The words “bullet train” conjure images of sleek rail cars slicing through the Japanese or French countryside and, in a flash, vanishing into the horizon.
Picture the same thing across Texas.
People in the Dallas area will get that chance Tuesday, in the first detailed airing of a private company’s plans for 200-mph rail service linking downtown Dallas and Houston.
Is such a thing possible in our lifetime? Let’s concede that skeptics are out there and the hurdles are many.
Yet the company, Texas Central High-Speed Railway, has assembled a high-powered team that’s serious about making money by shuttling rail passengers between two of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing metro areas.
This newspaper has watched this rail project truck along over many months. A few observations: The parameters and timetables haven’t wavered, unlike what we’d expect from a typical government-sponsored project of this scope. If anything, its corporate lineup has grown stronger, with the addition of former Texas Rangers president Tom Schieffer, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia.
Backers include the Japanese rail company that makes an integrated bullet-train system that’s operated for 50 years without a fatality. The company has a strong motivation to get a U.S. foothold for its latest technology, the Shinkansen N700-I.
Texas Central says the project, with a cost exceeding $10 billion, will be privately financed and will not seek government aid, either for construction or operating expenses. That’s a winning political strategy in Texas.
Government officials have been boosters of Texas Central and would love to have another demonstration project for how private enterprise can flourish in this state.
The goal is to start construction in 2017 and begin Texas bullet-train service in 2021. That would be eight years ahead of California’s latest scheduled completion date for its publicly financed, politically tortured high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Dallas-Houston trip would take less than 90 minutes along an elevated, double-tracked, electrified system. (A separate, locally planned effort aims to find separate sources of money to build a Fort Worth-Dallas extension.)
The Texas Central project is at the stage where two government agencies are leading an environmental review process. Beginning Tuesday in Dallas, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Texas Department of Transportation will conduct six meetings across the state.
For the first time, possible routes between Houston and Dallas — and into downtown — will be unveiled for the public. There will be an open house, presentation and opportunity for comment.
Here are comments we’re tempted to enter into the record: This project reeks of Texas audacity. We’d love to see it beat the odds and skepticism and add something unprecedented in the nation to the Lone Star landscape.
Public meetings
Two government agencies are conducting six meetings statewide on the Texas Central High-Speed Railway project. The first will be Tuesday at the Dallas Infomart, 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway, Room 7000.
THE SCHEDULE
Open house: 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Presentation: 6:30-7 p.m.
Public comment session: 7-8 p.m.
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