And it will go between College Station and Huntsville. What do you think?

Here is the article

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The bullet train will be the first high-speed rail the country has ever seen. Travel time on the train will be 90 minutes between Houston and Dallas with one stop in between in the Brazos Valley area. [...]

"The train never crosses a road, and there are no cars waiting on trains. Also there are no trains intersecting the cars, and no whistles or horn on the train," said Holly Reed, managing director of external affairs at Texas Central. "That's how you get reliability and safety. There's one track going north and one track going south, so you never have trains going opposite directions." [...]

The first full year of operations is projected to be in 2022. Texas Central does not want to speculate on ticket prices but will be offering competitive priced tickets.

Texas Central will be considering factors with pricing tickets dependent upon booking in advance, last minute, peak time, and off peak time. The Brazos area stop will be in between College Station and Huntsville. There might be possible student pricing for the 80,000 students that are in the Brazos Valley area which includes serving students attending Texas A&M, Blinn, and Sam Houston. [...]

"Today the project can be built and move forward under the existing Texas Law of the Land. There are no changes that need to be made at the Texas legislature," said Reed. "There are heavy regulatory requirements because it is a railroad and that deals with public safety."

The train travels 200 miles per hour and is all 2 by 2 seating, which is similar to a first class airline experience. The bullet train will be the widest body passenger train in operation and will be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant. Amenities such as Wi-Fi and comfortable seating will also be offered.

Even though Texas Central hasn't purchased the land for the station yet, several sites are under consideration in that northwest area. The Houston area station will be in the area at 610 between 290 and I10. The location will be in the northwest mall area and METRO Northwest Transit Center area. The Dallas station will be just south of downtown near the Southside of Lamar. During peak times the train will leave every 30 minutes. Off peak times the train will leave approximately every hour.

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In Shiro. Not sure how that attracts ****

Ah, Shiro, that makes sense. It's known as the Normangee of the South.

Does that make West End a possible destination for date night?

100% impossible to break ground next year. They haven't even started their environmental process.

With being privately funded and having fares "in line with airline tickets", I don't see this being successful. A Dallas to Houston flight is ~$150, I cannot imagine the average consumer spending that much to ride the train when they could drive for less AND have transportation when they arrive.

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With being privately funded and having fares "in line with airline tickets", I don't see this being successful. A Dallas to Houston flight is ~$150, I cannot imagine the average consumer spending that much to ride the train when they could drive for less AND have transportation when they arrive.

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They're dropping you off in downtown Dallas. You can have a meeting in Dallas at 1 and be home by 4 assuming a one hour meeting. Can't do that if you fly. Sure as hell can't do that if you drive. If those travel times are real and the terminal locations are as well its got a real shot.

You think there are over 100 people that would commute to Dallas daily for 1 hour meetings? That's the only way it's justifiable.

It has to have approximately HALF of the air traffic to be cost effective.

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"Even though Texas Central hasn't purchased the land for the station yet, several sites are under consideration in that northwest area."

They may build a station somewhere to use as some kinda publicity stunt BUT..The rail will NEVER happen. The use of Eminent Domain for all of the land needed for this project would take DECADES . The stupid environmental impact foolishness for something going thru so many different parts of the state will take DECADES. Some environut will find a mud hole on there route, call it a wetland, find an endangered bug and before long the route have about 735 eco-freak lawsuits stopping it every 1/2 mile.

The era of mega projects like this is OVER in this country. We have so hamstrung ourselves with lawyers, regs, studies etc that it almost impossible to do anything larger than a strip center anymore.

Something similar to this already happened in Montgomery County, one reason it got moved to Grimes.

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The train never crosses a road, and there are no cars waiting on trains

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Are they proposing this to be on elevated track? I can't imagine what the actual cost of that type of project might be.

It was supposed to be "at grade" everywhere but roads and be elevated over road crossings which isn't really correct, they were going to build up a berm or levee type of system and have it run 1-3 feet about actual landscape, thus making easier overpasses over existing roads.

At least the last public info I reviewed this was the case.

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Ah, Shiro, that makes sense. It's known as the Normangee of the South.

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Hey **** you! Normangee is the bomb. Can you buy tractors in Shiro. Hell no!! More like North Zulch south.

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You think there are over 100 people that would commute to Dallas daily for 1 hour meetings? That's the only way it's justifiable.

It has to have approximately HALF of the air traffic to be cost effective.

