Spurred by Monday's train derailment, which spilled thousands of gallons of fuel into the San Antonio River and left three men injured, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said he is interested in jumpstarting talks to reroute potentially dangerous rail traffic away from neighborhoods.
"This was as close as you could get from a huge tragedy," Wolff said. "This week highlighted the fact there needs to be a push to make these plans happen."
But Bexar County Rail District members Wednesday said although there has been some talks with Union Pacific as recently as January, there really isn't a concrete plan in the works.
"We met with some of their supervisors and told them our concerns. We haven't really had any more feedback from them," board member Connie English Jr. said. "We're far off from anything."
Among some of the board's initial ideas are doing away with a portion of the track that runs adjacent to Bexar County Jail and rerouting the line that slices between the Alamodome and its parking lot and past residential neighborhoods.
Monday's derailment, which occurred near Brackenridge High School and injured three men, caused a 5,600-gallon diesel spill along the San Antonio River. Four of the train's rail cars that did not derail were carrying highly explosive propane.
A rerouting of hazardous cargo would be welcome news to Maria Coronado, who for the past three years has lived next to the Union Pacific tracks that run adjacent to her Florida Street home on the East Side.
Although Monday's accident was about two miles away, she said it was a chilling reminder that her home is in the path of a potential disaster.
"Oh my God! After I saw that, I told my husband we have to move. We can't live like this," Coronado said Wednesday afternoon, moments before a 99-boxcar train zoomed by the two-bedroom home she rents for $450 a month.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said his company has been reviewing rerouting plans they received late last year from the Texas Department of Transportation. That plan would involve changing several lines in San Antonio, including the East Side segment.
But he acknowledged the changes wouldn't be happening anytime soon, if at all.
"We're in the initial review stages and there's really no timeline. We're studying it," Davis said.
He added that new lines are pricey propositions, costing in excess of $1 million a mile.
Wolff said, "That's one of the questions that need to be looked at: Could we join the city in some sort of partnership with Union Pacific? And if so, what's it going to cost?"
David Newman, the city's environmental services manager, said that, by coincidence, he was talking to several residents last week about some of the concerns posed by the tracks near downtown and agreed it's an issue that needs to be closely examined.
One of those residents was East Side community activist David Arevalo, who said he's been pestering local leaders to pursue a rerouting plan for several years.
"Could you imagine what would've happened by the Alamodome during the Final Four?" he said.
He plans to hold a community meeting next week to discuss the issue.
"This is something that we've been worried about for years, and it's time to get serious about it."
