Dallas in Line for Bullet Train Station

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DALLAS — A new train station in downtown Dallas may be the northern terminal of a 240-mile privately financed high-speed rail line linking Dallas and Houston.

Three proposed station sites in Dallas and two potential rail routes through east Texas were unveiled Tuesday night in the first of six public meetings jointly conducted by the Federal Railroad Administration and Texas Department of Transportation on Texas Central High-Speed Railway's $10 billion bullet train proposal.

The FRA and TXDOT are preparing a draft environmental impact statement on Texas Central's proposed high-speed rail corridor through mostly rural areas between the two cities.

The two agencies will regulate construction and operation of the private rail line. With federal approval in 2016 and construction beginning in 2017, the high-speed system could be operational by 2021.

Dallas city officials at the meeting pushed for putting the high-speed rail station at or near the existing Union Station on the western edge of downtown. A downtown facility would provide easy connections to the light rail system of Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the Trinity Rail Express's commuter service between Dallas and Fort Worth, and Amtrak, they said.

"We want the train speeding to Union Station," said Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Jones Hill, whose district includes the downtown station.

"Union Station is the opportunity for high-speed rail to engage with our area," said Councilman Lee Kleinman, who represents District 11 in north Dallas, and is vice chairman of the council's transportation panel.

Four potential station sites in Houston are being considering, with one in downtown and three in the northwest area of the city. The final of these initial public sessions on the rail corridor is set for Houston on Oct. 29.

FRA officials said initial studies of nine possible routes for the high-speed rail line were considered, with two options identified as having the least impact on the environment and requiring the least land from nearby property owners.

The two optimal routes include one that would be located inside or along an existing freight rail line and one that would be built mostly in the right-of-way for high-voltage electric transmission lines. The high-speed train will run on dedicated double tracks and will not share track or infrastructure with other rail operations.

Texas Central Railway said it expects to need approximately 3,000 acres of additional land along the route for right-of-way.

James Maughan, an FRA environmental analyst, said the four-hour trip between Houston and Dallas could take six hours by 2030 instead of the current four hours as both cities almost double in size by then. The average speed on I-45 could drop from 60 mph to 40 mph in the next 15 years, he said.

The 200-mph trains would cut the travel time between the two cities to 90 minutes or less, Texas Central said. The company said its market studies show that the traffic load will support trains departing from both cities every 30 minutes around the clock, seven days a week.

Texas Central Railway said the high-speed line would be the first bullet train system in the U.S. and would not require any government funding or subsidies.

"The project promoted by Texas Central Railway will be not be built or operated by a government agency, funded by federal government grants or subsidized by taxpayers, but instead [will] be funded by private investors and built and operated by private entities," the company said.

The high-speed Texas line will use an international version of the Tokaido Shinkansen electric-powered train technology currently in operation between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. The Japanese trains have operated for 50 years carrying up to 400,000 passengers a day without a single fatality or injury due to train accidents, the company said.

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Infrastructure Transportation industry Washington Texas
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