highways that converge in
clusters.
“So these form a cluster. One of these clusters is right in between Austin, Houston and
San Antonio and another cluster is somewhere between Houston and Dallas. Right
where Bryan­College Station is located,” Burns said.
And that’s why just northwest of Bryan­
College Station, one of the nation’s
biggest railroad companies, Union Pacific,
may be looking to locate a huge, new rail
yard. Union Pacific wouldn’t tell News
88.7 its exact plan, only saying that it’s
exploring such a project.
But talk to some of the farmers here in the
tiny town of Mumford, and they’ll tell you
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2. 3/19/2016 Finding Land For Boom In Freight Trains | StateImpact Texas
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Rail Yard
the rail company has been trying to buy
land, land they say is some of the most fertile anywhere and that has been farmed by
their families for generations.
“This is nothing short of a tragedy. It’s going to take out of production and it is going to
destroy — literally going to destroy — some of the most valuable farm land in the
country,” said Kathy Hubbard, one of those farm family descendants. Another is Frank
DeStefano.
“We don’t think just for ourselves, we think for our offspring, our families, this is not just
about us,” said DeStefano.
They say they want the land to be passed down, not sold off. But land for a new rail
yard will likely have to be found somewhere near here. Union Pacific says it needs the
yard for sorting and assembling trains which it says in the long run will be a positive for
communities.
“These projects would also improve our efficiency, which could allow for positive public
impacts as our trains run more freely.,” wrote Jeff DeGraff, media relations for Union
Pacific, in an email to News 88.7.
The farm families in Mumford said they’ve learned that they can do little to stop the rail
expansion and are now appealing to state and local elected officials.
“We’re not stopping, we’re not quitting our fight, it’s not over, we’re going fight to the
end,” said Kathy Hubbard.
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