For decades, we’ve been hearing about the possibility of a high-speed train that would take passengers from Houston to Dallas.
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It would be the first of its kind — a Japanese-style bullet train that could take you from Houston to Dallas in less than an hour and a half.
The federal government has now awarded Amtrak $64 million to move forward with the project.
It’s nowhere close to the tens of billions the project is expected to cost, but it is a start.
“It’s one of those things that I’ll believe it when I see it,” Ed Emmett, a fellow of Energy and Transportation at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said. “Generally, I roll my eyes because I first was hearing about Texas high-speed rail, I guess, way back in the 1970’s.”
The proposed route would have one stop, between College Station and Huntsville, to pick up university traffic.
The train would have to go through rural counties, but buying private land to do so has been expensive and complicated in the past.