President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking to revive a project that would construct a high-speed railway from Houston to Dallas in Texas utilizing Japanese bullet trains.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing unnamed administration sources, the White House is looking to make an announcement on the project following talks between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., this week.
The Japanese government and the White House declined to comment on the report, though the project has seen renewed support from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told KXAS in Fort Worth on Sunday: “We believe in this.”
Having lived in houston, I’m not sure what you’d do without a car there for many destinations. I guess it is at least fewer cars and emissions betweenr the two even if many will have to rent a car or taxi around the cities themselves.
Hign speed rail is really more effective at cutting down short domestic flight and the number of cars driving on interstates than it is at enabling car-free lifestyles. Not to say it doesnt help with that, but the correct tool for that job is local transit and bikable/walkable communities, which both Houston and DFW are working on, even if they are under constant threat of regression by the irresponsible actions of TXDOT aka the highway widening mafia
I don’t think most people get how big houston is; its sprawl is nuts. I lived not far from where I-45 meets I-10 for many years. Getting to my rehearsal studio a bit northwest of there frequently took nearly an hour (288 and BW8 IIRC, but I might be misremembering this far on) most times of day. Getting out to see my friends in Katy (still pretty much Houston) could take 1.5 hours. Getting across houston can take a couple of hours, even without traffic on the freeway. It is huge.
I love highspeed rail (I’m on the bullet trains in Japan usually at least 1 round trip every couple months), but I think houston in particular is challenging. I’ve been to the DFW area, but not spent enough time there to comment on that end’s public transit.
Right but that’s the point. If these cities don’t have good transit and walkability, will HSR be able to succeed?
Acela is a huge success because it connects cities with good transit and walkability. When you get to your destination, you don’t need or want a car. When you get to Houston, how do you get where you’re going?