Texas On "Fast Track" To High Speed Rail

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Troyeth

I, too, did not read anywhere in the report about the exclusion of a more central option beyond the mall. Indeed, it looks as though a terminus near the Amtrak station, as referenced by Hatman, is a preferred alternative.

Read the text on page 22 of the report. It states plainly why both downtown Houston options have been dropped.

[kingkirbythe....]

Houston is getting screwed.

[Troyeth]

Originally Posted by electricron

Read the text on page 22 of the report. It states plainly why both downtown Houston options have been dropped.

Thank you!

Pity, the high-speed line would benefit tremendously from a city-center location. Still, I understand why the risk-averse private venture would forgo the extra mile: no fraught political battles here. Good for them.

In any case, getting a high-speed line to the Northwest Mall would be an accomplishment for the sprawling city, and the final trek into the center can be accomplished at a later date.

It is between Patterson St. and Harvard St., roughly a 1/2 mile, where right-of-way expansion would require the expropriation of properties. With support from the State of Texas, this future extension is easily achievable.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

Houston is getting screwed.

I disagree. The City of Houston doesn't have much skin in this game. The Northwest Mall area is within the city limits. Therefore the city will experience all the economic gains that a HSR train can bring, just not in its central business district.
Two station site locations closer to downtown were studied, and there were significant additional costs associated with both of them, and potential political opposition from the inner city residential neighborhoods as well. Enough monetary and political capital to discourage Texas Central from insisting upon a downtown station site.
I believe Texas Central has a reason to feel more disappointed than the city with the failure to find a suitable downtown station site. Hopefully another train will Be able to connect the HSR station to downtown Houston, either commuter or light rail, in the near future.

[ardecila]

I hate to say it, but this is probably the sensible choice. TCR already has enough opposition from rural quarters of Texas, they don't need the vehemently anti-rail Culberson voters in Houston working against them. The downtown extension can always be done in a later phase where the controversies do not jeopardize the rest of the line to Dallas.

That said, I think the Katy Freeway would actually be the better route into downtown. Trains would have to operate at a lower speed due to horizontal and vertical curvature, but they wouldn't cause any impacts to the neighborhoods beyond what the freeway already brings. If TxDOT ever moves forward with their plan to demolish I-45 around downtown, maybe the high HOV viaduct over the Katy Fwy could be repurposed for rail.

[TexasPlaya]

Just to add, the Northwest mall is several miles north of the Uptown/Galleria area and they're soon to be building a BRT corridor through Uptown terminating at a transit center/park&ride just south of the NW mall.

[Urbannizer]

http://transportationblog.dallasnews...et-train.html/

Originally Posted by Dallas Morning News

Japanese company investing $40M in Dallas-Houston bullet train

As Vice President Joe Biden hinted last week, a Japanese investment firm plans to invest tens of millions of dollars in the planned high-speed train line between Dallas and Houston. Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport and Urban Development, whose headquarters is in Tokyo, announced on Saturday its decision to invest $40 million in the project.

Texas development company Texas Central Partners plans to use the same high-speed railway technology used for decades on the Shinkansen system that links Tokyo and Osaka.

[drummer]

Great news!

[Urbannizer]

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...to-6710235.php

Originally Posted by Houston Chronicle

Focus shifts to stretching bullet train to downtown

Leaders of area transportation agencies are reviewing strategies to bring passengers from northwest Houston, where a proposed high-speed train is expected to stop, into the central business district.

Officials with the Gulf Coast Rail District, Houston-Galveston Area Council, Texas Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transit Authority are involved in a comprehensive planning study of rail, generally in the Washington Avenue and Interstate 10 area.

The study, building off numerous previous reports and research by the agencies, is intended to provide a template for how to develop rail between a site at or near Northwest Mall and the former downtown post office.

[drummer]

Any updates on this? The last I've heard is that the Houston station won't make it all the way to downtown; the Dallas station would be just south of I-30; Bryan/College Station is screwing stuff up by allowing Texans Against HSR or whatever the group name is to get entangled with their voting processes, potentially causing issues with either a middle station or a route through that area (my assumption). So, that's all very broad, of course. Any details or new information that someone can provide? Or any corrections to my above summary...?

[electricron]

Originally Posted by drummer

Any updates on this? The last I've heard is that the Houston station won't make it all the way to downtown; the Dallas station would be just south of I-30; Bryan/College Station is screwing stuff up by allowing Texans Against HSR or whatever the group name is to get entangled with their voting processes, potentially causing issues with either a middle station or a route through that area (my assumption). So, that's all very broad, of course. Any details or new information that someone can provide? Or any corrections to my above summary...?

Lots of politicians in Dallas and Houston are supporting this train service, lots of politicians in all the counties in between are opposing this train service.
The latest status:
The DEIS has had its first public comment period meetings, I believe the comment period is about to expire soon if it hasn't already. Then those doing the FEIS will answer all of the comments after grouping them into similar points of views and questions. Then they will release the FEIS.

A group opposing the train has filed a suit against TXDOT and the Texas Attorney General, seeking correspondence between TXDOT and the train proponents. I believe TXDOT has released this documents, but they were heavily redacted, especially the privileged information from the train proponents privately financed studies. I don't have the slightest idea what a court would rule.

Meanwhile the train proponents have started design work on those portions of the route that's been settled by the FEIS. The FEIS is still studying some alternate routings. They are also lining up a line of credit and financial resources to build the train.

Nothing has been decided, court litigation, EIS, exact routing, financing. etc. So there's really nothing final to report.

