Glad to (hopefully) have an alternative to driving to Houston. Not that I'm optimistic it will actually happen.
Yep. I drive I45 from Buffalo down to Huntsville once or twice a month and there are no traffic problems on that stretch of highway. As state above, the traffic issues are the urban areas and the bullet train does address that. No one in the future probably will be taking the bullet train from The Woodlands up or down I45 five or six miles or so.BQ_90 said:Bucketrunner said:
Just curious, as I have no skin in the game, but what would be your solution to the traffic problems on 45 (and other major highway thoroughfares)? Adding lanes obviously is not the answer.
How does the train fix that? It doesn't stop 18 wheeler traffic. There isn't commuters going from Houston to Dallas every day for work causing the traffic. I-69 once finish might help. I thought 21 had plans for,east west interstate.
A boondoggle train that'll cost tax payers money for ever sure isn't the answer
...and you can bet there will tremendous cost inflation. The original cost I can remember was 12 BILLION and lately I have seen a figure of 30+ BILLION. More than likely before the first riding rides from DFW to Houston the cost will be upwards of 100 BILLION with the Texas taxpayers paying for much of the increase.agnerd said:
I looked at this when it first came out. For what they want to spend on this train you could:
1. Build a new runway and new terminal in Dallas for Houston-Dallas flights only.
2. Build a new runway and terminal in Houston for Houston-Dallas flights only.
3. Buy enough 737s to run flights between the two cities every 30 minutes 24/7/365 plus 20% more to be serviced while the others are flying.
4. Replace the planes every 15 years with new planes in perpetuity.
4. Hire enough pilots, and flight attendants to staff the flights.
5. Pay for all fuel and maintenance and airport taxes.
6. Charge $0 for every seat.
The amount of money they want to spend is insane and a colossal waste of money. Only way I'm OK with it is if all parties involved have to put up the cash before getting started, agree that they will be ineligible for bankruptcy, and can do complete the project without the use of eminent domain. Since that last one is out the window, I will never support this project.
woodiewood1 said:...and you can bet there will tremendous cost inflation. The original cost I can remember was 12 BILLION and lately I have seen a figure of 30+ BILLION. More than likely before the first riding rides from DFW to Houston the cost will be upwards of 100 BILLION with the Texas taxpayers paying for much of the increase.agnerd said:
I looked at this when it first came out. For what they want to spend on this train you could:
1. Build a new runway and new terminal in Dallas for Houston-Dallas flights only.
2. Build a new runway and terminal in Houston for Houston-Dallas flights only.
3. Buy enough 737s to run flights between the two cities every 30 minutes 24/7/365 plus 20% more to be serviced while the others are flying.
4. Replace the planes every 15 years with new planes in perpetuity.
4. Hire enough pilots, and flight attendants to staff the flights.
5. Pay for all fuel and maintenance and airport taxes.
6. Charge $0 for every seat.
The amount of money they want to spend is insane and a colossal waste of money. Only way I'm OK with it is if all parties involved have to put up the cash before getting started, agree that they will be ineligible for bankruptcy, and can do complete the project without the use of eminent domain. Since that last one is out the window, I will never support this project.
Eminent Domain laws should never be forced on landowners to sell their land to a private company.
When it's half constructed and they go belly-up, no private entity will take on the cost to finish the project. I would bet you that they will go to the state and/or the feds for investment. I don't presume that a new private entity would involve themselves in it. All the high speed rail systems in the U.S. are public tax funded except one being built in Florida that only goes 55 miles from coast to cost. Hopefully you are correct.BiochemAg97 said:woodiewood1 said:...and you can bet there will tremendous cost inflation. The original cost I can remember was 12 BILLION and lately I have seen a figure of 30+ BILLION. More than likely before the first riding rides from DFW to Houston the cost will be upwards of 100 BILLION with the Texas taxpayers paying for much of the increase.agnerd said:
I looked at this when it first came out. For what they want to spend on this train you could:
1. Build a new runway and new terminal in Dallas for Houston-Dallas flights only.
2. Build a new runway and terminal in Houston for Houston-Dallas flights only.
3. Buy enough 737s to run flights between the two cities every 30 minutes 24/7/365 plus 20% more to be serviced while the others are flying.
4. Replace the planes every 15 years with new planes in perpetuity.
4. Hire enough pilots, and flight attendants to staff the flights.
5. Pay for all fuel and maintenance and airport taxes.
6. Charge $0 for every seat.
The amount of money they want to spend is insane and a colossal waste of money. Only way I'm OK with it is if all parties involved have to put up the cash before getting started, agree that they will be ineligible for bankruptcy, and can do complete the project without the use of eminent domain. Since that last one is out the window, I will never support this project.
Eminent Domain laws should never be forced on landowners to sell their land to a private company.
I thought this was a private company and private finance. Where/when/why are the taxpayer in the hook for the cost overruns?
Presumably, if the project doesn't make the revenue to pay the debts, it will declare bankruptcy and either restructure the debt or be sold at auction to a new operator.
FlyRod said:
Glad to (hopefully) have an alternative to driving to Houston. Not that I'm optimistic it will actually happen.
O.G. said:The last version that I saw, keep in mind this was in 2016 or 2017, did have it elevated in some places.woodiewood1 said: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.O.G. said:We probably know each other or have crossed paths then. I was one of the original landmen/ROW agents on it.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
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.
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.
You forgot the option to surface on a former oil rig platform in the middle of the Gulf and spend a day deep sea fishing. It's an add-on cost of $150.TyHolden said:
I believe the new version of the rail goes past Houston, takes a left at Galveston, under the Gulf, and arrives in Disney World. I can't see how anybody would be against that.
I did an inspection of a ranch in Grimes county where the landowner, who's family has owned the land for the better part of 100 years, said that the train is going to split his ranch. He pointed out a barn across where the train was targeted to go and said after the train is built, he will have to go down about 1/2 mile and come back in order to get to the barn and the pastures on the other side rather than using his tractor to go the few hundred feet now.aggiegal99 said:
When we bought our Grimes County property about 6 years ago, the proposed route of the train was a big consideration. We passed on a property that we really liked because it was within 30 yards or so of the proposed route. It was the unknown of future financial implications of property that close to the rail that scared us, not the proximity of the rail itself. On the flip side, the property we ended up buying is in easy commuting distance to the proposed Roans Prairie station. This place could be a home for someone to commute to Houston or Dallas daily for work, and that could positively impact our property value (at which point, we'll sell and move further away from the people--growth is definitely coming this way from B/CS). Overall, I don't think the rail will actually happen, but I wasn't oblivious to the possibility.
This was my understanding of the whole project - supposedly it's a real estate venture to develop two run down locations and the rail was the way to make it happen. The rail was never meant to actually be viable, imo.Aggie@state.gov said:
He won't have to worry as the thing will never be built.
In the counties where they do own land, they are delinquent in their property taxes'
This was also a land grab at each end to develop the areas around each terminus into a big development.