From Swamplot:
ONE OF THESE 3 spots revealed in a report from the Federal Railroad Administration will be the planned site for the Houston-Dallas high-speed rail line’s Houston terminal. All 3 are near the intersection of the 610 Loop and the BNSF rail tracks that run parallel to Hempstead Rd. just south of 290.
In the map at top, the station takes the land directly north of the Northwest Transit Center, where an industrial complex home to Icon Electric, Engineering Consulting Services, and others exists now. Hempstead Rd. is shown fronting Northwest Mall at the top of the plan.
Another proposal puts the station in the spot where the mall is now.
See here for the background, and click over to see the locations. We’ve known for some time that the station would be near the 610/290 junction, so now it’s just a matter of picking the precise spot. All three should be proximate to the Uptown line when it finally gets built, and of course there have been discussions with the Gulf Coast Rail District about connecting the line to downtown. So even after the final decision is made, there will still be a lot more to do.
I would probably ride that train once or twice for the novelty of it, but when you factor in taking public transit to get to the train station in Houston, and from the train station to wherever you are going in Dallas, I think driving your own car starts to make sense again. This will just be competition with short haul plane flights, and I wonder how much property tax each of the rural counties can expect to have the tracks running through their jurisdictions.
I feel bad for the landowners who, although they will be paid, will not want this, but new infrastructure is good….it means tax revenue, especially good for school districts in the state.
Not competition but a replacement for the short haul flights. With airport security theater and congestion, and higher highway speed limits, it now takes less time to drive to Austin or San Antonio than to fly, and it’s just about even for Dallas. I would love to be able to just take a ride again.