Central Texas Bullet Train Loses Steam

With the Texas Central Railway’s CEO leaving the project, the proposed bullet train linking Houston and Dallas may be dead, reports Dug Begley in the Houston Chronicle. “Aguilar’s departure follows a moribund few months for the company, which dramatically slashed its staff early in the COVID pandemic, while saying it still planned to break ground soon on the 240-mile line between the two metro areas.”

According to Begley, the proposed train, which would follow a utility corridor crossing 11 counties, “was to use Japanese Shinkansen railcars assembled in the United States to whisk travelers between Houston and Dallas in 90 minutes.”

Since then, the project has been plagued by opposition, financial owes, and confusion about the company’s eminent domain rights to acquire land along the proposed corridor, an issue that will be decided by the Texas Supreme Court. Waller County Judge Trey Duhon criticized the project’s cost, saying “It did not cash flow at $12 billion, much less the current price tag of $30 billion, that was before the recent inflation and escalation of costs.” As Begley reported in April, Texas Central owes more than half a million dollars in property taxes for land it already purchased for the project.