Why Amtrak is Bullish on Texas High-Speed Rail
SVP Andy Byford Calls Dallas – Houston Corridor ‘Our Golden Opportunity’ to Bring HSR to the United States
While my wife and I were in Austin, TX, last month visiting my grandson and his parents, Andy Byford, Amtrak’s senior vice president for high-speed rail, was in town to discuss his company’s vision for fast trains in the Lone Star state.
As keynote speaker for the Move America conference, he said the HSR route being planned between Texas’ two largest metropolitan areas had tremendous potential to provide a fast, efficient alternative to the state’s congested highways and its airports. "We believe Dallas to Houston represents a compelling corridor. It's the most obvious one in the country in terms of the distance, in terms of the population, in terms of the projected ridership," Byford remarked.
If the line gets built, which is far from certain, it could reduce travel times between the two cities to 90 minutes. This would be 60 minutes faster than flying, when travel time to airports is factored in. Driving on Interstate 45 takes 3 ½ - four hours.
Other than owning most of the Northeast Corridor, which runs between Boston, New York, and Washington, Amtrak had not been active in HSR historically. The high-speed projects underway in Florida, Nevada, and California are spearheaded by Brightline, a privately held passenger rail developer and operator, or the California High Speed Rail Authority.
However, since it announced an informal partnership last year with Texas Central to explore the feasibility of a Dallas-Houston high-speed railroad, Amtrak has stepped up its presence in a big way. As operator of the nation’s intercity rail system it brings to the table more than 50 years of passenger rail experience plus the support of the federal government.
Amtrak and partners, including the Texas DOT and Japanese government, have a long way to go before the first trains leave the station.
Last month the Federal Railroad Administration, an agency of the US Department of Transportation, awarded Amtrak a $64 million grant to continue planning for the project. This award was on top of $500,000 FRA awarded last December. It advances the Dallas-Houston line to the final stage of FRA’s Corridor Identification and Development Program.
While it represent a significant milestone in the process, Amtrak and partners, including the Texas DOT and Japanese government, have a long way to go before the first trains leave the station. Think of it like the New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited reaching Harmon, NY, on its 960-mile journey from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago.
With money to advance the project Byford and his team will use the next six month conducting ridership studies, developing revenue projection and preparing final design elements. A critical project will be putting together a public-private funding package, a process Byford said could take a year or more.
Current plans call for a 240-mile link following a power line that would be unconnected to the national freight railroad network. The route would run from a station on the southern edge of downtown Dallas to a Houston terminus on the site of a shopping mall adjacent to the Loop 610 / US 290 intersection. It would have one intermediate stop in the Bryan / College Station vicinity.
Passengers would ride on a version of Japan’s famed Shinkansen bullet train, which has operated without a fatality since 1964. Trains would reach a 205 mph, which would make them among the fastest in the world.
Not everyone is on board with the new rail line. Rural landowners and elected officials along the proposed route have raised objections. They contend rural areas would get no benefit from the line since it would make only one stop and it would negatively impact agriculture. Citing a project build cost estimate that has ballooned from” $10 billion to $40 billion they question the project’s economic viability.
Opposition retarded the original developer’s land acquisition effort. Two years after the Texas Supreme Court ruled the HSR line was a railroad and could acquire land by eminent domain only around 30 percent of the route is under contract. In addition, Texas Central Railway, which initiated the project, owes more than $800,000 in unpaid property taxes.
Assuming Amtrak can line up financing and acquire the necessary land rights and governmental approvals, construction could start by the early 2030s, according to Byford. He called the project “our golden opportunity if we’re ever going to introduce high-speed rail to the US.”
The Dallas - Houston corridor is in the sweet stop for high speed rail. Byford pointed out that the line will be “relatively easy to construct, that (it) has relatively straightforward topography.” It also has an overcrowded interstate highway and overcrowded airports. “If you put together all those characteristics and then you figure out which route you would build, there’s one that really stands out and that is Dallas to Houston,” he added.
The Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas are the fourth and fifth most-populous metropolitan areas, respectively, in the United States. Their a combined population exceeds 15.6 million. The travel market between them is tremendous. It is composed of people traveling for work, visiting relatives or friends, healthcare, entertainment, shopping and more. An estimated 100,000 persons travel between the two cities at least once a week.
These “super commuters” could provide a core customer base for the high speed line. If half of them opt for HSR and an equal number of occasional travelers go by train Amtrak’s forecast of taking 12,000 to 15,000 cars a day off I-45 seems reasonable. The patronage could fill 50 400-seat trains daily, which is in line with a planned hourly service throughout the day with trains every 30 minutes during peak travel times.
Amtrak could point to the success of Brightline’s Miami – Orlando line to support its case. In June the privately owned carrier carried 223,369 passengers, more than half traveling between South Florida and Orlando.
Brightline’s 235-mile route is similar to Dallas – Houston. It connects the ninth and 21st largest US metropolitan areas having a combined population of nine million. In addition, the run takes 3 ½ hours, on average, more than twice as long as the proposed line in Texas.
In addition to the Dallas – Houston high speed line, Amtrak’s vision for Texas calls for improved rail service in the Texas Triangle, comprising San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston. Despite being the second most populous state, Texas has been a backwater for intercity passenger rail. Only three Amtrak routes operate in the state: the Texas Eagle, between Chicago and San Antonio; the Heartland Flyer, between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, both running daily, and the Sunset Limited, which three times a week between New Orleans and Los Angeles.
If Byford and his team can line up the financial and political support they need and come to terms with the landowners, Texas could have the busiest HSR line in the United States and one of the fastest in the world. It’s a tall order but Byford has a proven record of getting things done and Texas’ explosive growth will require more and better ways to travel.