And how many to go??? I ‘hope’ the CF in California is next!
The Department of Transportation on Monday announced the termination of a grant that helped fund a high-speed rail project in Texas, which will save taxpayers more than $60 million.
An agreement was reached between the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak to end the $63.9 million grant under the Corridor Identification and Development Program for the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor.
While the program, originally known as the Texas Central Railway project, began as a private venture, it later became dependent on federal money to continue when the cost estimates ballooned.
Full article, HERE from Town Hall.
Most Texans than I knew didn’t care for the high-speed corridor idea to start with, since it was ONLY Dallas-Houston, and most scoffed at the ‘private’ development. As it turn out, that went by the wayside in a hurry, and the State and Amtrak got drug into it…
But, compared to the California debacle, it truly pales…
LA to SFO was supposed to be completed by 2033, for $33B. Except it’s now 2026 and they haven’t even completed one entire MILE of rail… Oh yeah, and the cost has ballooned to over $100B (some say as high as $128B).
And they shortened it, so it now ‘apparently’ just runs up the central valley and doesn’t even go to LA or SFO.
And they wanted the administration to pony up something like $7B in funds this year!
Not no, but hell no! That whole project was stupid to start with, and that was at the low end of $$$, now, fuggidaboutit!!!
What folks don’t seem to understand is that the Japanese, Chinese, and European high speed rail programs run on DEDICATED lines, specifically maintained for high speed use, and none of them really are ‘long’ distances compared to the US!
Amtrak and Acela, the ONE high speed line in the US, running from Boston to DC in about 8 hours. I’ve taken in from Providence, RI to DC and that took 7.5 hours to go roughly 400 miles, so the ‘average’ speed is only a tad over 50 miles and hour with five stops. I only remember ONE section where it actually got up to speed, and that rattled our car pretty badly on supposedly ‘dedicated’ lines.
The reality is outside of that one line, the rest of Amtrak is on FREIGHT line rails, literally sharing the tracks with freight trains. And those lines are NOT high speed, most of the time a maximum of 60 mph, and many times lower than that, especially in built up areas.
So, IMHO, the US does not need ANY high speed rail, because we are so spread out. And .gov can’t ‘take’ the line like they do in Europe, Japan, and China, thus any ‘costs’ are through the roof for right of way purchases, unlike the other countries.
Corridor Identification and Development Program? How many people were going to lose their property under Eminent Domain, for a boondoggle. And how many family members (thanks DOGE) were going to benefit from the construction contracts.
Much as I love rail — and much as I enjoy travelling on Amtrak (I don’t care for commercial aviation, though I’m a pilot) — the situation, as you note, in this country (and Canada, by the way) is totally different from Europe or Japan. Most of the people who advocate for high speed rail in the country have likely never even been in the central US — not in Europe. Granted, high speed rail does work, after a fashion (it’s not as good as the rosy glasses people like to think) but only with immense government subsidy and only over short distances — a few hundred miles at most.
What I hope is that the various guvmints will keep their grubby hands off the freight rails, which are doing OK and without which this country couldn’t function at all.
It’s now 2026? What did I miss?
BTW I took the Metroliner from Trenton, NJ to Union Station DC for meetings several times a year. Beat the snot out of driving.
Steve- Yep, ED is a PITA…
Ian – Excellent point!
Gerr- That it does, especially with the tolls!!!
The BosWash corridor is about the only part of the US that has enough inter-urban traffic justify high speed rail. Everyplace else is so far away flying makes more sense.
Back in 1973 I was co-driver and helper when my brother moved from the Philly area to West Lafayette, IN to attend Purdue, then I was going to take Amtrak back home. The Uhaul truck had a governor so we were stuck at 55 mph the whole way. Even going 55 it was faster to drive than take the train with all the delays enroute.
NFO, I’m all in favor of rail, especially the old school luxury variety. But make it make sense. Can that be done? Good question.
For example, it’d be most awesome to walk to the Square, wait for 20 minutes, and get a train into Dallas or Fort Worth, but I don’t want subsidize the dam thing at a loss. Hmmm.
Trains are okay for Europe because with a couple of exceptions, most countries are about the size of one of the smaller States in the US.
East Coast (where the DC and NY elite live) rail makes sense, but the entire country shouldn’t have to subsidize them unless we live in the Hunger Games.
There are local routes that make sense. In Colorado the Ski Train to Winter Park makes sense. Denver to Craig, the old Yampa Valley Mail route, would save a five to six hour drive over mountain passes already congested.
High speed rail for the country? Boondoggle.
We have the rail to now where just outside of the town of Hanford, california. Been working on it for 5 years now. Still not done with it. One good earthquake and this structure will be destroyed and it will block the freeway to the next town for months if not years.
California’s high speed rail. . . about 50 miles between stations, which were to be surrounded by upscale burbs and shopping. In between stations, high density apartments, served by bus lines. Because the environment.
All built on what had been some of the most productive farmland ever, until water use restrictions dried it up. Because the environment.
No doubt it’s just due to a desire for public service that for years one or more members of a family which is one of the biggest real estate developers in the state were on the commission that governs the high speed rail initiative.
All- Good points…sigh