The Texas bullet train recently dodged a legal bullet about its ability to use eminent domain but it still retains a stupid route, as I have said before. Whether Brains is right that it’s too late for that to be addresses or not, along with other issues, remains to be seen. Kuff, like Brains, likes the bullet train.
Whether it actually gets built and then, whether as a privately financed line, it asks for state help because of its stupid route and stupid stops, also remains to be seen. (After all, stupid routing ideas are part of what derailed California's bullet train, at least for now.)
There's several people that agree with me on ever-growing comments on Kuff's link that Texas Central was, has been and is selling a pig in a poke. A lot of libertarian-type wingers at groups who know how to crunch numbers, like Reason, are also saying that ride counts are not just inflated but WILDLY inflated. (That said, contra the wingers, airports are subsidized in various ways, too.)
Let's also note that that legal bullet was only temporarily dodged. Courts could still rule that Texas Central cannot use eminent domain.
And, speaking of locations, in south Dallas at least, Jim Schutze says the train is a land deal first, transportation deal second. And he too says he thinks the ride projection numbers are pretty aspirational.
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