Texas signed up first because it has “bullet” in the title.
They think it's gonna be fired from a giant gun.
I'd prefer some other state to get it than Texas. If Texas is going to deny federal money for unemployment and for healthcare, then Texas doesn't deserve federal money for other good projects.
And this is coming from someone in Texas who would benefit from it.
Texas GOP governor Greg Abbott has told state employees to try to avoid federal money because it might come with strings that require treating non rich and non whites as human.
Remember when Greg Abbott had a tantrum and basically shut down the Texas-Mexico border to most road traffic and fucked over all the rest of the US who was depending on products to come from Mexico?
Let Texas feel what it would be like to secede.
At the same time HSR could encourage social lives and urban neighborhoods that would encourage less conservative thinking. I think if we get into petty partisanship, it will just continue to spiral until we have a second civil war.
While I agree that Texas is not the most "deserving," if it gets rapidly improving infrastructure it will probably at least flip into a swing state, with more liberals than fascists. "Punishing" them just lets them play victim.
They're gonna be real pissed when they find out somebody used the word bullet to dupe them into building public transport.
Had to lol at this. Too true. Whaddaya ya mean there’s no shootin’ on this train?!
It'll get canned as soon as Texans realize it's not called a bullet train because of any involvement with guns.
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!
No one else got your Good Place reference so I just wanted to say, have some frozen yoghurt.
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).
With Texas' hardon against regulations I forsee this having a massive derailment within two decades of it opening.
Hope that isn't the case, because we do need better mass transit.
Eh maybe. Usually the calls for deregulation are sponsored by the industry giants. So due to there not being a strong passenger rail lobby yet, I can see the regulation being fine. Once someone is trying to get rich then the derailments will start.
Texas conservatives are notoriously anti-regulation now, after decades of being paid to build that platform. There will be as few regulations as possible (with or without a lobby); that is a guarantee.
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”
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.
Texas is barely walkable from the back of the giant parking lot into the store.
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.
Plot twist. The train will be loaded into a giant gun and literally fired like a bullet because Texas.
I would be so down for this
Its the absolute most no brainer route for high speed rail in the US. Two metropolises with a combined population in the 10s of millions that are around 300 miles apart, minimum elevation changes on a straight route, largely empty space in between.
When it's successful, you can hook it into fort worth pretty directly, and suddenly you have the core of a high speed rail network in a huge state that desperately needs it.
But I’m sure someone in the Texas government will say trains are “woke” and kill the project.
No, just the airlines. This project has been around for a very long time, and it keeps getting killed by airline lobbyists.
To everyone outside if Texas: they've been talking about this for decades.
You know who will always find sneaky ways to sabotage it? The airlines.
Time for Elon Musk to create a new vapour-ware like the boring tunnel to stop mass transplantation that will compete with his electric car empire
Gregg Abbott in a few weeks: "Trains?! Sounds like trans... No thanks, Biden!"
Man they’ve been trying to do this for years, but companies like Southwest lobby against it. Even Rick Perry was on board.
I would love to see it become a reality, but I’m skeptical.
Texas Monthly, 2015:
A Tale of Two Cities, a Bullet Train, and the Farmland in Between
Here's a thought. Name your bullet train company like an oil company, call the bullet train the "oil pipeline".
Each station can be named after gun or gun makers. Glock station, H&K transfer
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?
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.
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.
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.
Greg Abbott is not about to let this dope idea happen. Ain't no way.
Ya cool, but are Texans going to run it? They don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to infrastructure. Maybe put it someplace, how do I put this... smarter?
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