I for one can’t wait. Texas Central High-Speed Railway has spent the last few years privately — very privately — looking at how to connect Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston with a bullet train moving upwards of 200 miles per hour. But soon, they say, those private plans will become quite public when they issue a notice of intent. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Dallas’
City wants the Lege to deal with payday lending
That’s what came out of the presentation to Council on payday lending on Tuesday. Houston leaders say they will wait to see whether the Legislature acts during its current session before voting on their proposal. Mayor Annise Parker has said the industry “cries out for regulation” and called the state’s failure to do so “disgraceful.” [...]
Mapping oil usage
From the Natural Resources Defense Council America buys 18.8 million barrels of petroleum products every day, accounting for more than 20% of all global usage. This can drain roughly $1 billion on average every day out of the economy. This oil use also accounts for more than a quarter of the heat-trapping carbon pollution emitted [...]
New passenger rail study
We’ll see if this goes anywhere. The Texas Department of Transportation is launching a two-year, $14 million study of passenger rail service between South Texas and Oklahoma City. That could mean bringing high-speed rail or, at the least, finding ways to connect the state’s major cities with some type of rail service. The study also [...]
Riding that (privately funded) train
Another story on the vaunted high speed rail line for Texas. The leaders of Texas Central High-Speed Railway sound very confident for a company expecting to succeed where scores of state planners, elected officials and private interests have failed. The firm hopes to have bullet trains moving Texans at 205 miles per hour between Dallas-Fort [...]
Financing the Dallas to Houston high speed rail line
The way things are going, this could get built before the final pieces of the 2012 Metro Solutions plan. If high-speed rail comes to North Texas by 2020, the bullet trains will initially rely on the area’s road system — not public transportation — to get most of the riders from the end of the [...]
SJL talks high speed rail
The dream lives on. Officials in Japan and South Korea told Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee that they are interested in helping Texas build a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas. The Houston Democrat said the foreign officials described their interest to her during an official congressional visit to Japan, South Korea and China. [...]
It’s Super-Commuter!
You think you have a long drive to work? Ben Wear writes about a study of people who take it to the extreme. The researchers define a supercommuter as someone who works in the central county of a metropolitan area but lives beyond the official boundaries of that metropolitan area. They used census data to [...]
It’s Williams on Williams time again
I would not call it a good thing to come out of the updated interim maps since there’s a good chance one of these jokers will get elected, but for those of you with a morbid fascination with sideshows, the two Williams non-brothers who have spent the past year or so seeking out an office [...]
Bike sharing comes to New York
You’d have thought – or at least, I’d have thought – that New York City would have been a very early adopter of bike sharing. Turns out they’re just getting started now. At a press conference [last Wednesday] afternoon, the Department of Transportation announced that it has selected Portland-based Alta Bicycle Share, which runs similar [...]
Dallas-Houston high speed rail update
The people working on this sure do sound optimistic, even if what they’ve got is still basically vaporware. A trip from Houston to Dallas could take travelers 90 minutes if former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, president of Lone Star High Speed Rail, is successful in connecting the state’s two largest urban regions with a [...]
Texas accepts grant for high speed rail study
Awesome. Texas accepted a $15 million grant from the Federal High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program to fund the preliminary engineering and NEPA studies for the Dallas to Houston corridor. This money was made available by Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida’s refusal of a combined $2.4 billion in high speed passenger rail funding. Since the adoption [...]
We’re number 16!
In a list of green cities. The Bayou City placed 16th in the newly released U.S. and Canada Green City Index, a study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Siemens. The study, released at the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival, graded 27 major U.S. and Canadian cities on environmental performance and policies in [...]
TxDOT gets more high speed rail money
Still not much, but every little bit counts. The Texas Department of Transportation will receive $15 million to begin engineering and environmental work on a high-speed rail link between Houston and Dallas, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced [last week]. Though it could be a decade or more before Houstonians can reach North Texas on [...]
Trader Joe’s coming to Houston
And there was much rejoicing. Trader Joe’s, the offbeat grocer whose most popular products include frozen chicken tikka masala, pumpkin ice cream and low-cost Charles Shaw wines nicknamed “Two Buck Chuck,” is expanding into Texas with stores planned in Houston and Dallas. Specific locations have not been named, but the California-based company said in an [...]
Census stories: Dallas and its neighbors
The city of Dallas isn’t growing. Despite a surging state population and double-digit growth rates in Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio, the city of Dallas grew by a paltry 1 percent in the last decade, according to the new census figures — a rate lower than any of the 20 largest cities in Texas. [...]
Leppert says he’s officially in for Senate
As expected. In the final hours of his incomplete term, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert told News 8 Friday morning he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senate. Leppert announced his intentions during a Friday morning taping of “Inside Texas Politics.” [...] On why he is running, Leppert said this: “I think [...]
San Antonio moves past Dallas
They’re #2! Not that it really matters. [San Antonio's] 1.3 million residents put it at the No. 2 spot for Texas’ largest cities and had the office of Mayor Julián Castro declaring San Antonio’s “rising prominence as one of America’s fastest-growing big cities.” San Antonio followed Houston, the state’s largest city with 2 million residents, [...]
