High-Speed Rail Takes Steps Forward in Houston, Though Challenges Remain

"Backers of a Texas high-speed rail line on Thursday announced for the second time this week what they called significant progress on the controversial line, inking an agreement with Houston officials, detailing the work to come," reports Dug Begley.

Houston and Texas Central Partners entered a memorandum of understanding, "which commits both sides to share environmental surveys, utility analysis and engineering related to the project and surrounding area and work together to develop new transit and other travel options to and from the likely terminus of the bullet train line."

The article includes a lot more detail on the plan for the line around the city of Houston, and reiterates the nature of the project's public-private partnership. As Begley hinted in the first quote above, Texas Central Partners also announced this week the selection of Irving-based Fluor Enterprises and The Lane Construction Corporation, based in Connecticut, for planning and engineering work on the project. Begley reported on that announcement in an earlier article, also including reasons for concern about the viability of the project having mostly do to with Texas Central Partners' lack of eminent domain authority.