A high-speed rail line that doesn’t connect Houston and Dallas’ downtowns will have much less value.

Plans for a high-speed rail station outside Loop 610 risk a disconnected system.

Is high-speed rail going to turn the Northwest Mall into a beet field?

After hearing so much about how the proposed Central Texas Railway will help people commute between the central business districts of Houston and Dallas, it turns out that the Houston station will be built near the Northwest Mall at U.S. 290 and Loop 610.

Unless your business is antiques, that location isn’t exactly central. In fact, the French have a phase to describe rail stations that sit outside central business districts, surrounded by little more than a parking lot: beet field stations.

We’ve heard arguments that, while it isn’t an economic core itself, the proposed rail terminus serves as the center of Houston’s economic footprint, balanced between the energy corridor, Galleria area, downtown, The Woodlands and the Texas Medical Center. But it isn’t just about placing riders at the physical center of a region. Central business districts offer convenient connections to riders’ end destinations. This means walking to hotels or businesses, grabbing a cab or connecting to a local mass-transit system. Downtown Houston is one of the few parts of town that can meet all those standards.

Rail stations on the edge of urban areas aren’t necessarily a bad thing, according to a June report by Eric Eidlin of the U.S. Federal Transit Administration that documented best rail practices from around the world. Sometimes it makes sense to build on more affordable, suburban property. However, those stations function best when they’re at the core of a transit node. Metro’s Northwest Transit Center isn’t enough.

Central Texas Railway CEO Tim Keith told the Houston Chronicle editorial board that they’re already working with Metro to link their high-speed rail with local systems. But Metro’s poor record of creating transit connections doesn’t create much confidence. In fact, the transit agency failed to build a shared light rail hub downtown, and now riders actually have to walk from station to station if they want to transfer to or from the Main Street line.

Metro’s version of commuter rail — Park and Ride — has stations that are little more than parking lots. Those are the dreaded beet field stations that, according to Eidlin’s report, do little to attract economic development.

There’s plenty of opportunities for Houston’s high-speed rail station to connect with the rest of the city, such as a Metro’s planned dedicated bus lanes in Uptown, or even light rail toward downtown. But according to best practices, that groundwork for a mass-transit hub should already be laid by the time the new high-speed rail station is built. Keith said the Central Texas Railway planned to break ground in 2017. Where is Metro’s corresponding local plan?

Texas rail has been on the drawing board for decades, and one of the major appeals has always been the ability to move commuters from downtown to downtown. While the vetting process narrowed potential routes for the Central Texas Railway, that longtime promise of access to Houston’s central business district began to fade. Now we’re stuck with the reality of a rail station being built outside Loop 610.

As Mayor Annise Parker leaves office, it will fall on either Sylvester Turner or Bill King to make sure that our rail station can actually connect people with the city instead of being just another Houston parking lot.

Texas rail has been on the drawing board for decades, and one of the major appeals has always been the ability to move commuters from downtown to downtown.