Is the Houston-to-Dallas bullet train still happening? Critics are demanding proof of life.

[corbe]

Is the Houston-to-Dallas bullet train still happening? Critics are demanding proof of life.

Dug Begley, Staff writer - 8h ago

People in the path of a proposed but floundering high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas last week filed a letter that in many ways labels Texas Central Railroad the little engine that will never be.

Is the Houston-to-Dallas bullet train still happening? Critics are demanding proof of life.
A rendering shows a proposed appearance of the Dallas station of Texas Central's planned high-speed train line from Houston to Dallas. Opponents of the line are asking company officials to admit the project is moribund.

They think it can’t. They think it can’t. They think it can’t.

“Granted, Texas Central appears to be doing things,” attorney Patrick McShan said in the letter sent to the company on Sept. 29. “But none of the things Texas Central is now doing suggest in any manner whatsoever that it does, in fact, intend to construct the project.”

The planned rail line, once touted as mere months from construction, now is more paperwork than planning. Since its former CEO left in June, the company has said it is securing financing, but shown little other signs of life, beyond a July 8 statement after the Texas Supreme Court affirmed its right to use eminent domain to acquire property.

“Texas Central has made significant strides in the project over the last several years and we are moving forward on a path that we believe will ensure the project’s successful development,” the company said then. “We look forward to being able to say more about this at an appropriate time in the near future.”

The company did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

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[Elderberry]

Property owners take another shot at bullet train plans

The Real Deal by Maddy Sperling 10/4/2022

In a letter from attorneys, 93 land owners demand answers from seemingly defunct developer, Texas Central Railway

Texas property owners across nine counties in the path of the planned bullet train between Dallas and Houston are demanding to know whether it’s on track or derailed.

In a letter submitted by their attorneys, 93 property owners accuse Texas Central Railway of having already abandoned the project, KBTX reports, and want the developer to admit it. “Our clients and all other impacted landowners have suffered long enough,” the letter says.

The $30 billion transit project has been on hold since a 2019 legal challenge by a Leon County property owner over the company’s authority to use eminent domain to take land for the railway. By this year, the project had gone so cold that Texas Central’s president and CEO Carlos Aguilar resigned in June amid reports that most of the company’s management team had already left. Richard Lawless, who had been chairman emeritus, said the board disbanded that same month.

More: https://therealdeal.com/texas/2022/10/04/property-owners-take-another-shot-at-bullet-train-plans/

[Fishrrman]

I ran locomotives for 32 years. Freight, commuter, passenger, much of it for Amtrak.

The problem with passenger trains is that you can fill them to capacity, and they'll almost certainly still lose money.

The costs these days have become too great (track, capital costs of equipment, maintenance, crewing the trains) to break even.

I believe that Amtrak may claim the Auto Train "makes money", but they're probably hedging... in that train covers operating expenses. But probably not much more.

This doesn't mean that passenger (or commuter) trains should disappear.

But it does mean that those on the right (who demand that such service be run "at a profit") don't understand what's involved -- and, conversely, those on the left should understand that the public has the right to demand such services (which must be run at a loss if they are to be run at all) should operate as efficiently as possible.