Texas could get a 205-mph bullet train
zipping between Houston and Dallas
Popular Science,
by
Andrew Paul
Original Article
Posted By: bad-hair,
8/11/2023 11:13:43 AM
A new high-speed railway system inspired by Japanese bullet trains could someday carry commuters between Houston and Dallas in under 90 minutes. Announced on Wednesday, the partnership between Amtrak and a company called Texas Central aims to connect the two cities by train, spanning roughly 240 miles at speeds upwards of 205 mph.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Vesicant 8/11/2023 11:19:47 AM (No. 1532430)
Yes, because the one in California has worked out so well.
32 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 8/11/2023 11:26:10 AM (No. 1532434)
This just might work in Texas. Flying takes much longer than 90 minutes when you consider check-in, security and flight delays due to weather. Rain doesn't bother trains.
11 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Tusker 8/11/2023 11:39:41 AM (No. 1532444)
Insane
Nobody wants to go to Houston on a 205 MPH ground anything. In fact, one doesn’t know anybody who goes down there on purpose!
19 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Quigley 8/11/2023 11:41:32 AM (No. 1532446)
“Someday”.
Will it be electric or will it destroy the planet?
What would its budget be compared to the money looted from Ukraine by Big Bidet and Cokin’ Pokin’ and the total amount gifted to Ukraine by them?
I can hardly wait.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
HPmatt 8/11/2023 11:47:15 AM (No. 1532451)
Gotta be taxpayer money all over this tarball. Everyone gets a share, Rick Perry, Bushes, and eminent domain takings for all the farmers & ranchers….gotta love it. Better be able to take my SUV on it, because ‘Houston’ goes 100 miles north to south, and 70 miles east to west.
18 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 8/11/2023 11:48:19 AM (No. 1532453)
Another really bad idea. American trains carrying people don’t ever do well. In the U.S., we move freight by rail, not people, and we do it very well. We move people by cars and airplanes.
14 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Ashley Brenton 8/11/2023 11:48:25 AM (No. 1532455)
Is there a lot of stuff you can do in Dallas that you can't do in Houston? And visa versa? Enough to justify building a train that will never make enough money to cover its own operating expenses?
15 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 8/11/2023 12:01:16 PM (No. 1532459)
Poster #5 gets to the gist of the situation.
Railrod trains run on fixed tracks - - and they can only go from station to station. So - - how do you get from where you are to the first station - - and how do you get from the second station - - to where you want to go?
Answer: You take an automobile! And you have to pay lots of money - - either to rent one or to hire one. Or - - you can rely on your unemployed brother-in-law to pick you up - - and resentfully take you to where you want to go.
Yup - - it all works for me!
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
stablemoney 8/11/2023 12:11:26 PM (No. 1532463)
This is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle. You can drive in 4.5 hours. Southwest shuttles get you there in 40 minutes, and already carry all the passengers that wish to go. You would have to park, and check in for the train also. And a train moving at 205 mph over East Texas would be very dangerous, with all the crossings, and 80% of the Texas population lives in the eastern half. There is no demand for such a train. Train tickets would not pay for the train, or for the maintenance of the tracks. We would have another 1% added on the sales tax, like the metro buses, to pay for it. They have stupidly proposed surface rail in Houston. Idiocy. A bus does the same thing, and is not tethered to the rail system. All of this is a boondoggle for a few people to get rich at taxpayer expense.
14 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Safari Man 8/11/2023 12:13:28 PM (No. 1532464)
I am probably not a good test case, but maybe I'm not that different from the average Houstonian...
In 62 years of living in Houston (on/off), I have driven to Dallas 1 time. I have driven-through many other times but that was to get somewhere else.
I just checked the driving directions from my house in the Woodlands to the Northwest Mall - 45 minutes in the opposite direction from Dallas. Houston is so large that getting to the station is a big deal.
This have government boondoggle and fraud written all over it.
16 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 8/11/2023 12:20:07 PM (No. 1532468)
With Amtrak in the equation, look for it to be a giant money sink.
