Tag Archives: Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corp

Profiling the high speed rail opponents

City Lab takes a look at the people who are resisting the proposed Texas Central Railway. 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 … Continue reading

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Riding that (privately funded) train

Another story on the vaunted high speed rail line for Texas. The leaders of Texas Central High-Speed Railway sound very confident for a company expecting to succeed where scores of state planners, elected officials and private interests have failed. The … Continue reading

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Financing the Dallas to Houston high speed rail line

The way things are going, this could get built before the final pieces of the 2012 Metro Solutions plan. If high-speed rail comes to North Texas by 2020, the bullet trains will initially rely on the area’s road system — … Continue reading

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SJL talks high speed rail

The dream lives on. Officials in Japan and South Korea told Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee that they are interested in helping Texas build a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas. The Houston Democrat said the foreign officials described … Continue reading

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Dallas-Houston high speed rail update

The people working on this sure do sound optimistic, even if what they’ve got is still basically vaporware. A trip from Houston to Dallas could take travelers 90 minutes if former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, president of Lone Star … Continue reading

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Harris County rejoins Texas High Speed Rail group

Harris County is once again a part of the Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation after Commissioners Court voted to start paying its dues again. Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole put high-speed rail on Tuesday’s agenda, saying Harris County … Continue reading

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The Chron on the lost SUPERTRAIN opportunity

The Chron is none too pleased with the way Texas fared with federal funds for high speed rail. Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Chris Lippincott stated the obvious: Texas needs to have more plans in that “shovel-ready” shape. Lippincott says … Continue reading

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The SUPERTRAIN passes us by

We knew we weren’t going to get much in the way of funding for high speed rail in Texas, but it still kinda stings to see just how little we got. The $3.75 million that the Lone Star State will … Continue reading

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Don’t hold your breath waiting for SUPERTRAIN funds

The DMN throws a little cold water on the hopes of high speed rail advocates in Texas. This month, at a speech in Austin, a top federal rail administrator charged with managing the distribution of the new grants said Texas’ … Continue reading

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SNCF proposes high-speed rail route for Texas

It’s not the Texas T-Bone, but it’s a start. Last December, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Representative John Mica (R-FL) announced that the Federal Railroad Administration would begin accepting Expressions of Interest for the development of high-speed lines in … Continue reading

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More on Glaeser and high speed rail

I mentioned before some analysis done by the New York Times’ Ed Glaeser on the economics of high speed rail between Houston and Dallas. His series has come under a lot of criticism – see that post, along with these … Continue reading

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Commuter rail update

Christof has some surprisingly good news for those who want to see commuter rail in the Houston area. There hasn’t been much public movement on commuter rail since the HGAC’s study was released a year ago. But quietly, gears are … Continue reading

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Oklahoma gets on the SUPERTRAIN

Welcome aboard! The Oklahoma Department of Transportation said Friday it has taken an initial step to apply for high-speed rail funding that, if successful, could return passenger service to Tulsa. ODOT spokeswoman Terri Angier said top speeds between Tulsa and … Continue reading

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We may miss the SUPERTRAIN

Dammit. As we have reported here often, the federal government is about to dump a lot of money on states to develop a handful of high-speed passenger rail corridors, and the good news for us is that Texas is home … Continue reading

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A high-speed rail to-do list for Texas

Catching up on some stuff now that the Lege is (I hope) gone from Austin till 2011, Christof noted a meeting in town of the Federal Railroad Administration last week, and put together a list of things that will need … Continue reading

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More on the SUPERTRAIN

Are the stars really aligning to bring a SUPERTRAIN to Texas? Maybe so! Current plans for a Texas system envision a “T-bone” track shape connecting Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and other towns. But much remains vague: where exactly the … Continue reading

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A SUPERTRAIN for Texas?

It could happen. The idea of high-speed rail is being pushed again in a big way in Texas, and backers hope to have $12 billion to $18 billion high-speed trains running by 2020. This time, they say they have taken … Continue reading

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