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I think that however many people go to Bush and Hobby to fly to DFW and Love Field every day is the target. If you think that number is less than 100 then you're probably right. A quick check of Southwest Airlines shows that they have 20 flights next Wednesday from Hobby to Love Field. The smaller configuration for the 737-500 has 122 seats. That's 2440 a day that Southwest believes they can sell seats to just for that trip. That same day American is running 9 flights from IAH to DFW. I didn't do the math on the number of seats available on those planes but you get the point. Just between two airlines there's 31 flights next Wednesday from Houston to Dallas. United is running six flights. I'm going to guess that counting all airlines there are about 45 to 50 flights from Houston to Dallas daily so I'm going to assume there are a few thousand people making that trip. They aren't all making a round trip but that's not terribly relevant to an airline or to this train. It certainly looks to me like they can sell 500+ tickets/day each way if they have more convenient locations in both cities. Is that enough to make it work, I don't know but it's enough to do more than dismiss it out of hand.

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In Shiro. Not sure how that attracts ****

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Imagine being one of these business travelers on the train and having to stop in the middle of nowhere to pick up...nobody. Great idea.

There is a MUCH better case for a commuter rail from BCS to downtown with alternating stops along the NW Harris County to Brazos County corridor. I could see thousands going both ways as working professionals living out here head to work while a few thousand students / faculty living in Harris County come up here.
Everyone I've talked to has agreed, especially Judge Eckols with the bullet train guys BUT it just won't happen.
The spirit of our forefathers , like Roy Hofeinz or the Allen Bros , may still reside in a small few but our will and ability is as dead as our republic

The thought is Houston business people will build homes near the Grimes stop to commute.

Any ideas how to make money betting this never comes to fruition? Does this company have a stock to short? Seems like easy money.

At the cost of an airline ticket to Houston from Dallas everyday!? Hell even at half that's absolutely DUMB.

Not this **** again

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The thought is Houston business people will build homes near the Grimes stop to commute.

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Who's thought? Grimes Co doesnt want them. The county is happy being rural. And wtf is gonna life in Shiro. The closest store is Huntsville.

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With being privately funded and having fares "in line with airline tickets", I don't see this being successful. A Dallas to Houston flight is ~$150, I cannot imagine the average consumer spending that much to ride the train when they could drive for less AND have transportation when they arrive.

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It needs to be cost-competitive -- $150 is way too much. However, going to & from (fairly close to) downtown in each city, and not having to get there two hours early to go through security, bag check, etc. (as you do in the airport, not to mention driving out to the airport) is appealing. Get some rental-car places at the stations and connect it to DART and it could start to make sense.

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Who's thought? Grimes Co doesnt want them. The county is happy being rural. And wtf is gonna life in Shiro. The closest store is Huntsville.

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Ummm, hello. There's a Family Dollar in Roans Prairie.

The only reason this fails if we have idiot politicians who let a few stupid people get in the way because they don't want it. High speed rail should have been built long ago.

I doubt the tickets will be $150 one way from Houston to Dallas.

Why would this be good? We already have Southwest Airlines.

I would like to see how many people they need daily to make it profitable. I would bet that it is way above the number that are willing to pay $150 and then be without a car on the other side.

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not having to get there two hours early to go through security, bag check, etc.

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In the era of ISIS, how can this be a good thing?

The security to get on the train will be similar to any airport security.

This isn't going to be like getting on a subway in NYC.

Drew seems to think so.

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The only reason this fails if we have idiot politicians who let a few stupid people get in the way because they don't want it. High speed rail should have been built long ago.

I doubt the tickets will be $150 one way from Houston to Dallas.

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A few, think about all the landowners from Houston to Dallas that will have their land devalued and taken so some clown can go to a meeting somewhere. It's a horrible idea because stupid people don't mind the govt stealing from somebody else as long as it benefits them.

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The only reason this fails if we have idiot politicians who let a few stupid people get in the way because they don't want it. High speed rail should have been built long ago.

I doubt the tickets will be $150 one way from Houston to Dallas.

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A few, think about all the landowners from Houston to Dallas that will have their land devalued and taken so some clown can go to a meeting somewhere. It's a horrible idea because stupid people don't mind the govt stealing from somebody else as long as it benefits them.

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Yep. Damn " stupid" landowners! Imagine them fighting for their own property and their rights.

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I doubt the tickets will be $150 one way from Houston to Dallas.

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The thing will cost $50 billion to build. There is no way tickets can be cheap when they're going to have to recoup costs.

I'll just drop this here.

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/51paxton/rq/2016/pdf/RQ0113KP.pdf