Where to begin? Most have tackled the private property issue, the lack of population density and the high percentage of car ownership, the high cost, and the fact that no one seems to be asking for it.
It was mentioned that roads (wit the traffic and construction is all we have to move a large number of people between houston and dallas. Completely leaving out the airlines, but I digress. Others have certainly mentioned that.
What about the statement that in 10-15 years this will make it easier for people in Dallas to travel to A&M games because of the traffic on highways. Wait.....what?
Most people do not travel from the convention center (the site of the proposed station) area of Dallas. However, many do drive through it on the way because they are coming from Frisco, Plano, Richardson, HP, etc.
So they are going to travel to downtown, pay to park, pay between $300-400 for a round trip ticket each (let's go with a family of 4 here), get on an hour train ride (with arriving early, security, etc an extra 45 minutes at least), arrive at Roans Prairie (30 minutes minimum from Kyle Field on a non game day) where they will get off the train. Now they either Uber, take a cab, shuttle or have a friend pick them up. Once in College Station (unless they have family or friend chauffeuring them) they will be at one location without any transportation.
If they want to go to Koppe, Maroon U, etc it's more of a hassle. If spending the night more transportation issues getting to hotel most likely. Certainly can be overcome, but it's a thing.
With going out of your way even just a bit, parking, security, the ride, travel to BCS....let's call it 2:45 and approx $1200-1500 plus parking, shuttle, etc. Add in the hassle of downtown (nothing insane but with all of these extra people and cars I'm assuming it will be worse in 10-15 years as well).
OR
Keep driving on 35 (brutal) or 45. From downtown it's 2:45 ( I do this drive 6-7 times a month unfortunately). I am paying $50 in gas, have flexibility when in BCS, may pay $20 to park, with A LOT fewer moving parts for something to go wrong.
Yeah....this is definitely the option for the everyday person.
Also - who actually cares about Musk and whether it's an American company? No one on this thread apparently.