High Speed Rail HSR (Houston - DFW Dallas Fort Worth) (FKA Texas Central )

[kaitoku]

Arlington and Ft. Worth stations in the works, or just wishes?

Texas Central Railway had previously stated an unwillingness to build past their projected Dallas suburban terminus (costs), but comes this bit of news:

Plans call for rail stations in Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas, from which passengers could travel to Houston. Specific station locations have not been decided. More cities statewide could be added to the rail line after the initial route is established, Eckels said.

Though no public funds are part of the project, Jordan said that could change.
“We’re not going to volunteer public funds, but if it were to solve a public issue and it were cost effective, then obviously a public-private partnership would be the correct way to go,” said Jordan, citing right-of-way acquisition as constituting a public issue, for example.
Asked how much passenger tickets would cost, and Eckels said, “as much as we can charge,” emphasizing his company’s private business status.

“It can change your price $500 million to $1 billion just to move a station a half mile,” said Eckels.
Turning a profit is essential for the company due to its private status, Eckels said.
“We have to pay back our debt and our investors. We are particularly sensitive to issues that can drive costs,” said Eckels, referring to station location, alignment and other considerations.

The way the article is written, we don't know how much is old rehashed news and what is new, as far as station location- Mr. Eckels being noncommittal so far.

http://fwbusinesspress.com/fwbp/article ... tails.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[electricron]

The way the article is written, we don't know how much is old rehashed news and what is new, as far as station location- Mr. Eckels being noncommittal so far.

http://fwbusinesspress.com/fwbp/article ... tails.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's all the same old rehashed news, with Texas Central spokesman Eckels suggesting additional stations could be added later and that as a private enterprise they will seek to spend as little as possible to make as much as possible; while Fort Worth city councilman Jordan suggesting a public private partnership so the trains could be extended to Fort Worth although he wasn't suggesting where that public money was coming from.
I suggest it will not be Fort Worth providing those public funds to extend the train from Dallas to Fort Worth.
I will also suggest that an electric powered 200 mph train will require catenary wires over the tracks and that the existing freight railroads aren't going to like catenary wires over their tracks with double stacked container cars. Any sharing of a railroad corridor is not going to be sharing tracks, the HSR trains will be running over their own tracks although maybe in an existing freight corridor.

[kaitoku]

Texas Central Railway president talks to Bryan-College Station officials

The push to get a high-speed rail through Bryan-College Station is picking up steam again among local officials.

Texas Central Railway President Robert Eckels was at the College Station City Council last week to discuss the opportunity for a private, above-ground, for-profit high-speed passenger rail system connecting Dallas/Ft. Worth to Houston in less than 90 minutes.

Eckels, who previously served as a county judge in Harris County, said that although being on the private sector side can be refreshing, it is also frustrating that the TCR cannot rely on taxpayers and city council mandates to help initiatives to move forward.

"Our route will be based on economic factors, and I think that's what you see as the difference between here and other parts of the country: We're backed locally, where other projects may be trying to promote development some place for a political subdivision," Eckels said.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/arti ... 45a8d.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This article has some slides from the presentation by Texas Central Ry.
http://wtaw.com/2013/11/22/cs-council-r ... il-update/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

More news about potential stations in the Metroplex:

A private company that wants to build 220 mph bullet trains in Texas is committed to stopping in downtown Dallas, and is looking at sites near Union Station, the state’s new high-speed rail commission chairman said Wednesday.

Texas Central Railway, a company that aims to open a high-speed rail line from Houston to Dallas by 2021, is also open to the concept of extending the line to Arlington and Fort Worth, said Bill Meadows of Fort Worth, chairman of the North Texas High-Speed Rail Commission.

In Fort Worth, the T&P Station is a logical site for a station, Meadows said.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/02/05 ... .html?rh=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

More about the failed Texas TGV project than the current Texas Central scheme, but interesting reading.

In 1989, former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes joined a group of investors hoping to develop a bullet train system in Texas. The company, Texas TGV, planned to build a 200 mph line between Dallas and Houston and then expand to Austin and San Antonio. After four years and more than $70 million in investments, the project collapsed.

“It’s the closest any state has come to having a high-speed train,” Barnes said. “I’ll spend the rest of my life asking what if.”

More than two decades later, Texas Central Railway is trying to revive a part of that earlier project, a privately financed bullet train connecting Dallas and Houston. As the company prepares to do a federally required environmental impact study and hold public meetings along the planned route, its leaders say they expect to avoid the pitfalls of the earlier project, namely inadequate financing and intense opposition from Southwest Airlines.

more:
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/07/ ... -past-pit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

Interesting little debate between SMU economist and Texas Central Railway:

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnew ... tein.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

The project gets endorsement from mayors of the anchor cities of the proposed route:

The mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth on Thursday announced their unified support for the construction of a privately funded bullet train between the two metropolitan regions.

