woodiewood1 said:
O.G. said:
ElephantRider said:
O.G. said:
Never say never.
I know one Right Of Way Agent/Landman that has been working on real estate relocations on this project for the last several years. As far as I know they are the only one but she's fluent in Spanish which is necessary because she's specifically working in Houston in an area where the terminal will be.
They've already bought quite a bit of ROW. I know quite a few people that have worked on it.
They are broke, though. I'm in the "it's never going to happen" camp.
My hope is that someone scoops up that ROW a repurposes it for a 500kV+/HVDC backbone transmission line
We probably know each other or have crossed paths then. I was one of the original landmen/ROW agents on it.
IMHO, if they are going to do it, they should stick to the I-45 &I-35 corridors. These things don't need 150ft of ROW, not even close. Using existing ROW would minimize the private property footprint & cut costs.
Why couldn't they have run a mostly elevated rail line right down the edge of the I45 ROW? I would think the cost might not be much more if any that purchasing all the land and development of the ground based rail lines.
The last version that I saw, keep in mind this was in 2016 or 2017, did have it elevated in some places.
There was a route/version that did use a lot of I45, I went and talked to a bunch of Ranchers/Farmers/Real Estate people over there during that time. However, for whatever reason, that got shut down. The story we were told (Full disclosure, I do not know how true this is) is that there was a major investor and/or a huge sports team owner that had a ranch somewhere near proposed track and did not want it in their back yard. Again, that's what we were told.
There has been a fair amount of land already purchased between Houston and Dallas. The northern most point of my area was around Buffalo/Centerville area so I don't know what the case is as you get closer to DFW.
The last major route that I saw was going to be next to the major powerline ROW in Grimes County going north. There is/was an issue with a coal mine that was in the way & some other issues as well.
I have seen mass commuter rail in DC, NYC and Chicago & I do know that you do not need a huge ROW for this. You need the width of the track and an area for maintenance/emergency vehicles. I can not fathom how they would need 150ft or anything like that. Freight trains and Amtrack get by in a lot smaller areas than that.
A few myths/legends that have persisted that I still hear that I can help with:
It is not Chinese owned. Period. It was 100% started by a group of American investors.
The technology/train system itself is/was going to be Japanese, not Chinese. (Not trying to rude/sarcastic here but I STG a lot of people don't know the difference, its sad) The reason they were going with the Japanese tech is because of their safety record, high reliability & the Japanese seem to have this down to a science. (I've never ridden Japan's rail system but my brother has while in the USMC and he told me it runs like a sewing machine)
There was never realistically a route that came directly to BCS, there was a drawing of one, but it was never in the top 3 for consideration. The closest that I saw was Roans Prairie(ish) but there was going to be a stop there for commuters/games etc & proposed parking garages etc etc.
Don't believe every politician that is "fighting" it. More support it than you know, in both parties. It did have bi-partisan support on the Federal and State level including 2 former Presidents, one in each party. Some local politicians on the proposed route have used it as a plank in their platform to get elected. Its a win/win for them no matter what happens. If it completely goes away, they can tell their voters that they fought it and won. If it happens they can be a Martyr and say they were outnumbered by big city politicians etc. Not naming names, but this has definitely happened.
I do not know the current status of it, as far as investors coming/going etc., but I do know that it never has completely gone away. There have been landmen/ROW agents working quietly on it in Houston and other areas this entire time.