High speed train Dallas to Houston (San Antonio, Austin: maintenance, costs, shop)

[ComeAtMe]

Biting the Bullet (Train) | Houstonia Magazine


"Okay, but what’s taken so long? Didn’t Ann Richards try to get this done in the early ’90s? Oh, that’s right—Southwest Airlines lobbied hard against the eminently sensible idea of linking “the triangle” of DFW, Houston, and Austin and San Antonio. Wait, won’t that happen again?

In fact, as Eckels pointed out at a panel convened last fall by the Texas Tribune, air carriers like American and United have been downright supportive of the TCR plan, while Southwest has stayed uncharacteristically neutral. Why? Because in October of this year, the last remnants of the 1979 Wright Amendment—designed to protect DFW Airport’s regional dominance by requiring competing Love Field air carriers to only fly to Texas destinations and surrounding states—will expire. Southwest will henceforth be able to fly to any domestic destination from its Dallas hub. No longer will the HOU-DAL route be the bread and butter (chips and salsa?) of Southwest’s very existence. Still, even as the airline lobby recedes, a potential new foe emerges: the Buc-ee’s lobby. It is not to be expected that the beaver will take the loss of I-45 patronage lying down. (Making the convenience store an official partner might be a suitable peace offering, however, in which case there’d be no other bullet train service on the planet with sparklier toilets.)

Eckels is not the only heavyweight involved in the TCR, by the way. In September, the TCR brought in J. Thomas Schieffer, the former US Ambassador to Australia and Japan, who believes it a potential “game-changer” for Texas. “It will have the same kind of impact on our future that the Interstate Highway System, DFW Airport, and Bush Intercontinental had on our past,” he said upon being hired as a senior advisor to the TCR. “This is something we need to do to guarantee the future prosperity of Texas.”

Future prosperities don’t come cheap. Early estimates for the TCR start at $10 billion. Which brings up another key difference from earlier proposals: the TCR is a private entity backed by a group of Japanese investors who considered 97 possible US rail corridors before fingering Dallas-Houston as the one with the most profit potential. Eckels claims that the dirt will be flying by 2016 and the bullet-trains humming by 2021.

“This will be the first high-speed passenger rail service in America,” LeCody confidently predicts. “My feeling is that we will beat California to the punch.”"

[crono_clone]

I think the numbers are interesting. They're trying to link up the two largest metro regions in the state, which together makes more than 50% of the entire population of Texas.

[ComeAtMe]

Mayors Announce Support For Houston-To-Dallas High-Speed Rail

Originally Posted by ComeAtMe

Mayors Announce Support For Houston-To-Dallas High-Speed Rail - 03-27-2014 news for Houston Publi... Houston Public Media |

"Houston Mayor Annise Parker is joining with the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth in supporting a high-speed rail line that would connect the two metro areas. The rail line has been talked about for years, but backers of the project say it's now closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Gathered in the City Hall rotunda with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Parker says about 50,000 Texans every week make a round-trip on I-45 between Houston and Dallas.

The one-way drive takes about four hours. Promoters of high-speed rail say the travel time would be cut to 90 minutes."




"Even though the rail line is a private venture, it still needs approval from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Eckels says they plan to file paperwork in the next 30 to 60 days. He's hoping that if all goes as planned, the high-speed trains will be running by 2021."

Originally Posted by ComeAtMe

Biting the Bullet (Train) | Houstonia Magazine


"Okay, but what’s taken so long? Didn’t Ann Richards try to get this done in the early ’90s? Oh, that’s right—Southwest Airlines lobbied hard against the eminently sensible idea of linking “the triangle” of DFW, Houston, and Austin and San Antonio. Wait, won’t that happen again?

In fact, as Eckels pointed out at a panel convened last fall by the Texas Tribune, air carriers like American and United have been downright supportive of the TCR plan, while Southwest has stayed uncharacteristically neutral. Why? Because in October of this year, the last remnants of the 1979 Wright Amendment—designed to protect DFW Airport’s regional dominance by requiring competing Love Field air carriers to only fly to Texas destinations and surrounding states—will expire. Southwest will henceforth be able to fly to any domestic destination from its Dallas hub. No longer will the HOU-DAL route be the bread and butter (chips and salsa?) of Southwest’s very existence. Still, even as the airline lobby recedes, a potential new foe emerges: the Buc-ee’s lobby. It is not to be expected that the beaver will take the loss of I-45 patronage lying down. (Making the convenience store an official partner might be a suitable peace offering, however, in which case there’d be no other bullet train service on the planet with sparklier toilets.)

Eckels is not the only heavyweight involved in the TCR, by the way. In September, the TCR brought in J. Thomas Schieffer, the former US Ambassador to Australia and Japan, who believes it a potential “game-changer” for Texas. “It will have the same kind of impact on our future that the Interstate Highway System, DFW Airport, and Bush Intercontinental had on our past,” he said upon being hired as a senior advisor to the TCR. “This is something we need to do to guarantee the future prosperity of Texas.”

Future prosperities don’t come cheap. Early estimates for the TCR start at $10 billion. Which brings up another key difference from earlier proposals: the TCR is a private entity backed by a group of Japanese investors who considered 97 possible US rail corridors before fingering Dallas-Houston as the one with the most profit potential. Eckels claims that the dirt will be flying by 2016 and the bullet-trains humming by 2021.

“This will be the first high-speed passenger rail service in America,” LeCody confidently predicts. “My feeling is that we will beat California to the punch.”"

[BrianH]

Id definitely use it once to twice a year to hit games in Dallas.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Truth713

1.This is not being funded by tax payer, but a private comapny which elimates alot of the hoops they would have to jump thu

Sure,
when's the last time that a private company paid for the right-of-way (land) to build a toll road or train?

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Oildog

Wasteful spending.

Tax money spent in America is wasteful spending,
unlike George Bush's reconstruction of Afghanistan's Highway 1, that wasn't wasteful spending


Afghanistan Opens a Rebuilt Road to Unite North and South - NYTimes.com

It is also the most visible evidence of the United States' commitment to that reconstruction, with America providing $190 million to complete the highway, the first phase of an effort to rebuild the ring road that circumnavigates Afghanistan. The highway had originally been built with United States government financing in the 1960's. The reconstruction began in January of this year.

The United States has budgeted $2 billion for fiscal year 2004 in Afghanistan. Part of the money will go to further road-building, including the road from Kandahar to Herat, and more than 1,000 kilometers of small feeder roads.

[HouTXmetro]

Better Late than Never.... I'm sure some GOP Congressman will find a way to block this.

[HouTXmetro]

Let's get a route to Austin and New Orleans as well and we good to go!

[testmo]

New orleans?! For what ungodly purpose would that serve? We should build a croc infested moat around NO as it is.

Dallas and houston share a common industry and like some people pointed out a ton of business travel passes between the two. Dallas is a better weekend trip for houstonians interested in arts, shopping, and food than austin is. Id use the rail for weekend trips just to enjoy both cities. Austin is easy to get to by car and can be pretty low traffic if you dont take 290

Im sure the dallas side of the rail would connect to the dart system there and tie houstons end into an expanded metro rail. You wouldnt need a car to enjoy either city. Austin doesnt have any rail prescence currently really

[hbcu]

Austin has rail but its weak..