Going off the Rails

A proposed line into the Bayport Industrial District has residents from Clear Lake to the East End vowing to stop the "toxic train" in its tracks

A A A Comments By John Suval Thursday, Apr 18 2002

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Even as the railroad heavyweights slug it out, the San Jacinto partnership continues to gun for its new track, undeterred by the public outcry, according to San Jacinto spokesman Henry de La Garza. The ball is now in the Surface Transportation Board's court. Residents looking for the two-member board to save the day may well be disappointed. Of the 30 construction cases the agency has ruled on in the last ten years, it has denied only one application outright, says Dana White. In other cases, an applicant was not granted its first choice of routes, but got to build an alternative.

Speaking from her Washington, D.C., office, White seems genuinely taken aback by the intense opposition to the San Jacinto rail. She urges a reporter to talk to the project's supporters. When asked which supporters specifically, she answers, "The chemical companies who employ a good many people in the area."

Deron Neblett

Rincon: Residents are tired of being "held hostage" by train blockages.

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The Surface Transportation Board will complete the environmental analysis over an unspecified period of time, she says, and then make a ruling on the San Jacinto proposal.

Meanwhile, the resistance continues to grow.

"It's going to cost them a lot more than $80 million," vows state Representative Rick Noriega, D-Houston. "We're going to fight it."

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