President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking to revive a project that would construct a high-speed railway from Houston to Dallas in Texas utilizing Japanese bullet trains.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing unnamed administration sources, the White House is looking to make an announcement on the project following talks between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., this week.
The Japanese government and the White House declined to comment on the report, though the project has seen renewed support from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told KXAS in Fort Worth on Sunday: “We believe in this.”
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Just three or four decades after the rest of the civilized world! Yeah!
Having lived in houston, I’m not sure what you’d do without a car there for many destinations. I guess it is at least fewer cars and emissions betweenr the two even if many will have to rent a car or taxi around the cities themselves.
Hign speed rail is really more effective at cutting down short domestic flight and the number of cars driving on interstates than it is at enabling car-free lifestyles. Not to say it doesnt help with that, but the correct tool for that job is local transit and bikable/walkable communities, which both Houston and DFW are working on, even if they are under constant threat of regression by the irresponsible actions of TXDOT aka the highway widening mafia
I don’t think most people get how big houston is; its sprawl is nuts. I lived not far from where I-45 meets I-10 for many years. Getting to my rehearsal studio a bit northwest of there frequently took nearly an hour (288 and BW8 IIRC, but I might be misremembering this far on) most times of day. Getting out to see my friends in Katy (still pretty much Houston) could take 1.5 hours. Getting across houston can take a couple of hours, even without traffic on the freeway. It is huge.
I love highspeed rail (I’m on the bullet trains in Japan usually at least 1 round trip every couple months), but I think houston in particular is challenging. I’ve been to the DFW area, but not spent enough time there to comment on that end’s public transit.
Right but that’s the point. If these cities don’t have good transit and walkability, will HSR be able to succeed?
Acela is a huge success because it connects cities with good transit and walkability. When you get to your destination, you don’t need or want a car. When you get to Houston, how do you get where you’re going?
If we get a bullet train in the US it should be something like a DC to San Francisco route, make a proper substitute for cross country flights.
That would be awesome, but I think the best value would be with a run up the northeast (DC-Baltimore-Philly-NYC-Boston). All massive population centers close together.
The year is 2008 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
The year is 2016 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
The year is 2024 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
Is this likely to be built before CAHSR and Brightline West?
Was watching Hollywood screenwriters make fun of CAHSR back in 2014, during the second season of True Detective. Ten years later and still nothin’.
They built some pretty large viaducts a few years ago.
A bullet train? in my Texas?! That sounds like some east coast liberal anti-car woke socialism!!
We dont want none of that hippy dippy liberty stealing foreigner mass transit in our glorious state!
/s for the oblivious
But it has the word bullet right in it. Sounds like you’re anti gun. Why do you hate freedom?
Mount a gun on it and you got a deal.
I demand steer horns.
As much as I hate to admit it, The People’s Republic of Texastan kind-of makes sense as a starting point given the geography. If we can extend this to a nationwide network, it would be a very, very big deal.
So people can get out of Texas faster?
I mean from Houston to Dallas, so it’ll probably be dependent on where they’re ultimately going.
Airport
Both cities have airports.
Texas has the second highest domestic migration in the country (second only to Florida). New York, Illinois and California (worst) have negative migration rates.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_net_migration
Good. Let them sleep in that bed.
Texas is getting a new bullet train soon.
Texas figured it out?
Texas?
Yeah, this is a real low point. This one hurts.
They had to use > bullet> train to get them onboard.
so you just shoot the train? I gotta see this gun!
Biden shouldn’t be doing shit for Texas. He should try push this mainstream across the country. But Texas wants to secede Abbott probably find away to make this not happen anyway and funds will be stolen and wasted.
Umm. Not really, it’s because Amtrak is involved now in Texas and the Build Back Better Act has sent money for several projects not just Houston to Dallas. Cali HSR, Las Vegas to LAX, Orlando to Tampa, Seatle-Tahcoma-Portland, and Atlanta to Charlotte all got funds. All these projects (with the exception of Cali) are using federal/private funds, so state governors can’t really pull the plug (Cali HSR is a constitutionally mandated project approved by the voters of the state… to use state funds).
No one else got your Good Place reference so I just wanted to say, have some frozen yoghurt.
So I mentioned the odd dichotomy that Texas has in another post
Hey, trust me, I know how this shit goes. I’m in Kansas.
Maybe it’s a diesel bullet train and they’re “running coal”?
I just want to see their faces, when they realise, that Bullet is NOT that bullet they thought…
Plot twist. The train will be loaded into a giant gun and literally fired like a bullet because Texas.
I still think NYC-Chicago is the real test of high speed rail in this country. A route people want to take, that’s far enough to fly, between two cities where car ownership is optional.
