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from the Thomas-the-Tank-engine-on-steroids dept.
One company in Texas is looking to bring Japanese technology to a potential 240-mile high-speed rail route between Dallas and Houston:
Texas Central Partners LLC, a U.S. company aiming to build a high-speed rail link in the southern state, is envisaging Japanese companies potentially providing vehicles and technologies for its planned bullet train service connecting Dallas and Houston.
In a recent phone interview with Kyodo News, Texas Central CEO Tim Keith reiterated that the shinkansen technology of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Central), Japan's lead bullet train operator, will be employed for linking the two major cities, about 385 kilometers apart.
"Texas Central Partners is one hundred percent committed to the shinkansen system with JR Central as our life-of-system partner," Keith said.
Nearly 50,000 Texans, sometimes called "super-commuters," travel back and forth between Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth more than once a week. Many others make the trip very regularly. The approximately 240-mile high-speed rail line will offer a total travel time of less than 90 minutes, with convenient departures every 30 minutes during peak periods each day, and every hour during off-peak periods – with 6 hours reserved each night for system maintenance and inspection.
Kyodo reprint at The Japan Times.
A study commissioned by Texas Central Partners estimates a $36 billion economic impact through 2040 from its $10 billion Dallas-Houston rail project. Proposed measures by the state legislature to prevent the project failed in 2015. Skeptics doubt the company will meet its goal of selling tickets starting in 2021, and point to the necessity of using eminent domain to acquire land needed for the project, which the company claims is a "last resort". Kyle Workman, president of Texans Against High Speed Rail, has created a group of Texans opposed to the use of eminent domain and taxpayer funding for the high-speed rail project.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 30 2015, @07:53PM
Sure, it's not cheap to build a high-speed rail line, but I would expect that a high-speed rail line might well be cheaper to build and maintain than I-45 is, especially once you factor in the costs of accidents and car insurance due to so many using that road. And the kind of speed they're talking about would turn a 4-hour trip into a 90-minute trip, which I would have to assume is worth something to somebody since a 1-hour flight between the two cities goes for $172 round trip.
So I don't think the opposition is really about money. I doubt it's really about eminent domain either, since the route would be more-or-less along an existing interstate. My guess is that the opposition really comes down to "High-speed rail is an assault on our freedoms!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 30 2015, @07:58PM
No. It's a few scars and mounds in an attempt to help remove the product or manage the project, with Kyodo low-flow toilets. It aught to build employed audition for its Wars.
-- OriginalOwner_
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday December 30 2015, @08:47PM
My guess is that the opposition really comes down to
The way it usually works nationwide in general is a bunch of rich guys want big contracts and want the rails to only serve them, but they'd like all the poor people to pay for it and also have their houses demolished. Its the same thing with street cars "us rich people need a hand out boo hoo"
Usually the -D side latches on as a "public transit is always good because they're unionized" and usually the -R opposes because they always oppose the -D side.
Usually the -R side opposes all trains including privately funded cargo, which I can't make any sense of, other than maybe they're trying to appear consistent.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 30 2015, @09:22PM
Your arguments seem woefully incomplete:
* Some of the -D type politicians and groups would likely support high-speed rail not due to unionized workers but due to the lower CO2 emissions for moving 1 high-speed train versus 100+ cars needed to move a similar number of people.
* Some of the -R type politicians and groups would likely oppose high-speed rail because of their ties to the people who sell gasoline and diesel fuel to the 100 cars.
Neither of which explains why lots of ordinary people would be opposed to it. In California, similar proposals were shot down primarily because of the fear that the high speed rail would bring Those People to the places in between the major cities. So what's the major emotional driver of the opposition in Texas?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 30 2015, @11:45PM
If only you were right!
https://theweek.com/articles/540002/most-expensive-publicworks-project-history [theweek.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2015, @01:03AM
Judging by the "supporting opposition" page on their website, this group is a front for the interests of ranchers who will have their pastures bisected by the rail line.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday December 31 2015, @02:38PM
They're incomplete because they're fuzzy. The train is never going to be full and low speed trains are more efficient than cars but high speed ones are not, and the sheer CO2 requirements of the track construction vs existing roads mean they'll never, ever break even environmentally at a small scale. Now go all "TGV" like France and finally the balance shifts...
This ties right back into the energy company reference for the -R. Again, its close to a wash although they'll probably over the lifetime of the system use more energy than not building the thing.
Remember there's a convenience factor. I can be in downtown (big city) in less than 2 hours thanks to commuter rail, so there are additional trips I'll take to visit museums or just to F around that are only possible because I can avoid the car hassle. Environmentally we'd be far better off without the trains and with me sitting on my living room couch, but here I am at the big city art museum instead.
The whole "those people" thing doesn't apply when tickets are going to be like $200. Everyone on the train has nice new clothes and Apple devices prominently displayed, other than the old order Amish, which is always interesting contrast to see. Trains are for rich / well off people who have time to burn and enjoy the journey (the ones in a hurry take a helicopter or corporate jet). You do see old retired people a lot too, seeing the country from ground level. Not going to make fun of those folks, I'll probably be one in a few decades, if society doesn't collapse. Taking the train from national park to national park, etc.