AUSTIN, Texas — A representative of the Texas Central project was back in front of a state legislative committee on Thursday (April 17), saying the proposed high-speed rail project is not dead after the federal government rescinded a grant — but also that it is currently “not proposing construction of the project.”
The news site The Texan reports that Andy Jent of Kleinheinz General Partners — which recently emerged as the project’s lead financier — told the state House Transportation Committee that the company hopes to complete planning and financing work by the end of the year, then submit an application to the Surface Transportation Board.
Jent was testifying at a hearing addressing the committee’s demands for detailed financing and other information about Texas Central. Dissatisfied with his testimony at a hearing earlier this month, the committee issued a subpoena requesting that information [see “Texas lawmakers subpoena …,” Trains News Wire, April 4, 2025].
That subpoena did not produce some of the requested information, such as an organizational chart or the cost of completing the project. Jent said Texas Central is being restructured and will eliminate some of its $750 million debt.
He also said the company was interpreting the cancellation of a $63.9 million Federal Railroad Administration grant as meaning Amtrak should not lead the project, which he said is not in project’s best interest. “Federalization” of the project would have brought red tape in procurement, he said.
Gent said Kleinheinz wants to cooperate with the committee and has met with the chief of staff for Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine), sponsor of the bill that would require the company to provide detailed financial and organizational information annually.
Look at all the years this boondoggle has existed and with they say $100 million in cash but $750 million in debt and Amtrak bailing out. And, they have not laid any track or obtained the ROW
or prepared any right of way.
Now, the big question: Who would invest ANY money in that? Snicker, snicker.
Texas has had a lot of wild swings in policy in the last 30 years. Does anyone recall the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) proposals for gigantic highway/utility/railroad ROW’s that were to start with publicly led eminent domain land takings that ended in 2009? That plan morphed into toll highways for new builds, until there was a legislative revolt when the toll rates started getting above $0.4/VM. Now there are 2-lane toll highways with >70 MPH speeds. Prior to that was the Texas TGV canceled in 1994.
I don’t necessarily fault the Texas legislature as there are a lot of national groups still spinning the highway User-Fee pays it all myth that leads one to conclude tolls can work in today’s environment. But the reality is there is now a large scale expectation of a certain amount of “free” highway capacity that is actually leveraged atop fees on the locally funded roads, streets, and parking.
Perhaps the new group can get some type of investment tax credit that could come close to offsetting the “free” highway capacity? It would be interesting to see this proposal coupled with distribution loops around Houston and DFW on each end so it is a one seat ride, nighttime single level intermodal trailer transport, and some type of commuter service from local stations to provide service to local communities bypassed by the non-stops.
Few companies will admit it is out of business with a significant cash amount on their books. My rough calculation is Texas Central still probably has over $100 million on hand unspent cash. They are going to string out the “going concern” myth as long as there is cash to pay salaries. It’s money for the taking and as long as there is cash, there are people to dedicate themselves to a unreachable goal.
This isn’t a railroad. I’t is a scam.
If Kleinheinz General Partners the new investors now invested in Texas Central want to do something with Intercity Rail Dallas-Houston, then he should negotiated with BNSF to buy a half share in the old Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway/Burlington-Rock Island Railroad mainline (like Virginia with CSX DC-Richmond) and do a Brightline Florida project, add double-track with a speed of 90-110 MPH and some long segments of dedicated track along the ROW at 125 MPH. It’s 249 miles, so if you can do it at about 85 MPH average speed, then you can do it in 3 hours. The French ran express trains with such average speeds in the 1960-70s, should be able to do it here.
It’s clearly a railroad with surplus ROW, so that avoids a lot of land acquisition issues, you would want some curve realignments and grade separations in places, it’s pretty rural, avoids most of the big towns, in some places there is not much to grade separate and plenty of room to do so. You can get from the Amtrak Station in Houston to the Union Station in Dallas and then Fort Worth. In the suburbs of Houston there is even a big mall for a station and TOD. Brightline Florida was privately funded, so you should be able to do the same here.
Good luck with all that. These people (Texas Central) are not very honest with the public or with themselves. Ultimately, this is why the project is where it is today. It will end either in the hearings of the Texas Legislature or in a courtroom. It’s not going to end with a rail system of any kind.
Yep, you are way ahead but posted on Heartland Flyer article from a couple of days and noted how you could take it south from Dallas to Houston for a better rail corridor. You just layed out how to at a much more reasonable plan that is doable and cost effective. Would need multiple daily runs but think this would be one of the better corridor trains in the mid country – at least better than say Chicago-Milwaukee, or Chicago-St Louis or Chicago-Detroit just on metro pairings, ridership, and growth prospects.
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In my mind Texas has taken the two legged transportation approach of Highways and Airways and supersized it to Highways, Tollways and Airways. Texas needs to find the four legged transportation approach that Florida is now doing with Highways, Tollways, Airways and Brightline (Passenger Railroads) and or even VA & NC is doing with reasonable corridor rail development using existing Right of Ways/underutilized freight corridors.
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Anyone who sees the amount of Texas money going into highways and tollways should realize that something on par that is going on in FL, VA, NC or even Brightline West is very doable. Heck, TX likes to think itself of itself as its own country like Cali. It should act like it and realize that continuing to spend billion dollars trying to add lanes of pavement between its metro area is not the only solution.