Texas mayors back private high speed rail

[Winehole23]

The mayors of Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston this morning threw their support behind plans for a high-speed train route that could move Texans between the two metropolitan areas in 90 minutes.

It’s the first time the mayors of all three cities collectively backed a private company’s plans for rail line between Dallas and Houston.


“Not only will high-speed rail significantly reduce travel times and traffic congestion for Dallas and Houston area residents, but it will also create new, high-paying jobs and stimulate economic growth,” said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings in a prepared statement.
The Dallas-Houston connection is part of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association (http://www.ushsr.com/)’s proposed 14,000-mile high-speed rail network that would connect dozens of major U.S. cities.


Texas Central Railway (http://www.texascentral.com/) wants to use the N700-I Bullet train system, which the Central Japan Railway Company uses on the Tokaido Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Osaka. That line handles more than 300 trains and more than 390,000 passengers a day.
The high-speed train and operating system is capable of moving cars at 205 miles per hour. The trains have a smaller carbon footprint than most other systems, according to the U.S. company that is trying to bring the N700-I system to America.

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/dallas-fort-worth-and-houston-mayors-back-private-high-speed-rail.html/

[boutons_deux]

It's redneck, pro-corporate TX, so a publicly owned, no-profit rail system, socialism!, is impossible. All major TX cities are blue, except Cow Town.

I expect the airlines to kill this proposal the way Southwest killed the TX TGV 20 years ago.

And of course, any such train will be (BigOil) diesel electric instead of all-electric.

[Winehole23]

And of course, any such train will be (BigOil) diesel electric instead of all-electric.the N700-I Shinkansen is 100% electric, according to the wiki.

[Winehole23]

I expect the airlines to kill this proposal the way Southwest killed the TX TGV 20 years ago.you always expect the worst, but you're no better at predicting outcomes than anyone else here.

[TeyshaBlue]

It's redneck, pro-corporate TX, so a publicly owned, no-profit rail system, socialism!, is impossible. All major TX cities are blue, except Cow Town.

I expect the airlines to kill this proposal the way Southwest killed the TX TGV 20 years ago.

And of course, any such train will be (BigOil) diesel electric instead of all-electric.

Come October, SW Airlines will no longer be throttled by the Wright Amendment....you know that beautiful piece of anticompetitive legislation hand crafted by Jim Wright.
They wont GAF about high speed rail at that point.

[Th'Pusher]

Come October, SW Airlines will no longer be throttled by the Wright Amendment....you know that beautiful piece of anticompetitive legislation hand crafted by Jim Wright.
They wont GAF about high speed rail at that point.
SWA would not be the success that is is without the Wright Amendment tbh.

[TeyshaBlue]

Maybe so....not sure of a case that makes this unless the image of the underdog un-airline is what you're speaking too.

[Wild Cobra]

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/03/dallas-fort-worth-and-houston-mayors-back-private-high-speed-rail.html/



I expect the airlines to kill this proposal the way Southwest killed the TX TGV 20 years ago.

If the train is going to be subsidized, I think the airlines should try to kill it.

Though I don't have a dog in the fight since it's Texas, I suggest you guys press for no government money. the investors are experienced enough to know if they can profit or not, and such a rail system could become a serious black hole of revenue if you allow the project in the hands of bureaucrats.

The N700 can hit 170 MPH in three minutes and go 186 MPH max.

[Wild Cobra]

The name of the CEO for Texas Central railway is "Rich Lawless." What do you think of that sign Boutons?

[boutons_deux]

Texas the recipient of first high-speed rail link in U.S.

Despite talk of high-speed trains in California (http://www.dvice.com/archives/2008/05/220mph_californ.php) and tech geniuses' Hyperloops (http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/07/hyperloop_elon.php), nothing much happens on the tracks in the U.S. Until, it seems, now. A private project has been quietly steaming ahead with plans to link two Texan powerhouse cities to each other, at a cost of $10 billion. The project is currently at the environmental impact-study phase, which is expected to go on for another two or three years, but if successful, the company, Texas Central Railway, says that the trains might be running by 2021.