13 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Pearson365 8/11/2023 12:30:22 PM (No. 1532474)
I didn’t realize that Texas doesn’t have Zoom and other teleconferencing systems that would eliminate the need for spending multiple billions on high speed trains between Dallas and Houston. Why would anyone want to spend a minimum of 3 to 4+ hours round trip when one could do a video call with multiple participants at various locations from the office or home?
And at the same time, our federal government is spending billions of borrowed money to provide high speed. Internet to every back water town in the country.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
john56 8/11/2023 12:34:00 PM (No. 1532476)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard that story over and over and over again.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 8/11/2023 12:35:30 PM (No. 1532477)
The problem with high-speed city to city trains is what do you do when you get to your destination without a car? Do Houston and Dallas have reliable and safe transit systems that can get you anywhere you need to go in either city? I didn't think so.....
9 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Muguy 8/11/2023 12:57:07 PM (No. 1532505)
Nobody wants this..... not worth the expenditure or the confiscation of personal private land by crooked imminent domain corporitsts
11 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
RayLRiv 8/11/2023 1:28:36 PM (No. 1532529)
I'm more of a Ft Worth-San Antonio-Hill Country kind of guy
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
LadyHen 8/11/2023 2:34:55 PM (No. 1532570)
If it was wanted, it would be profitable. It it was profitable a private company would be begging to do it and at 1/10th the cost of the government.
11 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
tisHimself 8/11/2023 2:56:38 PM (No. 1532573)
Hey Texas, want more government control over when and how you travel? Have I got a deal for you.
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Hermit_Crab 8/11/2023 3:19:50 PM (No. 1532589)
Why am I picturing in my mind the "Monorail" episode of "The Simpsons"???
And why Houston to Dallas, rather than Houston to Austin, so that the leftist idiots can commute between their leftist paradises, with maybe a branch line to San Antonio?
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
DVC 8/11/2023 3:57:26 PM (No. 1532606)
VERY, very bad idea. This is a black hole down which they throw all the money...never to be seen again.
5 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
varkdriver 8/11/2023 4:04:15 PM (No. 1532613)
Didja ever see what happens when you hit an armadillo at 205 mph? I tell ya, it ain't pretty.
Another high-speed rail boondoggle. As noted, what do you do once you arrive in Dallas? Walk to the Galleria?
3 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 8/11/2023 4:34:53 PM (No. 1532619)
I have driven all over Scotland taking golf trips. They have some high speed trains but not sure the top speed. I do know that you don't drive a car over any tracks. There is either a bridge over the rails or a tunnel underneath. Can you imagine a 205 mph train hitting a carload of people? There would be hundreds of crossings that Texans would have to drive over with their cars since it would be unfeasible to build hundreds of bridges. I don't even want to think about the carnage.
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Toodles3956 8/11/2023 5:30:20 PM (No. 1532636)
Give it a little time, it will jump off the tracks.
3 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
czechlist 8/11/2023 7:07:03 PM (No. 1532667)
The private Texas Central consortium has been trying to build this Dal - Hou high speed rail for a decade. The original leadership abandoned the project a year ago. They could not purchade the land required. With Amtrak they can use imminent domain to acquire the properties for the fiasco.
As with air travel you still have to get to and from the RR station and TSA will be checking bags and passengers.
1 person likes this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
MickTurn 8/11/2023 7:28:56 PM (No. 1532683)
Oh, Boy, I can go from Dallas to ShiffT Hole Houston in 9.5 nano seconds!
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Monique 8/11/2023 7:37:27 PM (No. 1532692)
For everyone on the proposed route from Houston to Dallas, prepare to learn just why "being railroaded" is a thing. Yeah, and the rest of us taxpayers too.
1 person likes this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
mifla 8/12/2023 5:30:30 AM (No. 1532838)
There was a joke at work that might explain this.
The car rental lot for Dallas airport is in Houston.
0 people like this.
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And Southwest airlines will get yo there in 35 minutes. Flights go every half hour and they can run 3 or more in the same direction at different altitudes at the same time. Why take the high speed bus ?