Texas’ Long-Awaited Bullet Train Plans to Start Construction

No, you were!

 

I posted a video several pages back that certainly looked like torture, but this one actually makes it look interesting. I took the train from Munich to Czech Republic Oct 2019. Wasn't nearly as exciting as the one above but I enjoyed it. I do want to go back and take a train over the Alps next go around.

 

Six Texas counties file lawsuit against Houston-Dallas high speed train

A lawsuit has been filed against the high-speed train being planned between Houston and Dallas, calling out its environmental impact. The suit has been filed by a group that includes six mostly rural Texas counties, 10 landowners, and Texans Against High-Speed Rail Inc., an anti-rail group.

Plaintiffs include: the Counties of Grimes, Freestone, Leon, Madison, Navarro, and Waller; and landowners Ronny Caldwell, Calvin House, Donovan Maretick, David & Heather Miseldine, Ronald & Becky Scasta, Gene & Michaelle Whitesides, and Logan Wilson III.

The lawsuit was filed on April 14 against the U.S. Department of Transportation, and alleges that DOT's Federal Railroad Administration conducted a shoddy review of the environmental impact of the rail line, including its proposed use of Japanese bullet-train technology that won't connect to existing railways.

Texas Central Railroad, the developer, is not included in the lawsuit.

The complaint says that Central Japan Railway Co.'s Tokaido Shinkansen HSR technology won't run on any other tracks and no other trains can run on its tracks, and therefore won't support the existing national rail network.

"If construction starts but cannot be completed or the project collapses after operations commence, miles and miles of the rural Texas environment will be scarred with a useless, hulking, rusting piece of iron," the complaint says.

Construction on the rail line won't start until it receives approval from the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that regulates rail. According to the lawsuit, Texas Central has not submitted an application to the STB.

The case is Texans Against High-Speed Rail Inc. et al. v. U.S. Department of Transportation et al., case number 6:21-cv-00365, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

"Before putting any pen to paper, FRA had already made up its mind about what it was going to do and simply did it," the lawsuit says. "Throughout the process, and likely related to having acted so far outside its lawful mission, FRA made inexplicable and irrational decisions while running roughshod over [National Environmental Policy Act]'s procedural requirements, the [Administrative Procedure Act]'s constraint on arbitrary and capricious decision-making, and Texans' private property rights. FRA merely papered the file in an attempt to justify decisions that had already been made."

 

so tired of Texas and it's backwards assed thinking.

DD

 

Bail. I'm sure your crib in Austin has 20x'd since you bought it.

 

There is no high speed rail sanctuary.

 

I like people staying and complaining. Things wont get better if everyone just hops out of their lifted trucks and bend over.

 

#soon

After a decade of hype, Dallas-Houston bullet train developer faces a leadership exodus as land acquisition slows

Excerpt :

Through multiple business entities who often use some version of the Texas Central moniker, developers of the project spent years raising hundreds of millions of dollars for construction, fighting conservative lawmakers’ attempts to dampen their plans and buying land needed to lay the tracks. Perhaps the biggest battle, though, came from legal challenges to the company’s claims that state law allows it to forcibly purchase property when owners aren’t willing to voluntarily sell.


In June, the Texas Supreme Court settled the matter and handed the company what could be a watershed victory, ruling that Texas Central can use eminent domain for its high-profile project. By the time the court ruled, though, Texas Central’s board had reportedly disbanded and its CEO and president had resigned. The project’s original timeline had already gone off the rails (at one point the construction was slated to begin in 2017). And land acquisition seems to have all but stopped in the last two years, according to land records reviewed by The Texas Tribune.


A spokesperson for the company, who is employed by a consulting firm that handles Texas Central’s media requests, says the project is still in the works.


“Texas Central is continuing to seek further investment, and is moving forward with the development of this high-speed train,” Tom Becker, a senior managing director with FTI Consulting, said in a statement. “We appreciate the continued support of our investors, lenders, and other key stakeholders, as we continue to advance this important project.”

But the company and Becker have declined to answer specific questions about the leadership exodus, apparent slump in land acquisition, funding prospects and status of permits Texas Central would need to move forward. A federal transportation agency says it hasn’t had contact with the company in two years. The portion of Texas Central’s website that once listed executive leaders is now blank — as is the list of current job openings.

 

We going to the Moon
Trains are the best transport option
We still don't have the metric system
We can't get abortions
We have an active plague

What century are we in?

 

Just Backwards

Rocket River

 

2 yards away....

We are not going to see trains in Texas in our lifetime...

 

We might when Millennials come into power and Zoomers are a key voting group.

 

What will happen first, this, Disneyland Katy, or that big ass amusement park in Conroe?

 

Bullet train* from astrodome to dinosaur park and Woodlands entertainment district.


*Also known as an accordion bus

 

We're going to have to nationalize or regionalize a bunch of stuff soon with trains being one of them.

 

Living on the streets in California is nice I hear...you might want to consider it if you don't like it here.

 

if you believe that, i have a bridge in AZ to sell you

 

We already did that, its called Amtrak. But Amtrak is way too undercapitalized to even try something like this. Amtrak already owns the northeast corridor so their best option is to just pile money into that. That one line pays for the entire operation and is the only profitable segment of track. But they simply don't have the resources to concurrently lose money on long distance rail lines and spend on huge capital projects like a Texas HSR line.

Private rail was always going to be the best option for something like this but it requires a state government that isn't hostile. Florida has the Brightline train now but that exists because the Florida government encouraged it and there was fortunately a lot of existing track and right of way to work with.

 

is this as exciting as riding the metro rail to uhd? i need to know this