That’s the assessment of Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody. He tells Trains News Wire that even though 11 bills designed to thwart construction did not advance, “There’s always a chance that amendments and riders could still be attached to bills working through the Texas House and Senate; we’re watching the situation very closely.”
The Texas Tribune reports that a budget conference committee member says a rider was struck that would have prevented the state’s transportation department from coordinating with Texas Central in any way because, “the language changes general law, something that House rules don’t allow the budget to do.”
Hearings were held on two Senate bills, but they have not advanced from the transportation committee. There are specific deadlines that govern how legislation may be considered, and many dates have already passed.
The big question is whether Texas Central has the right to utilize eminent domain laws to condemn property, a power granted to highways, railroads, and public utilities like power lines and pipelines, just in case the company can’t come to a purchase agreement with landowners. Texans Against High-Speed Rail President and Chairman Kyle Workman has argued, and a Leon County Court agreed, that Texas Central isn’t a railroad because it doesn’t yet operate any trains.
The already-approved federal Draft Environmental Impact Statement notes that 52% of the chosen route runs adjacent to power line corridors. Coincidentally, these were built with the knowledge that eminent domain laws would compel sales if agreements could not be reached.
Holly Reed, Texas Central’s managing director of external affairs, told Trains News Wire on a tour of the proposed Dallas station location in January 2019 that, since a definite route alignment has now been chosen, “we’re in the field every single day negotiating and signing deals. We’ve publicly announced we have over 30% of the parcels under an option contract.”
She adds that because the southern portion of the route close to Houston was known for some time, “In Waller, Grimes, and Madison counties we actually have half of the parcels under contract.”
Reed emphasizes that more than half of the sealed right-of-way is to be elevated and will be built on earthen berms or viaducts. A part of every landowner property discussion is to make sure pass-through needs on the property are incorporated into specific construction plans.
The State of Texas doesn’t have a problem with using eminent domain for sports stadiums, or super speedways that benefit private parties/individuals. Why the resistance to a private venture that will alleviate some traffic on Interstate 45? If somebody started a transfer service from the Houston terminal to the Galveston cruise ship port that would alleviate a little bit of the weekend traffic also.
How long has this “Texas Central” debacle gone on? 10 years? and they still haven’t turned one spade of dirt. My guess is that the TC experiment will lose the support of the big money developers and just fade away. I’m not against the project at all. I very much would like to see it completed. I just think that the Texas legislature will keep flogging this horse (with legislative and legal roadblocks) until it is dead.
Well, I started this conversation (at the bottom) and it has digressed into SW Airlines and folks experiences on AMTRAK. However, I want to answer one comment concerning the proximity of the Houston end to that city’s downtown. I don’t know about Houston but the Dallas end at Kay bailey Hutchison Convention Center connects directly with the DART light rail system. Surely it’s one of the reasons that Texas Central chose its terminal there. Moreover, Fort Worth can connect via the existing TRE service to Union Station and walk across the tracks to DART for a 5-minute ride to the proposed station.
Steve: I have met Southwest passengers at Baltimore Thurgood Marshall or Washington Ronald Reagan transferring to various points in New England or the Northeast – Providence, Portland (Maine), Manchester (New Hampshire), or Long Island. Southwest has nothing to fear from Amtrak or any other railroad.
Even I have given up on the railroads. I can get from home in Wisconsin to Detroit by Amtrak (with a change in Chicago) but what’s the point? I can – and will – fly direct from MKE to DTW, rent a car, and I’m there for the same price in many hours fewer. The last time I took Amtrak to Detroit was ten years ago. I went to visit a friend at Henry Ford Hospital. My hotel was a block from Amtrak’s station at Detroit New Center and a half mile from Henry Ford. So I didn’t need to rent a car. If you do need to rent a car, you might as well fly and get it over and done.
My trip to Detroit on Amtrak was so-so. “Business Class” is a noisy wide spot in the cafe car. Eastbound was okay. Westbound I was “entertained” for six hours in Business Class by a group of men watching Lebanese pornography on a laptop and loudly commenting thereupon. I also noticed how slowly the train crawled from West Detroit to Detroit New Center. Two or three miles seemed to take forever on double-track grade-separated ROW.
On the other hand, a friend did take Amtrak from Milwaukee to Battle Creek. That’s where Amtrak’s Chicago hub does make sense – the intermediate haul.
I fly SW out/in all the time at BWI. Amtrak isn’t really competition to them since its mainly NYC to DC. The shared rail station at the airport is mainly for those air travelers going to/from the airport from/to one of the local suburban towns along the line. I would think SW loses very few passengers to Amtrak on the longer NEC runs out of Boston. SW certainly don’t lose them to the few Amtrak LD trains outside the NEC.
My only apprehension to Texas Central is that the proposed line will not go directly to Downtown Houston. Downtown is the hub of the Houston metropolitan area and its largest business district. For Downtown Houston to stay relevant, Texas Central should go directly there and share its terminal with Amtrak’s Sunset Limited in the process.
At times I wonder if Dallas-based Texas Central is part of a conspiracy to make Downtown Houston less relevant. In Florida, Virgin Trains USA (née Brightline) connects the downtown areas of Miami and West Palm Beach with a proposed extension to Downtown Tampa.
I don’t know anything about Southwest’s opposition. If it is true (I don’t know that it’s true) it would be strange. Southwest flies everywhere to everywhere to everywhere. Flights between Houston and Dallas aren’t a pimple on an elephant for Southwest. Nor do they need fear losing the market. Typically rail lines are about the intermediate points, not end-to-end as an airline’s service. Nor is relatively short-haul route necessarily profitable for the airline.
One of Southwest’s major hubs is Baltimore, as Amtrak-friendly a city as exists anywhere, a city that by American standards is just made for rail. Yet Southwest’s Baltimore hub is extraordinariy large and extraordinarily busy – and its nearby hub at Washingtin Ronald Reagan has significant traffic also.
SW Airlines has no commuter service and I’m not aware of any existing deals between them and commuter operators to funnel them passengers-although I’m not totally aware of what is going on in the western states. I’m not sure of why they are so opposed other than they might have a very profitable service between Houston and Dallas that they want to protect. The two Texas cities are certainly big enough that they have many SW flights directly to other cities that won’t be affected at all by what is essential a corridor between two fairly close cities. Economically, there’s no incentive for someone flying into either Dallas or Houston to arrive at one of the airports and then switch to Texas Central to complete the trip to the other city.
As “they” always say…follow the money. One of the biggest entities fighting this proposal is Southwest Airlines. Too bad one of the airlines can’t be a true transportation company. If they were, they might have the vision to support projects like these as feeders into their long distance routes instead of the current inefficient and high cost (and highly subsidized via the Essential Air Service government grants) so-called commuter flights.
The plans to build a high-speed rail route between Dallas and Houston could not be in a better set of circumstances. Privately financed and over terrain that is simple upon which to build. Last, and most important, it should be a success from the get-go, when considering the population at both ends, rife with folks who do not have a car, can’t drive, or find the distance too far. In addition to its terminus in Dallas, Fort Worth would definitely connect to the line, adding another source of passengers. The opposition to this project is simply selfish for their own interests. The trains will not blow horns, ring bells, or make any other outrageous noise during their journeys.