There are just 240 miles between Dallas and Houston — too far to drive without spending a day getting there and back, and too close to fly — and the land is flat and rural. What with all the oil weath in the state, a high-speed rail link would be just the ticket, with the backers, which include Japan's JR Central Railway, getting a return on their money more quickly than if the line were situated in other parts of the country.

Japanese involvement goes further than a fat checkbook. TCR is planning on running N700-I bullet trains, which reach a top speed of 205 miles per hour. That means that journey time between the two cities would be about 90 minutes. It's a much more edifying prospect than the shenanigans of travelling by air — not to mention the environmental implications if you consider yourself to be a lean, green human machine.

http://www.dvice.com/2014-6-25/texas-recipient-first-high-speed-rail-link-us

Will the airlines kill TX high-speed rail again?

I guess it will be inefficient diesel-electric rather than full electric.

[TDMVPDPOY]

a highspeed rail from dallas to houston for 10b? lmao hahahahhahahaahahahhaahha gtfo

japanese are building a highspeed rail in vietnam from hanoi to saigon for only 6billion using gook labor, lol western world and stupid unions with overpriced workfoce

[Wild Cobra]

a highspeed rail from dallas to houston for 10b? lmao hahahahhahahaahahahhaahha gtfo

japanese are building a highspeed rail in vietnam from hanoi to saigon for only 6billion using gook labor, lol western world and stupid unions with overpriced workfoce

At least is something can can't be completely outsourced.

It's going to require imminent domain. However, the government should bid the land out to corporations that wish to build it at their expense for the profits, competing against airlines. The good thing about having super large corporations is the government doesn't need to pay for such infrastructure any more. If a corporation can see a profit over the horizon, then they will build it. If it won't be profitable, then the government is generating more and more debt yet if they build it, and shouldn't do it.

[boutons_deux]

"If it won't be profitable, then the government is generating more and more debt yet if they build it, and shouldn't do it."

$$ aren't the only cost of getting people out of severely polluting airplanes into much-less-polluting trains as PUBLIC transport.

[boutons_deux]

The Kochs’ Very Profitable War On Busses and Mass Transit

Anyone even remotely familiar with the Koch brothers is aware the billionaire oil magnates are pro-anything that translates into more personal profits for themselves, and anti-anything that does not explicitly advance their business interests and increase their wealth. Inherent in increasing their wealth is promoting policies and agendas that force Americans to buy more gasoline which is why there is a dearth of options to driving a car on this sad country’s pitiful roads, and why America’s mass transit systems lag the rest of the civilized world.

Whether it is paying Republican governors, state legislators, or congressional representatives the Kochs are behind every last effort to kill alternatives to driving. They have successfully blocked several states’ high speed rail projects, and obstructed community progress on bike lanes, light rail, bus rapid transit, or urban communities’ “walkability” factor; any mode of transportation that keeps Americans from driving cars and purchasing gas.

Last April, in Tennessee, the state chapter of one of the Kochs’ legislative arms, Americans for Prosperity, made a well-planned effort to preemptively kill (http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/04/03/long-arm-of-the-koch-brothers-extends-to-nashville-to-slap-down-transit/) a citizen-approved Nashville bus rapid transit project. It was a very obvious and blatant attempt by the Koch brothers to impose their will on local transportation policy, but it is not reserved to Tennessee or expanding bus routes.

In Indiana, the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity spent time and money as the major opposition voice (http://americansforprosperity.org/indiana/newsroom/1987-2/#ixzz31c93cRkV) of another citizen-backed effort to expand mass transit in and around Indianapolis by lobbying state legislators to ban legislation allowing the city to hold a tax referendum to expand its transit network. The Kochs were unsuccessful, but they did convince legislators to forbid the Indianapolis region from ever pursuing light rail service that the Koch brothers’ Cato Institute said (http://americansforprosperity.org/indiana/files/2013/04/transit.pdf) was too expensive.

