You’re on Winter Street, in the old First Ward, and a 1.5 mile long conundrum is rolling by.

This is the most efficient form of land transport we have. It’s a train, 150 cars each filled with 120 tons of Wyoming coal, pulled by five 4,400 computer-controlled locomotives with a crew of 2. It carries as much as 500 trucks, enough to supply electricity to 3000 people for a year.

Yet it’s running slowly down a 150-year-old rail line that happens to be in the middle of a residential street. The last new rail route into Houston opened in 1927, and the city has grown around the tracks. Passing freight trains block major streets, divide neighborhoods, and endanger children.

For 50 years, government has been ignoring freight railroads, hoping they would go away. This is the only form of transport we have that isn’t government subsidized. But railroads have actually made a comeback, carrying Asian imports, new cars, grain, cement, and raw plastics, taking trucks off the road, saving money, and reducing energy consumption. Now states and cities are starting to take notice: trains are not only a problem but a solution. And with the right infrastructure investments we can not only solve those problems but take more trucks off the highways.

This Friday, four miles from Winter Street, the Houston Region Freight Rail Taskforce is meeting to discuss upgrading Houston’s rail system for more capacity and less neighborhood impact. I doubt you’ll see much coverage; unfortunately this process is taking place away from media attention and public scrutiny. But this may be the most important transportation project in Houston today, and it has the potential to improve our city. I suggest we all stop, look, and listen.