Posted on 10/23/2014 6:06:57 AM PDT by thackney
Observers have long known that only a few options were available for the route of the privately funded high-speed train line between Houston and Dallas. Now a firmer picture of where the trains might run is emerging.
(Photo courtesy of JR Central) (Photo courtesy of JR Central) As part of the federally required process to evaluate the line, the Federal Railroad Administration and Texas Department of Transportation released maps of the nine routes they are considering and the two chosen for deeper evaluation.
The lines that didn’t make the final cut seem to be a bit longer, or else have more zigs and zags along the way. Keep in mind, however, that this is very preliminary and part of an environmental process that will take months, potentially a couple years, to wind up.
All follow rights of way of railroads, TxDOT or utilities, which is pretty standard for rail development. Those are the agencies or companies that own long, thin swaths of real estate that are relatively clear. Backers of the train, who are paying for the analysis, would acquire the property.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.chron.com ...
I agree. my range is now 8 hours.
If I can drive there within 8 hours (with no place to stop in between), I will not fly.
Yup! All the PR dudes need is a pithy acronym for the dash for cash system like the one Atlanta uses for their Rapit Transit.
It would come in handy for hurricane evacuation.
Good finds, Whenifhow! Thanks for the ping. What makes me crazy is that I love passenger trains, but those pushing them are not wanting them to be used with free market values, but as a means of control of populations.
High speed rail is a zero!!! DOA!!! Why? A few choice words....Southwest Airlines and great Texas highways!!! High speed rail, a waste of time and money....even if it is private money!!!
Center for America Progress >>> Center for American Socialism
Uh, no. We don't want to encourage folks from Austin to come to Dallas.
Affordable self-piloting automobiles and small aircraft will be available sooner than this railroad can be built. Commuter trains have no future.
> Progress 2050 is a project of the Center for American Progress that develops new ideas for an increasingly diverse America.
Whenever you hear the word, “diverse”, you know it means you are going to have to sacrifice something for someone else; either your money or your place in line for someone who didn’t earn their place in line.
You are not only right...but.....you are 1000% correct and right on the money!!! Anyone that supports high speed commuter trains is not with the program and is minus a total brain!!! I can write a ten page “white paper” why “high speed rail” is a total farce, fleece and scam, from A-Z!!!
No sane passenger would ride from their home to a train depot, board a train and take a two hour train ride from Dallas to Houston, where they have to rent a car, and drive to their final destination, when they can get in their auto and drive to Houston...directly to their destination in about four hours total, or, even easier and faster, get a low fare ticket on Southwest Airlines or another air carrier, drive to Love Field, Dallas and be in Houston in just about one hour, flight time!!! End of story!!!
“Uh, no. We don’t want to encourage folks from Austin to come to Dallas.”
Good point. Don’t want Austin anywhere near San Antonio.
If the oil price forecast for the next five years is even close to correct Houston is about to hit the skids in a big way.
It is so overbuilt now for what is coming it will have caverns of empty space for the next 10 years again.
If they’re smart they would do the BCS route. On weekends that thing would be full to the brim. Weekdays, the added length would not matter much and the right of way would be less expensive
Government Funded Bullet Trains Will Connect American Agenda 21 Megacities
http://agenda21news.com/2014/08/2582/
The high speed railway is the brainchild of America 2050, a non-governmental organization that supports Agenda 21 policies in the US.
The Left WANTS the dystopian police state of the fure depicted in sci-fi movies like Total Recall, Hunger Games, and Elysium because “it’s just so radical, “so cool”, and “fun” to be a citizen. It’s one thing to watch a movie in your comfy seats with popcorn but quite another to live under the tyrrany if that type rule and they are just too brain dead, naive and lived far too comfortably in a very spoiled type of environment to even conceive of the true horroe and reality that would really ensue.
The Left WANTS the dystopian police state of the future depicted in sci-fi movies like Total Recall, Hunger Games, and Elysium because “it’s just so radical, “so cool”, and “fun” to be a citizen. It’s one thing to watch a movie in your comfy seats with popcorn but quite another to live under the tyrrany if that type rule and they are just too brain dead, naive and lived far too comfortably in a very spoiled type of environment to even conceive of the true horroe and reality that would really ensue.
I have no idea if this venture is financially viable -- I'm skeptical -- but I can see why it might make a lot of sense to business travelers.
I’m presuming that in Texas, bullet trains come with actual bullets.
I agree. If this is a privately-funded project without government interference, then market forces of supply, demand, and price will do what they do best to determine what and how something like this could work cost-effectively for a profit.
If it’s a government project fuhgeddaboudit.
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