The Koch brothers tasked the local Virginia Americans for Prosperity to ardently oppose (http://americansforprosperity.org/indiana/fileshttp:/www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/loudoun-residents-receive-calls-opposing-metros-silver-line/2012/05/31/gJQAx1JP4U_blog.html/2013/04/transit.pdf) and fight a new citizen-approved tax in Loudoun County to fund an extension of the Metro Silver Line extension because it gave country residents an alternative to driving cars; and gave residents without vehicles no ability to travel. The county Board of Supervisors voted to go forward (http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/loudoun-board-votes-to-support-silver-line/2012/07/03/gJQAUdqhKW_story.html) with the project despite the Koch’s opposition, but not before Americans for Prosperity spent Koch money to issue a flurry of scary robo-calls labelling the extension welfare and a “bail-out to rail-station developers.”

Another Koch group and sister organization of ALEC, the State Policy Network, used a subsidiary called the Pioneer Institute to create a manufactured controversy (http://truth-out.org/news/item/23255-out-of-control-transit-costs-in-boston-or-attack-on-public-services) to attack the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as a complete waste of taxpayer money claiming Boston was paying bus drivers, mechanics, and maintenance workers exorbitant wages based on a flagrantly false ‘cost per mile’ metric. The idea was to turn taxpayers against the bus transit system by portraying the workforce as fleecing the public despite the overwhelming popularity and necessity of bus transit in a “dense, crowded city like Boston.


Through the many networks they fund such as the State Policy Network (SPN), the Heritage Foundation, ALEC, and the Reason Foundation, the Koch brothers goal in nearly every state and locality is, besides privatizing government and schools, to put the brakes on all forms of mass transportation, biking, and community “walkability.”

In other words, the Kochs are spending millions to force Americans to drive and buy gasoline, or stay at home.The Koch agenda has been promoted by a trio of well-paid “anti-mass transit pundits;” Randall O’Toole, Wendell Cox and Stanley Kurtz who are in league with the Koch organizations (http://truth-out.org/news/item/23255-out-of-control-transit-costshttp:/www.attn.com/stories/295/how-two-billionaires-are-destroying-high-speed-rail-america-in-boston-or-attack-on-public-services) that are dedicated to either putting out or citing non-scientific study after non-scientific study claiming that climate change is a dirty liberal hoax and an attempt to impose something about (http://www.attn.com/stories/295/how-two-billionaires-are-destroying-high-speed-rail-america) Agenda 21 “one-world government” on Americans.

If, as the Koch organizations claim, “global warming is myth,” then there is no reason to stop burning fossil fuels in personal automobiles and every reason to oppose mass transit, biking, and communities founded on their well-conceived walkability.

One of the Koch’s biggest targets are high-speed rail projects of which America is the only major industrial nation without even one and it is all down to the Kochs, their many political arms, and Republican governors.

For example, despite Florida voters passing an amendment to the state’s constitution ‘requiring’ the state to establish high-speed rail linking its five major cities, Koch-backed organizations and ALEC governor Rick Scott killed the rail project. Scott joined several other Republican governors in hiring the Koch-funded Reason Foundation where David Koch is a trustee to write a report falsely claiming the project would bankrupt the state. Regardless the will of the voters, or the state’s Constitutional amendment, Florida will likely never have a high-speed rail system.Rick Scott fell in line with other Koch-run states like (http://usa.streetsblog.org/2012/04/13/christie-walker-kasich-and-scott-all-deceived-the-public-to-kill-rail/) Ohio, Wisconsin, and New Jersey where ALEC and Republican governors in the employ of the Kochs killed high-speed rail projects.

Each of the Republican governors used outright lies, deception, blatantly false data, and scare tactics to justify killing the high-speed rail projects; not because they were too costly, but because the Kochs will not allow them.

In fact, a federal investigation (http://gao.gov/products/GAO-12-344) found that New Jersey governor Chris Christie lied like the liar he is to justify killing the much-needed high-speed rail line known as ARC (http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/10/05/chris-christie-expected-to-kill-arc-transit-tunnel/); not because of cost or that it was unnecessary, but to make a name for himself among national Republicans and demonstrate to the Koch brothers that he will advance their agenda.

The Kochs have been particularly active in California to stop the incredible job-creating high-speed rail project that finally broke ground last Wednesday after 18 years of Koch opposition and obstruction. In fact, the Koch’s Reason Foundation spent no small amount of time and money to oppose a closely related extension in Los Angeles the Koch group said was a waste of taxpayer money that no intelligent Southern Californian would ever use.

