Category Archives: railways

3 Steps . 2 North Texas Cities Connecting Via High Speed Rail.

Dallas and Ft. Worth are moving forward with a high speed rail line connecting the two cities. This is how they’re doing it:

  • Creating a  local government corporation with Dallas, an entity that would govern inter-city passenger rail service
  • The local government corporation would own and manage the rail line​
  • The Local government corporation would then control creation, funding and actual construction of the line

The North Central Texas Council of Governments is coordinating the project.

It…

LEGAL TREND. Private Railroads. Pre-condemnation Survey Access. Enjoined. What does it means?

 A legal fight between Texas Central Rail and Grimes County has created an injuntion to ” permanently enjoin [Texas Central Rail]  from performing surveys or other studies which damage, alter or impair county maintained rights of way,”

What Grimes County says it does: prevents Texas Central Rail from exercising precondemantion surveys  & Texas Central Rail does not have eminent domain authority

What Texas Central Rail says it does: Surveys will continue, as they have, and no damage will be…

Sen. Huffines: 5 Reasons High Speed Rail Should have Eminent Domain Power.

  • Population growth requires that innovative transportation be accommodated
  • High Speed Rail proposal is privately funded
  • Private companies exercise eminent domain all the time in Texas with no gross mismangement
  • Private rail has exercised eminent domain for more than 100 years
  • Texas has property owner protections

Dallas Morning News | Why it’s perfectly appropriate to allow a private railroad to use eminent domain

The Courts Work while the Legislature Works. Does high speed rail have eminent domain?

  • A lawsuit from 78 year old property owner and a countersuit by Texas High Speed Rail had a hearing this week
  • What put them into court was whether the rail could have pre-condemantion access to the property to survey it
  • What kept them in court, when Texas Central Rail, had dropped other similar lawsuits, was that this lawsuit wanted Texas Central Rail to admit that it did not have eminent domain authority

No ruling yet from the Court. 

KBTX | Leon County landowner meets high speed rail…

Legal Trend. High Speed Rail. Open Records. Eminent Domain.

Opponent to Texas Central rail are seeking disclosure of Texas Central Railway’s feasibility study held by TXDOT.

What arguments do the opponents make for disclosure?

  • Disclosure should occur because the rail is using eminent domain
  • Disclosure should occur because the rail is going after taxpayer dollars

What are the arguments to protect the information from disclosure?

Texas Central Rail shouldbe granted the same privacy protections that a business would be granted.

KBTX | Texans Against…

Local TREND. Solve Transportation via Tech.

Examples of cities solving transportation woes with tech:

  • France’s cities are using smart trains
  • Los Angeles is using smart meters
  • Toronto is also turning to Internet of Things (IoT) technology to ease its traffic congestion 
  • New Delhi is  partnering with Google India’s transit unit to “provide free train schedule and route information to commuters through mobile devices with Google Maps
 
 

Compare. Contrast. Economic Numbers of High Speed Rail vs. Neiman Marcus.

Neiman Marcus

  • private investment: $5 million
  • new jobs based on the $5 million investment: 0
  • requested tax rebates: $1 million

 

Dallas to Houston High Speed Rail

  • private investment: $12 billion
  • new jobs: 10,000 jobs during construction & 750 during operation
  • requested tax rebates: $0
  • tax revenue contributed by 2040: $3 billion

Dallas Morning News | With private funding and no public incentives, how can we oppose the Texas bullet train?

Update. The Other Side of the Coin—- 18 Bills = 9 Bills + Companions. High Speed De-Railment.

Highlights from Texas Central Rail repsonse to the high speed rail bill package:

  • ” a slate of discriminatory bills”
  • it is the “use the power of the state government to single out and kill a free market project”
  • 10,000 jobs are represented by high speed rail project
  • Billions of dollars will be invested in the Texas economy
  • Collaborating with landowners 
  • “a majority of Texans have been clamoring for” this project

WTAW Brazos Valley | Texas Central Partners Reaction To State Legislation…