Bullet-Train Plan Banks on Texas Turning More Urban, Less Cowboy
- Dallas-to-Houston route promoters plan no government help
- Critics say state is wed to highways, pickups and open spaces
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A $100 million bet says that thousands of Texans will abandon cars and pick-ups for a needle-nosed bullet train that zips past cattle and ranches to deliver riders from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes -- a third of the time required to drive.
The Texas Central Railway is only a virtual train, as almost all the $12 billion for the nation’s first privately financed high-speed rail line has yet to materialize, not to mention the land it would require. But there’s a real fight pitting rural, multi-generational landowners along the proposed route against newly arrived urbanites who seek faster travel between the nation’s fourth- and fifth- largest metropolitan areas.