[M II A II R II K]

Senate Bill Targeting Bullet Train Project Advances

Read More: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/...oves-senate-f/

A bill that would hobble a private company’s plan to build a $12 billion high-speed rail line from Dallas to Houston passed out of a Senate committee Wednesday, spurred by concerns that private landowners would see their land taken against their will for the project. The Senate Transportation Committee voted 5-4 to pass out Senate Bill 1601, from state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, which would strip firms developing high-speed rail projects from eminent domain authority.

- The company has said it hopes to have the train running by 2021 and has vowed to not take any public subsidies. While the project has drawn strong support in Houston and Dallas, officials in the largely rural communities along the proposed route have expressed opposition.

- Kolkhorst said Wednesday that she didn’t want to see private landowners lose their land for a project that she believed is likely to fail. “While I think in some countries it has worked, I don’t see a whole lot of high-speed rail across the United States,” Kolkhorst said. “I just don’t see it, and I’m not sure I want Texas to be the guinea pig on this.”

- Currently, hundreds of private firms have eminent domain authority in Texas, including pipeline companies, utility companies and telecommunication firms. More than a dozen private railroad companies also have that authority, according to an unofficial list maintained by the state comptroller. --- Yet at Wednesday's hearing, Republican senators expressed concern that a private company was going to use eminent domain authority for a for-profit venture.

- Texas Central Chairman and CEO Richard Lawless told the committee he felt his company was being unfairly singled out. --- “All that we ask that this train be treated like any other private train in Texas,” Lawless said. “It does not seem fair to us that this train should be prohibited in Texas just because it goes faster than other trains.”

- Texas Central President Robert Eckels said the company has already been in talks with landowners who could be impacted by the project and acknowledged there have been some holdouts that might require the company to resort to condemning their land through eminent domain. Yet he argued that a private company would be able to compensate those landowners better than the public government.

- Texas Central officials said that they were working to fight against misinformation about the project in various communities, including concerns that the rail line would block roads. They said the train line would have overpasses and underpasses throughout the route. --- “Every road crossing will be separated,” Eckels said. “We cut off no road. We would provide much better access than freight rail.”

.....