[Busy Bee]

Good video on TCR from January. More of an overview, not really anything new but there were a couple things in there I hadn't heard before, specifically the use of viaducts.

YouTube clip: http://youtu.be/ztRW34xjJNI

[drummer]

Thanks for the updates, guys. I hope it comes together. I, for one, would use it whenever I come through the U.S...

[drummer]

Wanted to bump this thread since it rolled over to the second page. I also wanted to ask: given the recent drama with Bryan/College Station area leaders reversing the previous support of HSR running through, where does that leave us? Is their position on the rail itself running through or specifically the station - or both? Having Dallas and Houston as the obvious targets for the project (a station in B/CS simply trying to make them happy in the long run), would it be possible simply to bypass B/CS for now and add a station later if they see a need for it?

If any of you guys more in the know would feel free to respond, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[electricron]

Originally Posted by drummer

Wanted to bump this thread since it rolled over to the second page. I also wanted to ask: given the recent drama with Bryan/College Station area leaders reversing the previous support of HSR running through, where does that leave us? Is their position on the rail itself running through or specifically the station - or both? Having Dallas and Houston as the obvious targets for the project (a station in B/CS simply trying to make them happy in the long run), would it be possible simply to bypass B/CS for now and add a station later if they see a need for it?

If any of you guys more in the know would feel free to respond, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

The reason why many B-CS leaders switched their support is because the proposed line bypasses the city already.

Whether or not a station is built halfway between College Staton and Huntsville isn't going to change if this train is profitable or not one bit.

The idea to postpone that station's construction isn't going to be viable. The viaduct construction most likely present at an overpass of a State Highway isn't going to make building a station adjacent to it cheap. Maybe they can partially build the station but not finish it, because they will have to build maintenance of way facilities along the corridor anyways, and this was the projected location of one of them.

Council of Government planning organizations exist for a reason, established by EPA rules for the distribution of Federal funds for environmental approved projects. I'm having a difficult time believing the EPA will disapprove any rail project. But these planning organizations' boards are made up of local politicians who's opinions swing with the local populace. Whether or not this train eventually qualifies and gets federal low interest loans, I've never seen a local Council of Government ever refuse federal funding for any project.

[drummer]

Yeah, makes sense. I knew it bypassed B/CS, though I was specifically speaking of not placing a station there (out in the boondocks somewhere between College Station and Huntsville, that is).

Thanks for the info!

[Urbannizer]

Japanese company to create subsidiary for Texas bullet train

Central Japan Railway Co. will establish a fully owned subsidiary in Dallas to support the proposed high-speed rail project from Dallas to Houston, the company announced May 18.

The firm will station about 20 technical and operations experts in Dallas to work with Texas Central Partners, a Texas company backed by private investors that will build and manage the $10 billion to $12 billion undertaking.

[scalziand]

Dallas-Fort Worth high-speed rail plan draws worldwide interest
June 20, 2016 6:14 PM
By Gordon Dickson
gdickson@star-telegram.com


Officials from railroads in France, China, attend forum

Bullet trains would connect Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth

Proposals to build system due Aug. 31


ARLINGTON

High-speed rail is a touchy subject in much of Texas, where some politicians and landowners are concerned about train tracks cutting across private property.

But local leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth, where traffic congestion is a near-universal concern among many of the region’s roughly 7 million residents, want the world’s biggest passenger rail operators to know that if they’re willing to build the super-fast trains in North Texas they will find a more-than-receptive audience.

“You are not trying to sell yourself to us today. We are trying to sell our region to you,” Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told officials from both French and Chinese railroad companies Monday during a meeting in Arlington. “Regardless of what our national government does, we are reaching out to the congressional delegation to fund high-speed rail.”

High-speed trains can travel up to 220 mph in parts of Europe and Asia. However, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area the so-called bullet trains would probably go no faster than 90-150 mph because of urban density.

Those French and Chinese officials were among several dozen people who attended a high-speed forum hosted by the Texas Commission on High-Speed Rail in the Dallas-Fort Worth Region. The commission was put together more than two years ago, with former Fort Worth councilman Bill Meadows as its chairman, to explore ways to build a rail system with trains capable of going up to 220 mph.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/tr...#storylink=cpy

[llamaorama]

I live in B/CS. The people in the "twin cities" themselves want the project and want the station. The opposition really originates from Grimes County, any beyond that is probably political lip service.

The idea the line will "bypass" us is a strong word because it would only be a ~30 minute drive to the outlying station. We have uber and a plethora of other independent taxis here now, so you don't have to worry about parking. Sure, its well outside of town, but it will be about as accessible as the downtown Dallas station will be to someone living in Frisco or any corner of the sprawling metroplex when you think about it.

Being a short skip from Dallas would be huge for us. Obviously Houston is already close enough to drive without too much hassle, but Dallas is a solid 3+ hour trip a part of which is via rural roads, so just enough of a pain to make splurging on an HSR ticket possibly worth it.

Our airport in College Station is pretty terrible. There are only a handful of flights to Dallas and Houston daily. The limited frequency of flights reduces travel time advantages, and because you can only go to DFW and IAH, you miss out on the lower cost flights that use Love and Hobby. If the train could be extended along the TRE corridor from downtown Dallas, to Love Field and then to DFW, holy shit it would be amazing, and our airport would be totally pointless and probably close. Even now you can just get on the DART Orange Line.

[Qubert]

TCR could probably get even more political firepower if they courted the developers. I know that putting so much land within an hour of Dallas and/or Houston has got to have the homebuilders salivating.