Another study is about to begin on the feasibility of putting a high-speed rail line between Houston

[marmar]

Another study is about to begin on the feasibility of putting a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas.




Three different entities are coming together for an environmental study: the Federal Railroad Administration, TxDOT, and a private company, Texas Central Railway.

A study last year by the University of Texas concluded that rail lines could be built along existing rights-of-way, either in medians or alongside highways.

Maureen Crocker with the Gulf Coast Rail District says as the state's population grows, airports will get more congested, and that could lead airlines to cut some of their shorter and less profitable routes.

"Which means there's really going to be a need for an alternative way to get to Houston and Dallas, rather than getting on I-45 which is already congested certainly in the urban areas."

But when it comes down to actually building a high-speed rail system, the big issue is funding. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1386612519-High-Speed-Rail-Between-Houston-And-Dallas-Is-Getting-Another-Look.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Have a colleague who needed to get from Detroit to Cincinnati

Last-minute airfare: $900. Like that's good for business. This will be a really cool country to live in when we have a functioning, modern inter-city rail system in 75 years or so.

[marmar]

2. $900 for a 240-mile trip. Obscene.

[FarCenter]

16. 5 hours on Greyhound; $37 one-way fare for web purchases.

[BeyondGeography]

19. Greyhound...I can see that catching on

[FarCenter]

21. Intercity bus was the fastest growing mode of transportation in 2012

Intercity Buses Offer Affordable Alternative to Air Travel

As airfares continue to rise, intercity bus travel is booming. Right now, intercity bus travel remains America’s fastest growing form of city-to-city travel. From 2011 to 2012, intercity bus travel grew 7.5 percent, outpacing the growth of rail service (3 percent in seatmiles), airlines and automobiles.

The expansion of bus service grew because of “curbside operators,” led by BoltBus and Megabus, grew at a particularly rapid rate, expanding the number of departures from 589 to 778, a 32.1 percent increase.

http://petergreenberg.com/2013/04/06/intercity-buses-offer-affordable-alternative-to-air-travel/

Buses are slower than train, but they have more flexibility in creating routes with multiple destinations. So door-to-door, they are not a lot slower than train. They are somewhat worse than trains when it comes to transferring to other modes of transportation to reach your final destination, e.g. rental car, taxi, limo, city buses. Services like uber may change that.

High-speed rail that is only a little faster than busses door-to-door, but as expensive as airplanes, will not compete.

[tabbycat31]

17. That is insane

I just booked a last minute airfare from Raleigh to Boston (3 days before Christmas mind you) and it was $300 round trip.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. It is further than that. The Woodlands is 25 miles north of Downtown Houston.

It's pretty much 250 miles one way.

I wish we were progressive enough to have high speed rail between Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

Oh, and throw in El Paso, Amarillo, and Brownsville.
It's 800 miles from Orange to El Paso.

[ananda]

4. No, The Woodlands is closer to Dallas by c. 35 miles.

From Houston to Dallas is around 240 miles.

From The Woodlands to Dallas is around 215 miles.

Dallas is north of Houston, and The Woodlands is north of Houston.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. Yes I know that. I grew up in Houston.

I wasn't clear. It's actually further if you start from the middle of Houston. I don't know why they didn't count from somewhere near the middle of Houston instead of a far north suburb of Houston.

[FarCenter]

20. Google shows Woodlands to Dallas as 210 miles and 3 hr, 58 minutes by auto

Used to work with people in Houston and Dallas. They often drove.

But Southwest's web site shows $199 for a roundtrip ticket out Monday morning and back Monday evening between Houston Hobby and Dallas Love. Faster than driving, depending on where in Houston metro you start from and where in DFW metro you are going. Disadvantage of flying (or train) is that you have to rent a car when you get there. Renting a car at a train station usually sucks.

[TexasProgresive]

5. I would love high speed rail in the US

Run the rails along the interstate system. The last serious attempt in Texas would take lots of land away from farmers and ranchers and worst dividing properties where the land owner would have to drive many miles to find a crossing.

It needs to be done in a manner that minimizes disruption of peoples lives and livelihoods. I think it can be done but not likely in the US. We are so moribund like an old fogey.

[Fumesucker]

23. Interstates tend to curve too much for truly high speed travel, rail or otherwise

If you just use the median it would be hard to get a train much over the car speed limits, if you used the entire right of way and built the track in such a manner that the curves were more gentle you could probably do 150 or so but it would cost a great deal of money because a lot of it would have to be elevated as it snaked back and forth across all of the car lanes in the curves.

Another problem is elevation changes, at high speeds if the track was at ground level the passengers would be alternately floating in their seats over the top of hills and pushed down hard in them in the valleys. This would lead to needing even more elevated track in the valley portions of the route, even if the highway was straight laterally.

[MisterP]

6. I think even Southwest has dropped their opposition to a Texas T

and that was after "streetcarring" Lone Star HSR in the early 90s

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. It is 223 miles from Spring (a suburb north of Houston) to Dallas...

[Gothmog]

8. Cool

I would love to have a train between Dallas and Houston (though the Woodlands are not really party of Houston)

[godevil10]

9. 6.3 hours by plane? Must be flying a Sopwith Camel. n/t

[Chan790]

12. No, if you read the small print.

The time includes driving time from downtown Houston to Bush Intercontinental Airport (That's about 45 minutes to 1 hour. I used to have to make that trip for work 6 times a year.) and to downtown Dallas from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. (which I believe is also about 45 minutes from Downtown Dallas.)

So around it's 6 hours 18 minutes (6.3 hours) including drive times to/from their ridiculously-outside-the-city airports...but that includes somewhere between 90 and 120 minutes of driving.

[hedgehog]

14. My husband will not fly anywhere that he can drive to in about 12 hours -

the total trip time isn't any shorter if he flies, he has to deal with the stress of going through security and waiting around for his flight (and hoping his flight won't be cancelled!) only to have to rent a car at his destination and drive 50 miles!

[TransitJohn]

10. I predict grandstanding Republican Governor to turn down federal dollars for this if they come eom

n/t

[tammywammy]

11. Dallas to Houston by car is 4 hours.

Isn't a flight like an hour, so even getting to the airport two hours early is no where close to over 6 hours.

This graphic is bunk.

[JVS]

13. Would you need a car to get around within either of those cities anyway?

[hedgehog]

15. Good point - I think instead of focusing exclusively on high speed rail,

we should start focusing on having the trains run more frequently and to more places. Restoring old rail routes is a start. I've read that 1 mile of track laid in the town of Ravenna would reconnect Youngstown and Cleveland. I suspect there are a lot of opportunities like that!

[FarCenter]

22. Lots of rail has been torn up to avoid local and state property taxes.

That's why you have all those "rail-to-trail" projects. The railroads want uneconomic tracks torn up, off their books, and off the property tax rolls.

Highways don't pay property taxes, nor do airports.