Texas to Award Contract for Super-Train System : Transit: Two groups are in hot competition to build the first rapid rail project in the country.

As country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers once sang, Texas is “just waitin’ for a train.” But it’s a train that Rodgers, who died in 1933, could never have imagined.

The Texas High-Speed Rail Authority today will award a franchise to build the nation’s first super-train system, a $5-billion marvel of engineering and design that eventually will enable passengers to travel between five major Texas cities at speeds of up to 200 m.p.h.

It will “have a greater impact than air conditioning,” boasts former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, referring to an earlier innovation that many credit with making Texas a place tolerable to do business in.

The 590-mile rail network, which will whisk people from Dallas to Houston in an hour and a half, will be considerably faster than the 125-m.p.h. top speed of Amtrak’s Metroliner.

It is expected to begin operating in 1998. When complete, it will be within reach of two-thirds of the state’s population.

Although similar systems have been operating for 20 years in Japan, land of the “bullet train,” for 10 years in France and for somewhat less time in Germany, the Texas high-speed project will be the curtain raiser for the rapid rail industry in the United States. As a result, competition is intense.

In the running are two groups, one including the builders of the French system, the other the architects of a similar system in Germany.

U.S. firms quit building passenger train equipment years ago when transportation investment shifted to airlines and highways.

The group that includes the builders of the French Train Grand Vitesse (the fast train) appears to have the edge. Earlier this month, an examiner for the Texas High-Speed Rail Authority recommended awarding the franchise to the TGV group.

Managed by the giant construction firm Morrison Knudsen Corp., the Texas TGV partnership also includes the politically well-connected Ben Barnes.

The other group is made up of three Texas construction firms with strong political connections of their own--Brown & Root USA Inc. of Houston, HCB Contractors of Dallas and H. B. Zachary Co. of San Antonio--and three German train manufacturers.

Barnes is a former business partner of former Gov. John Connally, who is one of nine members of the High-Speed Rail Authority Board that will make the selection.

The Brown & Root firm, the rival of the Barnes group, has been a power in Texas politics since former President Lyndon B. Johnson went to Congress in the 1930s.

To get as far as it has, the rapid rail system has had to overcome a powerful opponent, Southwest Airlines, which serves the same routes as those planned for the fast train. Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher has fought the system every step of the way. He and his lobbyists worked to prevent the Legislature from establishing the High-Speed Rail Authority, which was finally approved in 1989.

After that, Southwest Airlines went to court to try to have the authority declared illegal under the state Constitution. That effort also failed.

Kelleher has called the train system a “backward somersault into the 19th Century” and questioned its financial feasibility, particularly its ability to operate without major subsidies.

Rail backers say that although Kelleher could not stop the project, he was instrumental in getting the state Legislature to prohibit the use of any state funds in the building of the system.

The Texas TGV group has said it can finance the project privately by issuing bonds or stock, but it would utilize any federal or local funds that might become available.

President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 1992 included $15.5 million for high-speed rail programs under the Federal Railroad Administration.

The two teams paid half a million dollars each just for the right to compete for the franchise.

“I think both of these consortiums from the outset have believed that the first project successfully put into place would be the industrial center for the high-speed rail industry in this country,” said Bob Neely, executive director of the Texas High-Speed Rail Authority.

Gil Carmichael, federal railroad administrator, said he expects rapid rail to take off in the next 10 to 15 years. “We’re right in the first phase of it. This Texas project could really trigger it. It could be the breakthrough,” said Carmichael, an avid supporter of rapid rail.

Only two other states, Florida and California, have gone beyond studying rapid rail, but in both states the projects have encountered financing problems. Financing is not yet assured for Texas rapid rail, either.

California had proposed a system linking Los Angeles and Las Vegas. High speeds will be attained in part by using mostly new road beds and rights of way unencumbered by dangerous traffic crossings.

Florida envisioned linking Orlando, Miami and Tampa.

Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder has asked the federal government to look into prospects for a high-speed train linking Richmond with Washington.

“I think the French are determined to be dominant in this high-speed technology, so they are going to make darned sure to get it financed,” said Carmichael of the Texas project.

In the long run, the system is expected to employ 1,800 workers and create thousands of jobs. It will pay $90 million in property taxes to 18 counties and $104 million annually in sales taxes, the TGV group asserts.

The technology will be electrically powered steel-wheel-on-rail, rather than “magnetic levitation” or “mag-lev,” a more exotic technology that has yet to be tried on a large scale. Mag-lev uses a technology in which the train floats above a guideway propelled by electromagnetism.

The Texas system will rely on basic railroading, but with substantial improvements. High speeds will be attained in part by using mostly new road beds and rights of way unencumbered by dangerous traffic crossings.

France’s TGV Atlantique train recently broke speed records by reaching 320 m.p.h.

The rails are protected by fences and electronic sensors to keep out intruders. The systems have operated in Japan and France without fatal accidents, Carmichael said.

Supporters say that the trains are much more fuel efficient than airplanes, which are especially inefficient on short hops-such as those between Dallas and Austin, which will be on the rapid rail line.