Texas Central Project

[BigFootsSocks]

It's stripping them of the funding to review the over and underpasses, not to construct them.

So, what? They just build it without oversight from TXDOT? Jesus these politicians are fvking stupid

[ADCS]

So, what? They just build it without oversight from TXDOT? Jesus these politicians are fvking stupid

 

Presumably they need TxDOT approval to interfere with the state highway system in any way.

[Slick Vik]

More trouble at the State Capitol

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/10/high-speed-rail-at-risk-now-in-state-budget-bill/27083037/

If you watch the video with Dallas Mayor Rawlings on this page http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/05/10/inside-texas-politics-51015/27083251/

it appears this is a very serious threat and North Texas political leaders are in the crisis mode.

DALLAS – Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings blasted a last minute addition to the state budget bill that would kill a private plan to build high speed rail between North Texas and Houston.

"This enterprise has a chance to bring $10-$15 billion to Texas of private money. We're supposed to be about growth in this state; we're supposed to be about private enterprise, and here we are putting something in in the dark of night, which troubles me," Rawlings said in an interview Sunday morning on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics.

The rider was quietly added to the budget bill over the weekend, News 8 has learned.

As written, the rider limits the involvement of the Texas Department of Transportation in the project after an environmental impact study, which — insiders told News 8 — would essentially kill the Texas Central Railway's plan to build its own private tracks between the state's two largest population centers.

"I know it wasn't publicly debated," Rawlings said. "It was kind of put in in the dark of night."

(more at the official report)

Culberson-esque move

[BigFootsSocks]

Presumably they need TxDOT approval to interfere with the state highway system in any way.

That's what I'm saying, they can't just go ahead and do whatever they want. I don't understand the specifics behind this, but I assume that, like any other permitting process, it requires the company to pay TXDOT to get approval. 

 

The more I think about this, the less I see it as doing any sort of damage. This is just a poor attempt at any leverage towards the opposition. 

[mollusk]

A rail overpass crossing over a surface road wouldn't require much of a review process, but it will still take some in order to coordinate with future plans (if any) - this would be more of an issue closer to the urban areas.  However, a highway overpass crossing the rail would require an extensive amount of engineering, so yeah, this would be an effective way to drown the project.

 

I don't see the conspiracy, though... Schwertner (the senator who inserted the rider) represents about half of the counties TCR would pass through; he's just voting his district (at least the noisy, zero sum, dead ender part of it).

 

At the moment, HB1 is still in the conference committee, resolving the differences between the House and Senate bills as passed.  

[IronTiger]

I would definitely rather see that $3B go to road improvements not related to TCR, absolutely. Any assigning permits for TCR to build overpasses or underpasses where necessary will not require anywhere near that amount.

 

Right now, all we know is a vague idea of the route, and no planning schematics or renderings, or what land will it be on, and how much it will actually take. These don't even have to be final, and the longer this goes on, I'm getting a sinking feeling that TCR isn't telling the truth about how much taxpayer money will actually be used.

[cspwal]

They won't know how much tax payer money might even be used until after their proposed route is approved by the Feds.  They have stated publicly multiple times that they want to build this with private funds - however, they still have to cooperate with TxDot because they are making a transportation project in Texas.  They won't do the in-depth study for how many bridges going over how many roads, and how much that might be, until they get the approval.  I think they are telling the truth, and most of this is just paranoia not wanting another Trans-Texas corridor. 

[mollusk]

It won't be the first time "it will scare the horses" has been used...

[Luminare]

I just don't understand the rush. Why not wait till there is an official route approved by the Feds? I mean until that happens the State Legislature has no grounds to stop it.

[cspwal]

Because the opponents want to stop it before it gets a full head of steam

[ADCS]

I just don't understand the rush. Why not wait till there is an official route approved by the Feds? I mean until that happens the State Legislature has no grounds to stop it.

 

Most likely because the current legislative session is about to adjourn, and by the time the next session opens, the line will be a fait accompli. Reading between the lines, it suggests that the Abbot administration is supportive of the project to the point that he wouldn't call a special session in order to get the line blocked.

