With Trump on board, Texas puts high-speed rail on the fast track
WASHINGTON — Texas is closer than ever to building the first high-speed train in the United States, thanks to President Donald Trump’s fascination with these transportation projects and a well-timed pitch to his administration.
Developers nationwide are now looking to the privately owned Texas Central Railway as a test case of what can get done with Trump in the White House.
Former Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr., a member of the company’s board of directors, met recently with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in Washington. He wasn’t seeking the taxpayer-funded grants sought by high-speed rail projects in California and the Northeast.
What the $10 billion Texas Central Railway really needs is a green light from the agency Chao oversees.
“It was an opportunity to make a first impression,” said Tim Keith, president of Texas Central Railway.
The meeting clearly stuck. Soon after, Chao mentioned Texas Central Railway at the National Governors Association winter conference as an example of the kind of “very impressive” project the administration is interested in.
The question now is whether private investment — coupled with regulatory relief — is a model the Trump administration could use to finance and expedite his promised $1 trillion infrastructure push.
The president has said his plan will include private and public funding. But there appears to be little appetite in Congress to spend big on infrastructure, especially as Republicans are preparing to cut taxes.
Texas Central’s entrepreneurial approach, which neatly sidesteps the politically charged appropriations process on Capitol Hill, could be a faster way.
“Texas does big things. This is a big idea,” said Keith. “We’re working hard to transform transportation in America, and change the way public infrastructure is conceived, sponsored and financed.”
Texas Central’s plan is to build a private 205-mph bullet train that covers the 240mile trip between Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth using Japanese technology.
Trains would depart every 30 minutes, 18 hours a day. A one-way trip would take 90 minutes, compared with five hours to drive or about three and a half hours by air if you include all the transit and security, Keith said.
Keith isn’t ready to announce pricing, but he said tickets would be sold on a demandbased model similar to that used by airlines and hotels, varying by date and time.
He expects tickets will cost less than the $500 price of a business class round-trip airfare, but more than the estimated $270 cost of driving the same route, which he calculates at 55 cents a mile for gas and wear and tear.
The project must overcome several regulatory hurdles at the federal level before it can proceed to the construction phase. A series of environmental reviews already are underway, with the process expected to wrap up by early next year. The company also is seeking a new safety rule that will allow its trains to operate at up to 205 mph.
“There’s no rules set yet for driving a train 200 miles an hour in the United States,” Keith said. “We’re having those rules written for our system.”