Lawsuits filed over Super Bowl experiences
A couple of ticket-related issues from Super Bowl XLV will be going to the courthouse. Two ticket holders, Mike Dolabi, who lives in Tarrant County, and Steve Simms, a Pennsylvania resident, filed the lawsuit in federal court late Tuesday night against the Dallas Cowboys , team owner Jerry Jones and the NFL. The plaintiffs are [...]
Still estimating the impact
Despite the awful weather, the sort of people who make projections about the economic impact of hosting a Super Bowl still think it was a pretty good week for Dallas Arlington North Texas. Winter weather delivered a blow, but the local economy still benefited from Super Bowl XLV — thanks largely to a warmer weekend. [...]
Lawsuit to overturn Dallas election allowing expanded alcohol sales set for September
So last November, voters in the city of Dallas among other places were asked to decide whether or not to loosen restrictions on alcohol sales there. The measure passed, but not without controversy: Lawyer Andy Siegel, who led the opposition to the Dallas referendum, promised to file a suit to get the results of the [...]
About those Super Bowl economic projections…
You can pretty much throw them out the window. North Texas’ weeklong weather whipping is blunting the economic bonanza from Super Bowl XLV. The White Bluff Resort on Lake Whitney, about 70 miles south of Cowboys Stadium, and a sister property, The Cliffs Resort at Possum Kingdom Lake, had banked on bringing in more than [...]
Time once again to play “Guess the economic impact”
So just how much money does Dallas Arlington North Texas hope to rake in from Super Bowl XL? Opinions differ. Yeah, I’m shocked, too. A larger stadium, an improving economy and die-hard fan bases for the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will lead to record spending for Super Bowl XLV, according to projections by [...]
Hey, spread some of that wealth around, willya?
Some Metroplex cities are seeing more of an economic benefit from hosting the Super Bowl than others. I know, try to control your shock. Some Frisco hotels located an hour’s drive from Cowboys Stadium, the game site, are packed. Lewisville, Southlake, Richardson and a few other cities are expecting to siphon off some of the [...]
Dallas Mayor Leppert officially not running for re-election
As expected. Mayor Tom Leppert, a successful business executive who rose from political unknown to become one of Dallas’ most powerful mayors, has confirmed he will not seek re-election in May but will pursue “other ways to add value to our community, our region, our state and our nation.” Leppert’s comments were the clearest signal [...]
We’ll take it if you don’t want it
Dallas would like the FTA to know that they will gladly take any federal streetcar funds that Fort Worth doesn’t want. That’s the message the Regional Transportation Council, with the support of Dallas leaders, is sending to the Federal Transit Administration this month in the wake of Fort Worth’s decision to shelve its streetcar plan. [...]
NPR on LRT
Nice story on NPR about the expansion of light rail around the country. Pretty much everywhere you look in large urban areas, there’s light rail, construction of light rail, or plans for light rail. Couple of points from the story that are worth mentioning: In Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Diego and other cities large [...]
You need more than more miles to get more riders
The new 28-mile Green Line in Dallas has begun full service, and it is expected to add about 30,000 daily boardings, bringing DART’s total rail ridership to about 90,000 per day. That’s for 72 miles of rail lines, which is nearly ten times as long as Houston’s Main Street line, but less than triple the [...]
Opening thoughts on the carnage
In no particular order… – Republicans gain 22 seats in the State House, for a 99-51 advantage. That’s with Pete Gallego, Hubert Vo, and Donna Howard, all of whom had been trailing early, coming back to win. Howard’s margin of victory is a microscopic 15 votes, so she’ll have to survive a recount. No Republican [...]
Dry Dallas update
Lots of money being spent to remove alcohol sales restrictions in Dallas. The group behind next month’s ballot measures to expand the sale of alcohol in “dry” areas of Dallas has raised nearly $1 million – mainly from grocery stores, restaurants, real estate developers, hotels and other businesses that stand to benefit from passage. Retailers [...]
Dallas-area cities are watching the red light camera referenda
What happens next month in Houston and Baytown may have an effect on our neighbors to the north. North Texas city officials are monitoring a public backlash against lucrative red-light cameras that could signal their end. Citizens in three Texas cities who are angry about the devices have forced a public vote to ban the [...]
Privately funded high speed rail?
From Houston Tomorrow: A possible Houston to Dallas high-speed rail line was the topic of a Monday morning breakfast meeting featuring Yoshiyuki Kasai, the chairman of Central Japan Railway, Japan’s largest rail company and maker of the famed Japanese “bullet trains.” Kasai was hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP). The company is developing plans [...]
DART reverses course, will keep building
Back in June, Dallas Area Rapid Transit presented a 20-year financial plan that said it could no longer afford to build several new light rail lines that it had intended to do. Now it’s got an updated projection that says it can build them after all. Just six weeks after telling board members that it [...]
Towards healthier school lunches
Good for DISD. As part of a nationwide push against childhood obesity, the Dallas Independent School District is overhauling its cafeteria menu by featuring healthier food and tossing aside classic artery cloggers. “The challenge to improve school nutrition is coming from all directions,” said Dora Rivas, the district’s executive director of child nutrition services. “There [...]