Houston-Dallas 205 mph bullet train starts in 2020, San Antonio to follow

This would be cool.

 

Travels at half the speed of commercial jets. No plan as to whose railroad line it will run on or whether it will seek to purchase new land for their own line(without government help). No mention of where transit centers will be located and how much it will cost to acquire that land (without government help). This will all be done in 8-years, with no help from any governments?

 

I heard about this a year ago when negotiating a lease at our building, management was telling me that it was being discussed. The hub for Houston would be greenspoint mall and that the train itself, would be tracked just above 45 in the middle lanes.

 

This will happen, 100% guaranteed. Otherwise, how else will the folks in Dallas get to visit...

Spoiler

EARTHQUEST ADVENTURES!

 

You think people will get offended by the name? Bullet Train? Too offensive?

Maybe change it to Wizards Train.

 

You aren't factoring in travel time to and from the airports.

And for anyone who thinks "why would I pay this much when I can just pay a little more for a flight?"...well did you ever think that with added competition of high-speed rail would come more competitive rates from low-cost airlines?

This would be a win for all consumers.

 

well..to be fair, there would be similar travel time to/from train stations.

 

Not even close.

 

I still have to drive to a station, right? Or catch a train to get there...

Do you mean security wouldn't be as tight?

 

Security isn't as tight on Amtrak or subway.

Right now flying to Austin/Dalllas would burn at least 4-5 hours of my day.

I would pay 150 USD to go on a rail like this instead of having to go to the airport.

 

Yeah, I don't want to give the impression that MadMax is against high speed rail I'm not at all.

But being honest..there's still travel time related to getting to/from station same as airport...and there's still the problem of getting around in Dallas/Austin once you arrive on train. High speed rail works great in Japan because once you get to the cities, they have rail that covers getting around....we don't have that here.

 

An airport is a massive interchange.

A bullet train station would be for one destination.

Security: Who knows how r****ded it will be in 8 years. It won't be worse than the airport, though.

Think about it, it just won't be as complicated. Don't be obtuse to prove a point. This isn't a D&D thread.

 

gotcha...good point!

 

If there was some way of making a high-speed train ride faster/cheaper/very convenient for it's passengers, then it just needs that exposure to counter the car-culture that exists in North America. Maybe the immigrant population will be heavy users, as they are less ingrained with "easier to drive" syndrome.

 

Once you get to Houston, you can just hop on a bus and go anywhere you want. What could possibly go wrong?

Spoiler

 

Unfortunately, you can't always JUST hop on a bus in Houston anymore with TSA being in bed with METRO.

 

It's funny to me how a lot of people are skeptical that people would actually ride this train. The air traffic between Houston and Dallas is astonishing. If you know anything about HSR and which mode passengers prefer to travel on between cities, it's a no brainer.

 

These are the kinds of projects that should be constructed in a public/private partnership. The public pays the costs with their taxes, and the projects are built by private companies. American private companies, if at all possible. There is a reason we pay taxes. Building huge projects for the public good, like Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System, are a terrific use of our tax money. What bothers me is that rail should have been built long ago. Buying the right of way now both inside and outside the cities is going to be a huge cost. That right of way would have been far cheaper 20-30-40 years ago. Still, better late than never, in my opinion.

As for this particular plan, like texxx, I'm sceptical that a private entity can do an entire project and make a profit. So yes, I want to see the numbers as well. That's where the public sector comes into play. It's not really different than building a dam. Everyone enjoys the Highland Lakes in Central Texas, where I've lived since 1980. Those dams were a good use of taxpayer dollars. The public has enjoyed the lakes they created since the 1930's. We place food on our tables grown because of those dams. Whole industries exist because they were built long ago. If public funds are used to build a high speed rail system linking the major cities of Texas, that system will be enjoyed by our grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We should quit screwing around and get it done.