[Luminare]

Most likely because the current legislative session is about to adjourn, and by the time the next session opens, the line will be a fait accompli. Reading between the lines, it suggests that the Abbot administration is supportive of the project to the point that he wouldn't call a special session in order to get the line blocked.

 

I agree that this doesn't really stand a chance at getting past the legislature before the session is over. Way to many move pieces people are throwing into this budget. In fact I think this is exactly what the opposition wanted! They wanted to throw this provision in in the dead of night so no one would be able to uncover it until next session when it would be too late after the budget passed and would stop TCR just before they got started. The very fact that this wasn't even brought to the floor or to committee to be debated on outright should send red flags to those at the legislature just how shallow this really is and if it can't hold up in debate then it shouldn't be in the budget at all.

[mollusk]

I agree that this doesn't really stand a chance at getting past the legislature before the session is over. 

 

Dunno... let's see what the budget bill looks like once it gets out of the conference committee.  

 

The thing is, the budget is the ONE thing that must be accomplished by our merry little band in Austin that leaves many a village missing its idiot when in session.  (h/t Molly Ivins)

 

From the Texas House website:

 

Action on the Other House's Amendments and Conference Committees

If a bill is returned to the originating chamber with amendments, the originating chamber can either agree to the amendments or request a conference committee to work out differences between the house version and the senate version.... (potentially confusing sentence omitted)

Conference committees are composed of five members from each house appointed by the presiding officers. Once the conference committee reaches agreement, a conference committee report is prepared and must be approved by at least three of the five conferees from each house. Conference committee reports are voted on in each house and must be approved or rejected without amendment. If approved by both houses, the bill is signed by the presiding officers and sent to the governor.

 

So, it ain't over 'till it's over.  Abbott might or might not call a special to deal with the rail issue (my guess would be not, but what do I know?), but if they don't pass a budget, he'll HAVE to.

[BigFootsSocks]

I think it would behoove TCR to address this unfortunate Amtrak accident. How exactly will they be able to minimize human error in operating machinery at excess of 200 mph? There needs to be a focus on safety.

[ADCS]

I think it would behoove TCR to address this unfortunate Amtrak accident. How exactly will they be able to minimize human error in operating machinery at excess of 200 mph? There needs to be a focus on safety.

 

The Positive Train Control that was supposed to be installed on this curve will be there from Day 1 on the Texas Central line. That's one of the things that was discussed at the meeting - the FRA philosophy has been crash survivability up to this point. JR/Shinkansen/TCR philosophy has always been crash prevention. Much of TCR's struggle up to this point has been bringing FRA around to the merits of this position, and incidents like this one speak strongly in its favor.

 

While the seven deaths are undoubtedly tragic, the Texas highway death statistics that beam from the VMS boards around the state do put that number into perspective.

[rechlin]

The Shinkansen has never had a fatal collision in the more than half a century that it has been running, so assuming they implement it in Texas the same way they implemented it in Japan, we have nothing to worry about safety.

[Luminare]

Well from the investigation so far it seems it has nothing to do with the actual train itself, but probably the person who was in control of it! Apparently it speed up into a turn from 60 to 100mph which made it derail. TCR NEEDS to make it known that the Shinkansen trains are not controlled by the actual person in the train but instead by a remote location. The person inside is simply there to make sure everything is running smoothly, but running the actual train independently!

[IronTiger]

Well from the investigation so far it seems it has nothing to do with the actual train itself, but probably the person who was in control of it! Apparently it speed up into a turn from 60 to 100mph which made it derail. TCR NEEDS to make it known that the Shinkansen trains are not controlled by the actual person in the train but instead by a remote location. The person inside is simply there to make sure everything is running smoothly, but running the actual train independently!

