Dallas-Houston high speed rail
AUSTIN, Texas — Two U.S. Congressmen from Texas expressed heavy opposition towards proposed federal funding for a planned high-speed rail service between Dallas and Houston. Amtrak announced its partnership with the Texas Central Railroad LLC for the project in August 2023 and jointly submitted federal grant applications for both study and design work. [See “Amtrak working with Texas Central to ‘explore opportunities’…” News Wire, Aug. 9, 2023].
In a Sept. 28 letter from U.S. Congressmen Jake Ellzey (R-Texas) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) urge Amit Bose, FRA administrator, and the U.S. Department of Transportation to reject the following applications from North Central Texas Council of Governments, Amtrak, and Texas Central:
- FY22 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program
- FY22 Federal-State Partnership (FSP) for Intercity Passenger Rail Program
- FY22 Corridor Identification and Development Program (Corridor ID Program) funding for the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Development Project
“Since 2009, when the project was first proposed, Texas Central has secured very few parcels of property and is attempting to acquire private property using eminent domain,” as stated in the letter. “It will exclusively run a type of train manufactured only in Japan using a unique track that is incompatible with any existing system in the United States.
“At its core, this project is intended to take land from American citizens and put it under the control of a Japanese company, which is itself subsidized using money from U.S. taxpayers.”
According to the Texas Central website, the proposed 240-mile, high-speed route would offer a travel time of less than 90 minutes between the two cities. The company has received an FRA waiver to operate Japanese-built Shinkansen trainsets along a planned right-of-way that would follow existing high-voltage power lines for more than half the route [See “Going Big,” Trains Magazine, December 2019].
