If Texas ends up getting a long-envisioned high-speed railway between Houston and Dallas, the Amtrak executive now leading the initiative says it would feature the fastest trains in the world.
The plan for the 240-mile route between the state’s two largest cities, first hatched about a decade ago and recently buoyed by support from Amtrak and political leaders in both the United States and Japan, calls for using Japanese Shinkansen technology in which trains move as fast as 205 mph. Passengers would be able to travel between Houston and Dallas in a matter of about 90 minutes.
“People are just going to be blown away when they experience that. I have been lucky enough to go to Japan and ride it,” Amtrak senior vice president Andy Byford, who leads its high-speed rail development program, said in a Monday video posted on Amtrak’s X account. “The average speed (between Houston and Dallas) will be about 187 mph, which currently would be the fastest average speed in the world.”
The 4-minute video featuring Byford and Amtrak president Roger Harris appears to signal that the national passenger railroad company for the U.S. is committed to seeing the project through, even though Byford cautioned at a Dallas-area rail conference in mid-April that the Texas bullet train was not a “done deal.” He said then that Amtrak continues to use $500,000 in federal grant funding to explore a partnership with Texas Central, the private company that came up with the idea and moved it forward before appearing to stall out in 2022, and will do so for about another 18 months before making a final decision.
But in Monday’s video, Byford said the Houston-to-Dallas route “stands out” as the most feasible and viable corridor in the country for high-speed rail. The video ends with Harris saying, “Let’s go make it happen.”
See here, here, and here for some background. The video can be found here; it’s also embedded in the story. You know that I am fully aware of the history of this project and the many obstacles it faces in ever getting completed. I’ve been suckered before. And yet, as long as the hope remains, I very much want to see this happen. I want to ride that train to Dallas. I am rooting for this to happen. Please let me have my dream.
Rail projects are a huge boondoggle. The private sector is competing to fill the void without any cost to the taxpayer (i.e. Megabus , Flixbus)