That would still require someone not being "asleep at the switch"

[Luminare]

That would still require someone not being "asleep at the switch"

 

Dude they run those things like Nasa...seriously. You think those guys are sleeping just because they are behind a computer? Like many have said there is a reason why that train has never had a fatal accident and thats because of how great they are behind the controls. Another thing you better believe they wouldn't let that tech leave home without making sure that it is in the right hands. A crash is bad for business so if it isn't people that motivates them to keep these trains in tip top shape money certainly will.

[Luminare]

So this has an interesting relation to TCR because it talks about the Governor signing a bill which reins in Texas cities abilities to limit oil and gas operations (particularly fracking). By continuing his logic when it comes to regulation of the oil and gas business and cities say in the matter, I think it might be safe to say that these bills that aim to limit TCR through counties and cities will have a hard time getting past the governor.

 

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/abbott-signs-law-to-reins-in-texas-cities-that-try-to-regulate-drilling/

[mollusk]

So this has an interesting relation to TCR because it talks about the Governor signing a bill which reins in Texas cities abilities to limit oil and gas operations (particularly fracking). By continuing his logic when it comes to regulation of the oil and gas business and cities say in the matter, I think it might be safe to say that these bills that aim to limit TCR through counties and cities will have a hard time getting past the governor.

 

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/news/abbott-signs-law-to-reins-in-texas-cities-that-try-to-regulate-drilling/

 

You're making quite a jump by trying to attach any concept of logic to how the Lege operates, or what the Guv is / isn't likely to sign.  This is Texas we're talking about, after all.

[Luminare]

You're making quite a jump by trying to attach any concept of logic to how the Lege operates, or what the Guv is / isn't likely to sign.  This is Texas we're talking about, after all.

 

Very true, but when a precedent as strong as this is sent so early into his term its something worth noting and one which is applicable to other policy issues. Its worth paying attention because it paints an interesting picture, while faint, that begins to ask questions about the chances for those for or against.

 

Its really interesting for these two reasons:

 

The governor is choosing to retain more centralized control in matters of private companies dealing with local entities rather than decentralizing.

 

The governor is favor of less regulation particularly an industry that is taking a lot more environmental and capital risk (fracking) than simply building a rail line (of course this is my opinion).

[IronTiger]

You're making quite a jump by trying to attach any concept of logic to how the Lege operates, or what the Guv is / isn't likely to sign. This is Texas we're talking about, after all.

Maybe. So far at least the governor seems neutral on the whole TCR thing, which seems like a good thing.

[JJxvi]

The governor will only be involved in this if it becomes a matter of conservative vs liberal politics.  There are probably 7 million people in the counties affected by this, and 6.5 of those are in Dallas and Harris counties and things get really skewed if you start including the Houston/Dallas metropolitan area counties around the end points as compared to the tiny population along the route.  I doubt the governor, who runs in a statewide election, is really going to do much more than lipservice to the rural counties involved here.

Edited May 21, 2015 by JJxvi

[ZKB9]

Not sure if this has been posted here or not, but you can send your legislator a message in support of TCR here:

http://www.timetoridetx.com/

[MaxConcrete]

The budget rider relating to high speed rail is removed,and it looks like the threat is over

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/05/budget-writers-remove-provision-that-threatened-bullet-train-proposal.html/

 

 

AUSTIN – A proposed bullet train between Dallas and Houston has survived a budgeting measure that could’ve derailed the push in Texas to have the nation’s first high-speed rail line.

Budget writers on Thursday removed a Senate-inserted rider in the spending plan that said the Texas Department of Transportation couldn’t spend any state money on “subsidizing or assisting in the construction of high-speed passenger rail.”

...

Barring any further maneuvering in the Legislature’s final days, it appears that the high-speed rail proposal could emerge from the session unscathed.

[jt16]

[Slick Vik]

Common sense prevailed

[Naviguessor]

Not words often spoken to describe the actions of the Texas Legislature.

[Dakota79]

I agree. Really great news. We can at least "hope" to join the rest of the world, with options other than cars. Here's the HBJ LINK.

http://m.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/05/texas-lawmaker-loses-bid-to-derail-high-speed.html