I’m glad Dallas-Houston is happening but I wonder how much traffic it will get. In my midwestern mind they’re both just “texas big city”
So, let’s say such a train takes the same security as amtrack does, which is to say very little.
If the train is a viable option it would need to compete on time but there’s a caveat. The flight between the two cities is 2 and a half hours. Not including getting to the airport early, going through security, and waiting for your flight. So we can reasonably say it’s 4 and a half hours of down time.
The distance the train would travel is just over 700 miles. A 200 mile per hour bullet train at best possible speed does that in 4-5 hours. Assuming it’s express, and there are no delays.
If the train is faster and similar in cost it’s a no brainer, take the train every time. If it’s more expensive, which is will be if it isn’t subsidized, then it won’t succeed. People will see the longer travel time and not consider security and waiting around, and just buy the cheaper ticket. Then curse ass spirit air gets them stuck on the tarmac.
Depends how comfortable they make the train, too. Should be significantly better than coach on a plane.
I’d pay more to take a train in many situations. Much more comfortable, less hassle, lower emissions.
Same. I don’t fly but love taking trains, even if it takes longer.
You know they’d somehow figure out how to make it more uncomfortable to eek out more $$$ by fitting more people.
I’ve taken some of the longer train routes on the east coast, and they’re quite comfortable. Occasionally full, but it’s a lot easier to add space comfortably on a train by adding a car than it is in an aircraft.
Seems like a pretty pessimistic view…
I mean, getting out of Texas as fast as possible is an admirable goal for the future.
Crossing the great emptiness of it is a great starting point. Like building a river backwards, starting with a delta at multiple cities.
It’s not surprising that the first city pair would be a commonly traveled route with cheap flat land in between. Once that’s demonstrated to work, they can start trying it for cities where the need to purchase rights for the route will be more expensive, and on terrain where long straight segments are more challenging to construct.
I wonder how much traffic it will get.
This source says average, about 24,000 people drive between the two cities any given day, and there are about 30 commercial flights per day between the cities. That sounds like a decent amount of potential demand.
But how walkable are Dallas and Houston? I think the success of this is predicated on that, because if people can’t get around without a car, they’ll take one with them.
Still though, pretty cool. Sucks it’ll be in Texas but progress is progress.
Well fortunately we have Uber, so people can take Ubers around. It’s less energy efficient than each person having their own car, but it’s more parking efficient which leads to economic viability.
Texas is barely walkable from the back of the giant parking lot into the store.
Depends on where you are, but with that 30 flight number there’s definitely plenty of people that aren’t bringing their cars with them.
Dallas proper has some light rail around downtown with a couple lines that travel outward, and even a train that goes from Downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth. It’s still difficult to get to a lot of places outside downtown, the American Airlines Center, and the State Fair ground though.
Houston I think has some buses, but it would also be difficult to get too far from downtown.
Houston sometimes has sidewalks. Sometimes.
Are those flights because of hub relationships? Where it will still be somehow cheaper to fly with a hop than to fly direct out of the hub?
I once lived 1hr from an airport and 2hrs from a hub. It was always cheaper to drive to the closest airport and fly to the hub. Absolutely annoying.
Dallas? Nobody in Houston wants to go to fucking Dallas.
Hah! Nice one
In all seriousness, the two cities do a ton of business together. Dallas is the state’s financial capital and Houston is its largest port and energy export terminal. The air travel between these cities runs every 30 minutes from sun up to sun down, with a few overnights to boot, completely maxed out. And I-45 is a clogged bowel of a highway during every major holiday and sports event.
Yeah, it’s a fair cop. I’m sure the train would see plenty of use. It’s just that I’ve lived in and around Houston for a plurality of my life, and the only thing that really makes me feel connected to my fellow Houstonians is a shared, exaggerated disdain for Dallas.
I always thought thing that really brought Houstonians together was rodeo and bbq.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don’t care about those things, or sports. Not many other things come to mind that Houston broadly agrees on.
I don’t care about those things
I can’t imagine why you’d be more invested in hating Dallas than eating brisket or going to the closest thing we’ve got to an amusement park since AstroWorld closed.
Not many other things come to mind that Houston broadly agrees on.
We all hate trains for some reason. But like bikes? Its a bit confused, I’ll admit.
I’m not invested in it at all; it’s supposed to be funny. And I’m not hostile to the rodeo, it’s just never appealed to me. Honestly, I don’t know that you’d get broad consensus on any of this stuff across greater Houston— excepting support for local sports teams—it’s pretty heterogenous. Then again, what do I know; I just live here, I’ve never really felt like part of the community. That’s kind of the point!
