AND THEY SAID THIS WOULD BE A THING OF THE PAST

By Juan Montoya

Remember when everyone from U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, Cameron County Judge Gilbert Hinojosa and City of Brownsville and Port of Brownsville officials said pictures like that on the right would be a thing of the past if we would only go along with their rail relocation plans?

The city feel hook-line-and-sinker for the plan and agreed to transfer $875,000 in federal funds that had been allocated for the Sixth and Seventh Street overpasses in an earlier rail relocation plan.

The overpasses would have kept neighborhoods like La Muralla and the traffic from Amigoland Mall from being bottled up when trains came in from Mexico or went there south from Brownsville. City officials had been planning these structures for years.

Instead, they listened to Ortiz and Hinojosa and put all their eggs in the railroad relocation plan that would switch all rail lines west of the city to the county's new proposed international bridge by San Pedro, about eight miles west of the "Old" B&M Bridge.

If the city had not listened to their siren song, the overpasses on Sixth and Seventh streets would have already been built and scenes like this would have been a thing of the past.

Ortiz and other officials convinced then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to transfer the funds and support the West Rail relocation plan.

Opponents like Hinojosa feared damaging traffic in the historic St. Charles Street area, one of the oldest neighborhoods in town. Hinojosa, by the way, owned a historic home in the neighborhood and opposed the overpass.

Supporters said the bridge would give access to the Amigoland Mall area and cited both safety and economic reasons. After twisting a few arms, Hinojosa had his way and the West Rail Relocation plan was born.

The proposal, which was spearheaded by the county, calls for tracks to continue southwest after passing the Expressway.

County and city officials and their counterparts in Matamoros proposed to move Union Pacific railway operations from Brownsville and Matamoros to west of the cities.

They proposed then to replace the rail portion of the B&M bridge with a new one about eight miles west of the city. Additionally, a West Loop would be developed within a corridor of railroad rights-of-way from the Amigoland Mall area to Olmito that Union Pacific would sell to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The rail relocation project eliminates the need for the Sixth and Seventh Street overpasses, Hinojosa argued then.

However, for drivers south of the railroad lines (specifically residents of La Muralla neighborhood), the relocation plan would make the overpasses unnecessary and drivers continue to wait for the trains — and any movement on the rail relocation plan.