Amtrak is seeking an additional business partner as it moves ahead with a proposed high-speed rail route between Dallas and Houston.
The passenger railroad company — which took over as the project’s lead agency in 2023 and secured a $64 million federal grant — posted a request for qualifications for a company to work on the project. Fort Worth and Arlington would be linked to the high-speed rail project through a separate proposal.
Amtrak, which teamed with Texas Central Partners, the company that initiated the project, wants to bring in another partner to manage activities for future high-speed rail development.
The two-step process is commonly used for new, innovative projects, said Dan Lamers, senior program manager for metropolitan transportation planning with the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
“Public agencies typically do not have the internal expertise with these types of projects, particularly in the case of high-speed rail, where nothing like it exists in the U.S. today,” he said. “There are, however, companies that have worked on high-speed rail in other areas that can bring in specialized expertise resulting in a more streamlined project development process.”
The additional rail partner will have much to manage as legal issues, including eminent domain concerns, swirl around proposed rail projects.
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On Feb. 26, Amtrak posted a request for qualifications, part of the procurement process to select a partner that could include prospective companies, joint ventures, contractors and subcontractors. Amtrak would then create a short list of prospective companies from which to choose.
The new partner, Amtrak’s post said, “will provide programmatic support for the development and execution of the Texas High Speed Rail Project.”
The chosen candidate will be responsible for facilitating Amtrak’s delivery of the project and would be a “fully integrated and accountable member” of the team by providing leadership and support to ensure the project is delivered in the “most innovative and cost-efficient manner.”
The filing also lists a broad range of duties for the project partner, including program management, design management, construction management and expertise, quality management, third party and stakeholder coordination, procurement, commercial strategy, field representation and monitoring services. However, the partner would not be responsible for the design or construction of the high-speed route.
The filing also said the high-speed rail partner should be willing to enter into an compensation structure that includes incentives and disincentives. Requests for qualification will be made through Amtrak’s Ariba on Demand website.
“Amtrak is working to confirm the viability of the concept of a dedicated high-speed rail route between Dallas and Houston,” a spokesperson said. “As part of these efforts, we are seeking to identify the interest of potential partners through responses to this request for qualifications process.”
See here and here for the most recent updates. I’ll be honest, I thought the Trump election would be bad news, if not an outright death knell, for Amtrak and Texas Central. It’s not like Trump cares about this, and there’s plenty of Republican opposition to it. Somehow it has escaped the notice of the DOGE degenerates and is moving forward, little by little. Maybe this will get built in my lifetime. Hope I didn’t just jinx it. Newsweek has more.