Honestly, I don’t know that you’d get broad consensus on any of this stuff across greater Houston
You definitely create a bunch of traffic around NRG.
excepting support for local sports teams—it’s pretty heterogenous
There’s definitely a Houston food culture, particularly with the intersection of East Asian and Creole. I had a bowl of crawfish etouffee Ramen Noodles at Tatsuya that I challenge you to find anywhere else. Houston is definitely a blended culture, but I wouldn’t call it heterogenous. The old 80s-era red lines have run thin and the appeal of cheap real estate has done more than just toss the city’s salad.
I just live here, I’ve never really felt like part of the community.
Maybe I get a different perspective living inside 610. Maybe COVID refreshed my outlook on my neighborhood. Maybe ten years in the same spot just gave me a chance to meld with my neighbors. But I definitely vibe with my neighbors more than I did out in Sugar Land or even on campus in Austin.
When I run into people at the park or in the tunnels that I recognize, despite being a a city of several million, it feels like a smaller town than it is.
Lol my wife is from DFW and the first thing she said was “why the fuck would anyone want to go to Houston?”
Texas cities (like most in US, but TX seem on another level) are car centric urban sprawl. Nobody really wants to go to any of them for the city itself. We might go to the Dallas Zoo, or Dallas art gallery (both are nice), but not “Dallas”.
I do enjoy going to “London” or “Paris”.
The Fort Worth zoo is so much better than the Dallas zoo.
Agreed. A bunch of loud, dangerous vehicles taking up the majority of public space with their lifeless, hard infrastructure while polluting the air and filling our brains with micro plastics.
London is so small though, the gas station isn’t even open much - better to drive to Junction. At least Paris is the County Government.
No New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago though right? Only the Terrible people of Texas?
Houston and Dallas are blue enclaves you absolute dip. The people who live in those cities contain almost all the good people of Texas. Austin too. “The terrible people of Texas” so all the people of texas who aren’t Republican are just nothing to you? This is a huge state with a ton of diversity in culture and opinion. The Texas GOVERNMENT is full of terrible people, and there’s enough terrible people to vote them in, but not every Texan I’d automatically terrible. An absolutely massive portion of us hate what’s happened to our beautiful state.
Living in Austin has taught me that the bluest Texans are still redder then most Democrats
Yeah I don’t hate it because of where it is, though I do think that because of the state it’s in it will disproportionately favor certain people. But I’d rather the East Coast-Midwest line largely for its practicality. Once we’ve got NYC-Chicago you’re never getting rid of that shit if it’s good. And it could be more easily expanded than the texas route
Give me Seattle to Atlanta!
The Acela exists at least. Toronto Detroit Chicago should be a thing. Vancouver Seattle Portland should also be a thing, among other corridors.
At least the Texas one seems a cheaper easy to build, populated corridor, that if its made, should set the stage.
Greg Abbott is not about to let this dope idea happen. Ain’t no way.
Why not do it from NYC to WDC?
Because all the politicians from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey will demand that their cities be included on the stops, and cutting into the efficiency of the whole project.
And all the landowners in between would have to be paid off at market rates for that land, so it’d be much more expensive on that front.
California has been trying to build a bullet train from LA to SF for decades. Would love to see them get some help with it.
There’s a lot less stuff in the way in Texas
I wish. That would serve the most people, and we clearly want it the most. However, the estimated costs for that were so far into the $100Bs, that you might use $T.
They’re taking a path of continuous improvement so we get slightly better every year, without ridiculously huge project costs. It’s probably not the best way of doing things, but at least we have useable service.
One of the proposed upcoming projects is to re-route Acela inland through Connecticut. While it’s great that the regionals provide service to all those coast towns, there’s just no way of straightening the curves, or raising speeds. If that happens, we’ll see the express on different tracks than regional. It’ll be interesting to see how that works and who screams
Yeah but when someone revisits this in 5 years it will cost more…
I really don’t think cost should come into doing something like this. What’s the cost of NOT doing it? My whole life I’ve heard people along the East Coast wanting it. It’s one of the richest regions and has the one of the predicted greatest benefits in the country. If you are going to start making high speed rail why not make it where it’s useful?
but when someone revisits this in 5 years it will cost more
Decades. There are decades worth of improvement projects
Sure, you don’t have to convince me. You probably don’t need to convince most lemmings. But we don’t control the money.
Acela already is successful. It’s in high demand, regularly takes tens of thousand of drivers off the road, greatly reduces airline shuttle flights, and I believe is the only part of Amtrak that is profitable. Imagine what it could do if it could meet demand! Imagine how much more in demand it would be if it were high speed rail!
The current piecemeal approach is probably the least efficient way to do it, plus it will never actually be high speed - it’s merely what the politicians were able to do
