Comments and map from the ARK-LA-TEX Rail Summit held in Marshall, Texas on May 9, 2009.

The rail summit brought together leaders from the three states including the stake holders from the arena of the private citizen to the elected local and state representatives.    There are in excess of 8 million people living in the I-20, Us-59 corridors from Dallas/Fort Worth to the Arkansas and Louisiana border connections.

The map shows the Gulf Coast High Speed Corridor (Gray Line) linking New Orleans to Houston.   The bold green line is the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor.   The broken green line from Little Rock to Memphis (149 miles) is the latest addition to the corridor which was added at the request of the East Texas Corridor Council to Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry who included it in the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act signed into law by President Bush in October 2008.

The Bold Blue Line shows the route from Marshall to Shreveport and on to Vicksburg via the Meridian Speedway.    This is the route that would allow direct access from Texas to the east coast via Atlanta and Washington D.C.    This connection was proposed several years ago by the almost started Crescent Star service from the D/FW area to Meridian, MS.

A significant event concluded the summit in that an additional memorandum of understanding was signed with the North East Louisiana COG which now ties support for passenger rail development from the D/FW Metroplex north to Little Rock and now east to Vicksburg.