Join the discussion on the following article:
Texas mayors support high speed rail project
Back in the 80s or early 90s another high-speed idea was floated which would have connected Houston, D/FW and San Antonio. The biggest NIMBY at the time was Herb Kelleher, president of Southwest Airlines.
You may have that correct, Nathan. As for Mr. Hays’ comment regarding NIMBYS, the other 2% are UP and BNSF. There are a spiderweb of lines they operate on between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, and this high speed rail line will have to deal with them, most likely using fly-overs.
Finally, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Houston Chronicle should be carrying the story, also.
I’m sure that there will be dozens of Texas billionaires waiting in line to pony up the $50B that constructing this line (220 mph) would cost…or maybe not.
Hopefully since there won’t be all this political crap involved (since it is a private project) it will work well. Between this and the All Aboard Florida project, I’m happy to see all these private companies jumping in. As much as I support Amtrak, it’s a real mess, and California’s HSR is proof that trying to make HSR a government project is a really messy deal. Hopefully the AAR & Texas lines will be successful, and when politicians see the success & benefits of them, they will more support HSR around the country themselves, regardless of political affiliation.
Seems like I remember a similar (tho gov’t-funded) proposal +/- 20 years ago. The way I heard it, Southwest Airlines had enough political pull to get it killed. Hope they don’t do the same this time.
I only wonder how many lawsuits the NIMBYs and granola-guzzling trail hippes and yuppies will file to try and halt this while telling everyone else what to do?
90 minutes got a trip between DFW and Houston would be great. Probably quicker and less hassle than a plane trip! This would be a huge construction project, hope they would use local companies for it! High speed, dependable rail passenger service from San Antonio to Dallas would also take many cars off the I-35 corridor.
90 minutes got a trip between DFW and Houston would be great. Probably quicker and less hassle than a plane trip! This would be a huge construction project, hope they would use local companies for it! High speed, dependable rail passenger service from San Antonio to Dallas would also take many cars off the I-35 corridor.
90 minutes got a trip between DFW and Houston would be great. Probably quicker and less hassle than a plane trip! This would be a huge construction project, hope they would use local companies for it! High speed, dependable rail passenger service from San Antonio to Dallas would also take many cars off the I-35 corridor.
90 minutes got a trip between DFW and Houston would be great. Probably quicker and less hassle than a plane trip! This would be a huge construction project, hope they would use local companies for it! High speed, dependable rail passenger service from San Antonio to Dallas would also take many cars off the I-35 corridor.
Would love to have this as a travel option. Next time we fly to Houston, we’d travel around Texas a lot more if we could take HSR!
Cuz it don’t cost them no money is why they like it. Their cities will benefit from private investment but heaven forbid they contribute a share.
I wish the proposal well and hope that NIMBYs along the route don’t get to organize as they’re apparently doing with AAF.
98% of the NIMBYs eat hay and oats and couldn’t care less.
Thousands of jobs??? Really??? There might be 500 temporary jobs during construction, but those will disappear as soon as the project is completed. There might be 200 permanent jobs associated with running the train.
I’m wondering if the Koch brothers will try to stop this project? HSR will certainly require less fossil fuels than automobiles and airplanes.
I believe this is their website:
http://www.texascentral.com/about-texas-central
They APPEAR (but I may be misreading) to be implying they intend to use train designs identical or close to Japanese bullet trains. This raises a red flag with me - how are they going to get this past the FRA?
Hopefully I’m wrong and they’ve got everything worked out.
As far as the FRA is concerned, if the railline to be used for the HSR is dedicated specifically for the bullet trains, it should not matter if they are compliant. Otherwise, the company could work with the bullet train mfg and the FRA (similar to what the DCTA did with Stadler) and reach an altertnative compliance enabling use in conjunction with other trains.
m and m not using the standard paul ryan and wisconsin retort? how are the evil koch brothers going to stop this? build a hospital or a cultural center in its way?