The Manchester Yard and North Yard are major staging areas for deliveries to the port. North Wayside drive runs west of the North yard and give easy access to photographers. Until recently, SP also had a line that paralleled Texas 146 from LaPorte to Galveston, but that line has been abandoned because of a bridge at Kemah. However, UP has announced plans to revitalize the line, including moving a lift bridge from an abandoned line in Louisiana to Kemah. Texas 225 generally parallels the line.
Traffic is light.
Texas 3 closely parallels the line. This was the route of the Texas Limited passenger train in the past, and plans calls for that service to be restored with a new service from Union Station downtown. The ATSF main from Galveston to Temple bypassed Houston, but this line comes north from Alvin. BNSF trains may leave cars at their yard or bring them on to South Yard. Houston Lighting and Power has constructed a multi-million dollar line from Arcola to the Smithers' Lake Power Plant across the Brazos River to give BNSF some competition with coal traffic.