By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Texas has killed its 50-year, multibillion-dollar road-building plan after criticism that it would have wrested too much land from private owners and failed to focus on short-term needs, a state official said on Tuesday.

"The Trans Texas Corridor concept, as previously known and discussed, has been set aside," said Chris Lippincott, a spokesman for the state transportation department.

Lippincott, speaking by telephone, said that the state would pursue a revised plan that will focus on stand-alone projects, instead of the coordinated, $150 billion effort that included utilities, freight and passenger trains in addition to new or expanded highways.

The scaled back plans meant the state would narrow the width of the corridor of land it would take from private owners for its road-building to 600 feet from 1,200 feet.

"The changes you saw today reflect the concerns we've heard about the breadth of the right of way we needed to acquire and the 50-year complex network of assets," he said.

The Trans Texas Corridor was the biggest U.S. road privatization program and a centerpiece of Republican Gov. Rick Perry's initiatives. Legislators feared that private developers would benefit at the expense of taxpayers and they had already barred Perry from signing more deals in some areas.

"I think people thought it (the program) was too aggressive," Lippincott said, adding residents wanted the state to focus more on near-term improvements.

That legislature's two-year moratorium on new deals expires in the second half of this year and Lippincott said lawmakers are expected to consider the ban and what he called funding challenges when they return to session next week.