The Central Japan Railway's Shinkansen N700. A later model of the electrified bullet train is proposed for service between Dallas and Houston.
The Federal Railroad Administration and TxDOT are conducting the first public meeting this evening on the private Texas Central High-Speed Railway’s plan for a Dallas-Houston bullet train. This newspaper is an editorial fan of the project.
If you go on the FRA’s website to look through project materials, you can see potential routes the service could take between the two cities. The company aims to use lots of existing rights of way, be it the state’s, another railroad company’s or a utility company’s. The train would be electrified and run along elevated tracks.
What you don’t see on the FRA website is detail on possible routes into and within downtown Dallas — or where the train station might be. Those details will be divulged later today at the FRA/TxDOT meeting, called a “scoping” meeting. I inquired of Texas Central VP Travis Kelly, and he told me this, via email:
The presentation to be given by the agencies tonight will show areas where station locations have been identified, both in Dallas and in Houston. The evaluation criteria and scoring matrix that resulted in the downselect from many alternatives to two will also be shown and spoken to. …
The agencies may wait until after the final scoping meeting to make these materials available on their website.
If you’re curious about “scoping” this out, I may see you tonight at the Infomart.