Dallas Morning News: High-speed rail opponents are shortsighted
March 16th, 2016
March 16, 2016 - Dallas Morning News Editorial
As flip-flops go, Brazos Valley Council of Governments’ new opposition to high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston is more than baffling. It is bad policy, too.
The regional planner had backed the bullet train project as a boon for the Texas economy. But last week, agency chairman Ben Leman said the group now opposes the project because it might require the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the tracks. Leman, who (coincidentally?) also heads a rural coalition against high-speed rail, says eminent domain is “not justified due to the lack of public benefit that would be achieved or might be achieved by this project.”
No public benefit? Tell that to all the workers and business leaders caught on I-45 in gas-guzzling, head-pounding traffic headaches for a six-hour trip when the option could be a smooth 90-minute train ride between the state’s two big cities.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20160316-editorial-high-speed-rail-opponents-are-shortsighted.ece
As flip-flops go, Brazos Valley Council of Governments’ new opposition to high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston is more than baffling. It is bad policy, too.
The regional planner had backed the bullet train project as a boon for the Texas economy. But last week, agency chairman Ben Leman said the group now opposes the project because it might require the use of eminent domain to acquire land for the tracks. Leman, who (coincidentally?) also heads a rural coalition against high-speed rail, says eminent domain is “not justified due to the lack of public benefit that would be achieved or might be achieved by this project.”
No public benefit? Tell that to all the workers and business leaders caught on I-45 in gas-guzzling, head-pounding traffic headaches for a six-hour trip when the option could be a smooth 90-minute train ride between the state’s two big cities.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20160316-editorial-high-speed-rail-opponents-are-shortsighted.ece