High speed rail (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: construction, maintenance, costs)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

How cool is this? High speed rail connecting San Antonio, Dallas, Killeen, Houston and Austin.

Different from the proposed Lone Star Commuter Train that will run from Georgetown to San Antonio.


I read it on the News 8 Austin site.

Go Trains!!

[RevMen]

Then my in-laws could visit even more!

Wait...

[jobert]

Awesome! Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston and umm... Killeen?

[AustinSpartan]

Originally Posted by jobert

Awesome! Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston and umm... Killeen?

The next NYC!

[verybadgnome]

I hear Southwest airlines is no longer opposing the idea of high speed rail in Texas which is a good sign. With the population growth of East Texas I think the time has come for something like this. Hopefully some of the stops can be in downtown areas like the current 4th/Lamar for Amtrak, speaking of which I assume this will take place of the normal Amtrak train service.

I guess Killeen is for all of the military personnel at Fort Hood, many of whom don't own cars.

[bgrn198]

Problem is laying new tracks would be expensive though

http://www.thsrtc.com/

[shankaupas]

I wonder what a ticket would cost from Austin to Dallas. Would it be comparable to an airline ticket? I just looked up round trip flights from Austin to Dallas for next Friday and it would be about $225.

[Trainwreck20]

High speed rail has been kicked about for decades, but although the concept has always looked really cool, the research has never shown enough ridership to suppor the huge initial investment and ongoing maintenance/operational cost.

[Nexis4Jersey]

In-till Austin & SA get there transit building acts together alot of us in the transit / high speed rail / rail community think it would be a waste. You need a base system to interconnect into the HSR , otherwise it doesn't work as good. The only line that would work , Dallas - Houston HSL , a base system is already in place in both cities and expanding......

[scm53]

This came from a response by the French SNCF, operators of the most successful HSR lines in the world, to a RFI from the Federal Railway Administration for construction and operation of HSR lines in the US. You can read the response here, but the gist is:

SNCF would build and operate four lines -- California, Florida, Midwest and Texas. All trains would operate at 220 MPH.

The Texas line would start at FW, go to DFW, Dallas, then proceed south to Waco, Temple, Austin and end at San Antonio. The trains would operate twice hourly, with 24 daily trains initially. The capital costs would be approx $14B. But SNCF, with decades of experience behind them, estimate that not only would fares cover the operating expenses, they would generate enough excess revenue to pay down half of the capital costs. Fares would be lower than air, and competitive with business auto use.

Seems to me that if the experts, with real data behind them, are willing to put their skin in the game, we need to listen.