July 21, 2016 - skift.com
A $100 million bet says that thousands of Texans will abandon cars and pick-ups for a needle-nosed bullet train that zips past cattle and ranches to deliver riders from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes — a third of the time required to drive.
The Texas Central Railway is only a virtual train, as almost all the $12 billion for the nation’s first privately financed high-speed rail line has yet to materialize, not to mention the land it would require. But there’s a real fight pitting rural, multi-generational landowners along the proposed route against newly arrived urbanites who seek faster travel between the nation’s fourth- and fifth- largest metropolitan areas.
The bullet train plan reflects the Texas credo that the private sector can do anything better than the government. California has watched the projected cost of publicly financed bullet train linking Los Angeles and San Francisco more than double the $33 billion original cost, and a private Orlando-to-Miami line in Florida struggled to sell bonds even with a tax exemption. The 245-mile (394-kilometer) route across the east Texas flatland, though, is rooted in the distinctive belief that passenger trains can be built and operated without direct public subsidies.
Read more: https://skift.com/2016/07/21/texas-thinks-its-high-speed-rail-plans-will-win-where-others-have-hit-roadblocks/
A $100 million bet says that thousands of Texans will abandon cars and pick-ups for a needle-nosed bullet train that zips past cattle and ranches to deliver riders from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes — a third of the time required to drive.
The Texas Central Railway is only a virtual train, as almost all the $12 billion for the nation’s first privately financed high-speed rail line has yet to materialize, not to mention the land it would require. But there’s a real fight pitting rural, multi-generational landowners along the proposed route against newly arrived urbanites who seek faster travel between the nation’s fourth- and fifth- largest metropolitan areas.
The bullet train plan reflects the Texas credo that the private sector can do anything better than the government. California has watched the projected cost of publicly financed bullet train linking Los Angeles and San Francisco more than double the $33 billion original cost, and a private Orlando-to-Miami line in Florida struggled to sell bonds even with a tax exemption. The 245-mile (394-kilometer) route across the east Texas flatland, though, is rooted in the distinctive belief that passenger trains can be built and operated without direct public subsidies.
Read more: https://skift.com/2016/07/21/texas-thinks-its-high-speed-rail-plans-will-win-where-others-have-hit-roadblocks/