Fort Bend Chamber to Hear About Bullet Train

Sugar Land, TX — Texas Central Partners will offer the members of the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce an update about the company's proposed bullet train on June 30.

Texas Central is in the process of developing a high-speed rail system that, if completed, will connect the Dallas-Fort Worth area with Houston.

For the 50,000 people who drive from Houston to Dallas-Fort Worth more than once a week the journey currently takes about four hours. The proposed train would reduce the travel time to about 90 minutes, it would also feature a single stop in the Brazos Valley area.

David Hagy, a managing partner with Texas Central, will spend from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. updating chamber members about where the company is in the regulatory process and what will be happening as the process moves forward.

Hagy will most likely mention to the group, who are meeting at 435 Commerce Green Blvd., about many of the possible benefits to the state.

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Texas Central estimates that the train would spur $36 billion in economic development, create 50,000 temporary construction jobs and pour hundreds of millions dollars into local government coffers each year.

And since Texas Central is a private, for-profit corporation should something fail or go wrong the risk would be borne by investors at not by taxpayers. Despite the potential windfall the project represents, the train remains controversial.

While some of the suspicion comes because the project is heavily reliant on Japanese money, much of the controversy centers on the fact that Texas Central is a private company with eminent domain powers.

To run the train over the 250 or so miles that separate Houston and Dallas will require 1,000-1,200 farmers and ranchers throughout rural Texas to forfeit some or all of their land for the train.

People in rural Texas aren't particularly happy with the prospect of having their land taken from them, it's such an unpopular idea that eight counties along the Train's proposed route have issued resolutions opposing the project.

Representatives from rural parts of the state have requested the Texas Attorney General investigate if Texas Central does have the power of eminent domain.

The request was prompted by a 2011 change to Texas law which would removed the power of eminent domain from most private companies. The provisions granting transportation companies--including rail roads--the power to seize land were left intact.

Texas' eminent domain statutes don't mention the type of rail--high speed or slow, heavy or light, narrow gauge or wide--has to build to be considered a transportation company to receive the power of eminent domain.

Despite the ambiguity, or perhaps because of it, some state representatives have introduced legislation to strip Texas Central of its eminent domain powers by changing the law to specify that only companies building or maintaining traditional, low-speed rail receive have the power of eminent domain.

Because the project, at least superficially, can be seen as benefiting major cities at the expense of small towns it has brought Texas' urban vs. rural culture clash front and center.

U.S. representatives from urban areas, like Dallas and Corpus Christi, have sent letters to the U.S Department of Transportation's Surface Transportation Board in support of the project, while representatives from rural and ex-urban areas have sent letters to the board opposing the project.

Since Texas law requires Texas Central to receive a blessing from the U.S. Department of Transportation before it can begin acquiring land, the Surface Transportation Board has come to represent a way to kill or save the train.