The dream of a Dallas-to-Houston high-speed rail line has long been stuck in a state of aspirational limbo, and it looks like it’ll be stuck there for a while longer.
In April, the Trump istration’s Department of Transportation canceled a $63.9 million grant awarded to Amtrak, which had partnered with Texas Central, the company behind the project. The funding withdrawal doesn’t necessarily spell doom, but it does mean the only path forward is under private leadership and financing. It isn’t clear how or if that will work.
It’s sad that the federal government doesn’t want anything to do with a bullet train connecting two of Texas’ and the United States’ most successful economic hubs, especially in light of a Dallas-commissioned impact study affirming what we’ve long known: High-speed rail would be a major economic development boon.
The roughly 240-mile rail line would cut the travel time from Dallas to Houston to less than 90 minutes, according to Texas Central. A separately planned line would run from Dallas to Fort Worth, stopping in Arlington.
The economic impact study suggests the Dallas-to-Houston line by itself would generate an average annual gross domestic product increase of $5 billion and more than 28,000 jobs to the region between 2029 and 2050, with much of that concentrated in Dallas, this newspaper reported.
The Dallas-to-Fort Worth component is a little more complicated.
An early proposal for the route’s layout would have negatively impacted valuable land downtown and created an unacceptable highway-like barrier. Plus, the economic impact study indicates that pursuing this “eastern alignment” would lead to less overall economic growth.
That’s not a good trade for a slightly shortened travel time, especially when we already have the Trinity Railway Express.
In July, regional planners discussed a revised route for the Dallas-to-Fort Worth train that could skirt around the Reunion area, ing over Interstate 35E. The economic impact study indicates this “western alignment” would generate some economic growth, but that it could also interfere with other development in the area.
Whether the Dallas-to-Fort Worth route will ever make sense isn’t clear. It certainly won’t if the Dallas-to-Houston line is never built. With no clearly defined path for that project, the city should leave high-speed rail behind and move forward planning downtown and the convention center without it, at least for now.
It’s too bad we don’t seem willing to commit to major infrastructure projects anymore. The United States once invested in a massive interstate highway network that helped build our nation into what it is. Why trains should be so scary is anyone’s guess.