TEX Rail Set To Become Reality, But...

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COLLEYVILLE (CBS11) - The Fort Worth Transportation Authority has received the green light from the federal government to begin construction on TEX Rail, a 27-mile rail line from Downtown Fort Worth to DFW Airport.

The approval from the Federal Transit Administration allows the FWTA to spend about $500 million refundable to begin construction on the project.

The full cost is estimated around $1 billion.

While many municipalities are on board with TEX Rail, Chris Putnam, the Colleyville Mayor Pro Tem says he is very much against the plan that would bring the rail right through Colleyville.

"Where is the win? If it's not solving a traffic problem, if it's not taking cars of the road and not solving an environmental problem it is very unclear to what we are investing in," said Putnam.

He says city leaders passed a resolution against the plan and now they are exploring legal options to try and halt the construction of it.

Putnam added, "It's going to create noise problems, traffic problems with 60 plus trains coming through our community at 70 miles an hour a day."

Paul Ballard, the President and CEO of FWTA responded to the criticism with the following statement:

"The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted the TEX Rail construction phase by granting a Letter of No Prejudice to the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. This means that we will be able to break ground in July and stay on schedule to build everything we need for TEX Rail – stations, tracks, signals and bridges. Local and regional funds account for $497.5 million of our project. We anticipate having 8,000 daily riders by the end of the first year of service.

We have received overwhelming support for TEX Rail at the local, regional, state and federal levels. Colleyville officials also negotiated benefits for their community from the TEX Rail project, including fully paid improvements to their railroad crossings so that three quiet zones could be established in their city. TEX Rail will run through the existing corridor that has been in place long before the homes were built in that area."

Project administrators say they will begin construction within the next few weeks and have the line completed by 2018.

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