Texas poised to get America's first bullet train
Texas poised to get America's first bullet train
Plans are reportedly being revived for a high-speed rail link utilizing Japanese trains running between Houston and Dallas.
President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking to revive a project that would construct a high-speed railway from Houston to Dallas in Texas utilizing Japanese bullet trains.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing unnamed administration sources, the White House is looking to make an announcement on the project following talks between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., this week.
The Japanese government and the White House declined to comment on the report, though the project has seen renewed support from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told KXAS in Fort Worth on Sunday: "We believe in this."
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Gregg Abbott in a few weeks: "Trains?! Sounds like trans... No thanks, Biden!"
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-bullet-train-abbott/
This fall (December 3, 2020), the project received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration, and Governor Greg Abbott wrote a letter to the Japanese government, a key investor in the project, voicing his support. The potential benefits of the rail seemed manifold. It would offer travelers a ninety-minute alternative to the four-hour drive between Dallas and Houston and relieve highway congestion that’s projected to double by 2035. It would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And it would create thousands of high-paying jobs at a time when Texas is suffering from both a pandemic-related recession and an oil-price bust.
“The Texas High-Speed Train will be the first truly high-speed train in Texas and the United States, connecting North Texas, Houston and the Brazos Valley in less than 90 minutes, using the safest, most accessible, most efficient and environmentally friendly mass transportation system in the world today,” Texas Central spokesperson Erin Ragsdale wrote in a statement.
Abbott’s letter, however, sparked a firestorm among some of his longtime supporters. Even before the governor expressed support for the rail project, Meier said, her circle of friends had become increasingly wary of him because they believed he was pandering to liberal interests by imposing restrictions on some businesses during the early days of the pandemic. “I was the only one I know of that was still basically supporting him,” Meier said. “If he continues to support the [train], he will not get my vote, and I will passionately spread the word.”
Four days after Abbott penned his letter, his staff walked back his support, telling the Dallas Morning News that the governor intended to reevaluate his position out of concern for Texans’ property rights and because he was provided with “incomplete” information about the project.
Dude has been all over the map, chasing whichever way popular opinion has been blowing.
The only thing certain about conservatives is they will always make the worst possible choice. Always.
It could be that transforming the land value of an couple of abandoned malls into a hot property for developers will ultimately win Abbott over. There's a lot of money that Texas routinely leaves on the table for ideological reasons, and as the domestic market cools off we're seeing more push back from the business wing of the party to do real actual infrastructure projects rather than just squeezing rents out of the existing stock.
I could see that. Although, I do wonder when the party will be too far gone for the corporate billionaires to have any control left.
If you consider folks like Musk and Gates to be the modern corporate Pied Pipers, I might argue that it's their increased control that's driving people crazy