“If successful, Houstonians will have a reliable, private alternative that will help alleviate traffic congestion and drastically reduce travel times,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a press conference at Houston City Hall.

https://www.texastribune.org/2014/03/27 ... let-train/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

Proposed routes of the Fort Worth-Dallas section:

High-speed rail from Dallas to Fort Worth and, ultimately, to Houston, could follow one or two routes, according to preliminary plans in the works now.

The timeline for the project is 2021.

One option starts in downtown Fort Worth and heads east along Interstate 30 with stops in Grand Prairie and downtown Dallas before heading south to Houston.

more:
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/ ... -i-30.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Arlington]

An article today from the Texas Observer, but it is unclear if there's much news in it, unless advancing to "2020" is news versus the 2021 (cited in the post ^above)

http://www.texasobserver.org/ever-seen- ... day-might/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

EIS to be prepared after FRA gives go sign:

As expected, the Federal Railroad Administration has given the thumbs-up to an environmental impact statement concerning a long-proposed Dallas-to-Houston high-speed rail line. The FRA, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation, will conduct the EIS on behalf of the privately operated Texas Central Railway, which promises a 90-minute trek from Dallas to Houston (by 2021, give or take).

The EIS will study various route alignments, including “shared corridors with other existing linear infrastructure corridors such as railroads, roads, and electric utility lines.” Also, says the FRA, it will “analyze the potential impacts of stations, power facilities, and maintenance facilities to support HSR operations.” The review could take some time — several months, say transportation officials, and possibly longer than a year.

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.co ... oday.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Arlington]

Thanks for the update. I am hopeful that by aligning this with existing road and rail ROWs, that they will be able to speed the EIS--there's going to be very little of environmental or historic significance if they have ROWs that are straight and easy to move between.

[kaitoku]

Texas Central aiming for service frequencies of 2tph peak, 1 tph off-peak Houston-Dallas.

A fleet of high-speed bullet trains could be zipping from Dallas to Houston 68 times a day by 2021, says Travis Kelly, vice president of government relations for the Texas Central Railway.

That’s 34 trips a day in each direction on weekdays and less on the weekends.

During peak travel times, Japanese-built trains will be departing every 30 minutes, traveling at speeds of nearly 200 mph. In off-peak times, the trains would leave every hour. The journey would take about 90 minutes to travel the roughly 240 mile distance.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/ ... l?page=all" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kaitoku]

The EIS presentation for public scoping meetings now being held at various locations. Some details of proposed routes and possible end point station locations. The favored alignments are along the BNSF line or a utility corridor.
https://dallashoustonhsr.files.wordpres ... tation.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Arlington]

The EIS presentation for public scoping meetings now being held at various locations. Some details of proposed routes and possible end point station locations. The favored alignments are along the BNSF line or a utility corridor.
https://dallashoustonhsr.files.wordpres ... tation.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks so much, and I can't resist including this picture from the http://www.dallashoustonhsr.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; website (click to enlarge). BNSF is in Red and the utility alignment is in Orange:

[Gilbert B Norman]

The Wall Street Journal reports today the sponsors will be looking to Japan for financing. Needless to say if such comes to pass, expect the project to rely heavily upon Japanese HSR technology:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-group ... 1423592965" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brief passage:

DALLAS—In the race to build a bullet train in the U.S., a Texas group aims to be the first to market—to zip travelers from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes as soon as 2021—without a dime in federal or state subsidies.

The $10 billion Texas Central Railway project touts itself as fully private, in contrast to a proposed, $68 billion high-speed train system in California that is supported by taxpayers and has been delayed by legal and political opposition.

But the Texas train does have a potential government backer: Japan. Japan’s export bank said it is considering a loan to Texas Central Railway. The venture also involves Central Japan Railway Co. , a private business that operates that country’s busiest bullet-train line and is eager to see Japanese rail technology exported to America.

If the Texas project proceeds as planned—it faces daunting obstacles and a history of abandoned U.S. high-speed rail projects, including one in Texas in the 1990s—it would beat out California’s project by about a year. Supporters are optimistic that can happen, saying that without a dependence on public funds the Texas line is less likely to run into red tape.

“One of the reasons projects have failed in the past is they’ve been apparently politically compromised from day one,” said Richard Lawless, Texas Central Railway’s chief executive.

Presumably if this project moves forth without any US taxpayer funds (hard as that is to believe), any "buy America" provisions endemic to other rail and transit projects will be obviated. There would however, expressed or implied, be "buy Japan" provisions with any such agreement.