Texas News What the Heck is the Railroad Commission of Texas? KWBU | By Texas Standard Published January 24, 2018 at 9:56 AM CST Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 4:57 Mose Buchele/KUT News David Prindle, a political science professor at UT-Austin, published a detailed history of the Railroad Commission of Texas in 1981. Spoiler alert: it has little to do with railroads.