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eikonal

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  1. More precisely, the project is not dead yet. After reading up on it though I have a bad feeling. Let's assume optimistically that the eminent domain bill doesn't pass, or they build despite it. Metcalf's bill, without even making it out of the committee, already forced them into "utility corridor", which skips population centers between Houston and Dallas. This makes it a two big cities project, which is at best a nuisance to everybody in between, so constant pushback in the legislature. T-bone failed to materialize even in some small part, and it had Perry's support. I am not sure about Dallas, but in Houston at the moment they do not have a viable path from Northwest TC to downtown, and there is no well connected downtown location, which is track accessible, anyway. The prices are planned to be "comparable" to airlines. In places where trains are common one of the main attractions is that they are substantially cheaper than planes, it doesn't work on pure convenience. But with the station at Northwest TC there is not even that, it is not that different from going to the Hobby airport. Except Hobby has connections to a variety of destinations, and the train is not part of any rail network, it's to Dallas only. HSR has high security risks, hence high insurance costs. Cooks do not derail freight trains often because human toll is low, but with 200 miles of track and 205 mph the bullet train is an attractive soft target. Even if just a bad accident happens and riders are scared off TCR is unlikely to survive, same as many airlines after 9/11. TCR project is interesting as a proof of principle. Loudest objections to publicly funded passenger rail are that it is a "government boondogle". But now a private venture faces the same kind of opposition from similar sources. It is pushed into building not where people are, but where it steps the least on somebody's toes. It is deprived of benefits, like eminent domain, that pipeline, utility and road builders get as a matter of course. It is suggested to be subjected to heckler's veto. Perhaps the underlying reason is simply that Texas doesn't have sufficient population density, but it is interesting to see how it works itself through the political system. Support is more of a "sounds good" type, while opposition is intense and mobilized. I doubt that a large scale rail project has a chance in Texas until political realignment happens for some reason. This story reminded me the fate of the Universities line in Houston. First "community preferred alternative" that made trains turn 6 times in half as many blocks, and took them away from TSU, then a ban on federal funding and local tax funding along Richmond. And along Westpark, as "suggested" by Culberson, it is largely pointless.
  2. You are exactly right. Sen. Kolkhorst’s said during the hearings: “My biggest concern is the devastation that it will do to rural areas. This makes the Trans-Texas Corridor not look so bad.” A guy who said he owns land along the tracks said “TCR’s path of destruction will be the greatest decimation of private property since Sherman marched through Georgia.” It would be funny if it wasn't so unfortunate. http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/04/ghost-of-trans-texas-corridor-haunting-texas-bullet-train-venture.html/ I feel the same way. The I-10 extension to downtown was proposed by Annise Parker, who will not be mayor for much longer, and who knows how subsequent administrations will feel about it. As it is TCR's "utility corridor" ends at Northwest TC it looks like, and that will be similar to Houston-Galveston running out of Heights. Even if they do get to downtown the only convenient transfer spot is Burnett (I doubt that UHD will allow a station under their building, or that the city will build a light rail extension to Amtrak spot just to accommodate TCR). But I remember reading on this forum that there was some problem with running even commuter trains to Burnett. Not because of track alignment, but for some other reason, was it land ownership? They picked locations for Dallas http://launchdfw.com/news/two-possible-dallas-locations-selected-for-high-speed-rail/. I've never been to Dallas, are those places connected to DART? By the way, do I read the map right: "utility corridor" bypasses both Woodlands and College Station? So not many useful stations in the middle either?
  3. This comes on the heels of another proposed bill, which is still in the pipeline:"landowners and Conroe state Rep. Will Metcalf, a Republican who wants to kill the thing, regardless of whether the train takes any public money or crosses his district". http://blogs.houstonpress.com/news/2015/02/conroe_lawmaker_wants_to_kill_houston-dallas_bullet_train_even_if_it_doesnt_touch_his_district_or_pu.phpThis kind of opposition strikes me as irrational, but it probably means that the stated reasons are mostly pretexts. It's the same with the bill in question:" Currently, hundreds of private firms have eminent domain authority in Texas, including pipeline companies, utility companies and telecommunication firms. More than a dozen private railroad companies also have that authority, according to an unofficial list maintained by the state comptroller." I guess this explains why rail projects rarely take off in Texas, there is opposition to trains as such, (because they are seen as "liberal"?), and no influential lobby to counter it. It also occured to me the security costs may be very high, planes have to be protected only at the airports, but this train has to be protected along the entire track. It doesn't take much to derail it at 205 mph, so it's an easy target.
  4. So is TCR project, if it does get built, facing the same dim prospects (political opposition, insurance costs, etc.) as Houston-Galveston, or is it different now? And would the location of the station make as much of a difference?
  5. I wasn't following the topic closely, so my question is how likely is this TCR project to be implemented? As I recall there were lots of rail projects in recent years: T-bone, intermodal terminal, commuter trains around Houston, something federally funded, Houston-Galveston 2.0, etc., all had support and enthusiasm, but nothing ever came of them except studies and more studies. I appreciate that TCR is private, but there used to be a private Houston-Galveston train in 1990-s, and it didn't work out either. I think they were trying to have the city take it over, but it fell through. I am just not sure that public transportation can be made to work for profit long term, and there seems to be a lot of ideological opposition in Texas to trains specifically for some reason. Some politicians are already talking against TCR. So given all that are there any particular reasons to believe that this time will be different? And my second question is, assuming it happens, where will be the terminus in Houston? They are saying "near downtown", but I am not sure what that means. I think somebody wanted to buy the USPS building near the current Amtrak station, was it them? Why can't they use the place under the Burnett light rail station, where intermodal terminal was supposed to be?
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