195 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

It is capable of running trains at 205 mph. Arrival times are consistently hit with precision in Japan, and there has never been a fatality.

I feel a bit skeptical that the same can be achieved here in the USA, much less Texas. Look how many train vs vehicle incidents took place in Houston, one of the endpoint cities of this high speed rail line, before and in the early days of their light rail line.

I wish it does not come true, but I boldly predict not only will there be late trains, and accidents involving fatalities, but also that the first such incident will involve an SUV.

[lunarwhite]

I feel a bit skeptical that the same can be achieved here in the USA, much less Texas. Look how many train vs vehicle incidents took place in Houston, one of the endpoint cities of this high speed rail line, before and in the early days of their light rail line.I wish it does not come true, but I boldly predict not only will there be late trains, and accidents involving fatalities, but also that the first such incident will involve an SUV.

The HSR will be fully grade separated, but as the recent prison bus accident proved we Texans can still find a way to hit a train.

[KevinKorell]

Column in Dallas, TX Observer, 2/10/15:

Bullet Train Station Sites Are a Bullet in the Head for South Dallas

 

So sad. Pathetic. Last Friday the bullet train people announced their two preferred sites for a station in Dallas, and none of the elected southern Dallas leadership seems even to have noticed that they just got screwed.

 

Column

[lunarwhite]

Texas Central Railway decides to concentrate on the utility route between Dallas and Houston instead of the BNSF route.

http://transportatio...ton-route.html/

[KevinKorell]

Houston, TX Chronicle, 2/17/15:

 

High speed rail firm examining I-10 route

 

Options are narrowing for how a proposed high-speed rail link between Dallas and Houston will snake through urban parts of Harris County, with backers of the project stressing they are trying to avoid developed neighborhoods after neighbors voiced opposition to some parts of the line.

 

Texas Central High-Speed Railway on Tuesday announced its intent to build the line in a utility corridor previously identified as one of two possible routes last year when federal officials held public meetings along the route.

 

Go

[CNJRoss]

Forbes Magazine, 2/27:
 

Whoa Momma! Did You See That Railroad Train Blow By?

 

Faster than a speeding bullet America’s love affair with the train may be on the verge of a revival. Should you have any doubt how deep that love once ran, drop by this Wikipedia page and scroll through the hundreds and hundreds of songs about trains.

 

The rebirth of the train is being lead by the Texas Central High Speed Railway working in partnership with The Central Japan Railway Company, the folks who run the Shinkansen.. a/k/a: The Bullet Train in Japan. The Japanese have more than 50 years of experience in running and maintaining high-speed rail which they bring to the Texas project. It remains to be seen if they will be a long-term partner in the deal but for now they are active engineering partners.

 

TCR has the ambitious aim of creating high-speed rail service between Houston & Dallas Texas by 2021. When TCR says high speed it ain’t kiddin’. A trip between the two cities would take about 90 minutes. 90 minutes, just about what my commute from my home out in New Jersey to Manhattan takes me… on a good day. Yes, that alone makes me excited about this project.

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

Progressive Railroading, 4/6/15:

Texas firm slates public meetings to discuss proposed high-speed rail plan

 

Texas Central Partners, the company that wants to build a bullet-train service between Dallas and Houston, will host 12 information sessions about the proposed project this month in several Texas cities.

The meetings are designed for the public to learn more about the project, as well as to ask project-related questions or express concerns to the company's management.

 

Full story

[CNJRoss]

Corsicana (TX) Daily Sun, 4/12:
 

Bullet-train backers meet resistance in rural Texas

 

LANCASTER – The people behind a proposed high-speed train are promising to whisk passengers between Dallas and Houston in 90 minutes. They say they'll cut highway congestion, create jobs and grow the state's economy by $120 million a year.

 

Commissioners in nine counties along the route, who've recently passed resolutions against the plan, fear being railroaded into a project that will wreck land values, ruin the deer hunting and leave taxpayers holding the bag.

 

“There is not one privately funded, constructed and operated high-speed rail in the world,” said Ben Leman, the county judge in Grimes County, northwest of Houston.

 

“The concern is obviously taxpayer subsidy," Leman said. "It’s just a black hole. Look at Amtrak.”

 

Continue here.

[KevinKorell]

KBTX-TV, Channel 3 in Bryan/College Station, TX, 4/13/15:

 

State Lawmakers Ask Texans in Congress to Stop High Speed Rail

 

State lawmakers from the Brazos Valley are among the legislators who have asked the Texas delegation in Washington D.C. to fight to stop the proposed high speed rail from Houston to Dallas in its tracks.

 

This one

[KevinKorell]

Citylab, 4/15/15:

Meet the Opposition to Texas High-Speed Rail

 

Turns out you don't need to rely on public money to be hated as a U.S. high-speed rail project. That much is becoming clear from the battering being given to a big Texas bullet train plan that's privately funded.

 

More here.