However, within a year the new line exceeded (http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/09/12/and-now-the-reason-foundation-is-completely-wrong-about-expo/) 2020s projected ridership and a University of Southern California study revealed that Angelinos living with a half-a-mile from the stationreduced (http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/09/12/and-now-the-reason-foundation-is-completely-wrong-about-expo/) their overall driving, and fuel consumption by a whopping 40 percent.The Koch brothers claim that as staunch libertarians, they champion the individual’s liberty to choose how they go about their business; so long as it comports with the Koch vision of more fuel consumption and Koch profits.

It is telling that through their many legislative arms, they are actively thwarting the will of the voters, and were most successful in states with Koch-friendly governors. It is also sickening that the richest nation on Earth cannot keep pace with a poor country like China that does have high speed rail lines, or most second-rate nations that at least have decent mass transit; but those countries do not have two billionaire oil magnates running their nations either.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/12/kochs-profitable-war-busses-mass-transit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

[hater]

Atlas Shrugged tbh

:tu

[Winehole23]

NIMBYs lobby the TX Lege:



“The vast majority of the folks between Dallas and Houston are against it,” said Kyle Workman, president of the recently formed Texans Against High-Speed Rail (http://www.texansagainsthsr.com/). “They don’t want their land to be taken. They don’t want a train going through their quiet country landscape.”Starting in 2021, Texas Central hopes to have its high-speed rail up and running, with trains traversing East Texas 62 times a day. The company says its tracks will be no wider than 100 feet at any point, requiring a total of 3,000 acres alongits 240-mile route between Dallas and Houston.

The company said in a statement that it plans to "design large, frequent and conveniently located underpasses or overpasses to allow for the free movement of farm equipment, livestock, wildlife and vehicle traffic." The electric-powered trains will be quieter than an 18-wheeler, the company says.

Workman is helping lead a coalition of high-speed rail critics backing several bills this session that could kill, or at least hobble, Texas Central’s ambitious project. Their partners include the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and county officials in all nine rural counties along the train's proposed routes. http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/05/rural-critics-bullet-train-get-organized/

[Winehole23]

Two bills in particular have caught opponents’ attention. A bill (http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/25/lawmaker-files-bill-could-stop-proposed-bullet-tra/) from state Rep. Will Metcalf (http://www.texastribune.org/directory/will-metcalf/), R-Conroe, would require high-speed rail projects to secure approval from elected officials of every city and county along a proposed route. A measure (http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/08/bill-targeting-bullet-train-project-moves-senate-f/) from state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (http://www.texastribune.org/directory/lois-kolkhorst/), R-Brenham, would strip all high-speed rail companies of the eminent domain authority given to other rail firms.


Texas Central argues that the bills unfairly target its project just because its train would go faster than most others.


“I get emails every day from very hard-working Texans that want jobs and want this project to succeed,” Texas Central Executive Vice President Kathryn Kaufman said at a recent House Transportation Committee hearing. “All we ask is this train be treated the same as every private railroad in Texas.”same

[boutons_deux]

Eminent domain for BigOil's "common carrier" pipeline land grabs, but BigAir and BigOil block eminent domain for car/air-travel-robbing surface public transport.

[Winehole23]

we'll see what passes and what doesn't pass.

[boutons_deux]

we'll see what passes and what doesn't pass.

Whatever passes will be decided by which BigCorps can buy enough legislators.

[Winehole23]

you're rooting for the big rail corporation, then?

[boutons_deux]

you're rooting for the big rail corporation, then?

Having experienced lots of rail travel in europe,yep. But 100% electrified rail, not diesel-electric hybrid abomination

It should be public rail. Not private for profit rail

[Winehole23]

well, that's not gonna happen in Texas. not soon, anyway.

[boutons_deux]

Nope, probably never

The rigged status quo means all progress is blocked, at all levels of the American oligarchy

[Wild Cobra]

Having experienced lots of rail travel in europe,yep. But 100% electrified rail, not diesel-electric hybrid abomination

It should be public rail. Not private for profit rail

So, you're a communist?