Texas is known for its commitment to limited government, individual responsibility and personal liberty. At least it likes to think of itself that way. When it comes to transportation -- specifically automobile transportation -- Texas is one of the most socialist states in the country, taxing and spending at amazing rates with an additional predilection towards borrowing enormous sums of money to build even more government-backed infrastructure.

So while it is impossible to reconcile the Texas approach to transportation with the caricature many Texans hold of themselves, once you get past the rhetoric and realize that roads are a religion in Texas -- that the automobile is an object of worship -- some of what happens there becomes explainable.

Case in point, the Texas Central High-Speed Railway, a privately financed bullet train to carry passengers between Houston and Dallas in less than 90 minutes. The company undertaking the project has said it hopes to have the train running by 2021 and has vowed to not take any public subsidies.

This would seem to be a very Texas-like undertaking if Texas truly were a state that embraced limited government and individual liberty when it came to transportation. That's just rhetoric, however, which is why there is currently legislation proposed to stop the Texas Central High-Speed Railway by taking away their eminent domain authority.

Currently, hundreds of private firms have eminent domain authority in Texas, including pipeline companies, utility companies and telecommunication firms. More than a dozen private railroad companies also have that authority, according to an unofficial list maintained by the state comptroller.

So why take away the railroad's ability to acquire property? They are paying market prices. They are fairly compensating property owners. Maybe it is because the notion of eminent domain -- the potential for taking (with compensation) the property of individuals is distasteful. From the same article:

[Texas Central Chairman and CEO Richard] Lawless also noted that the bullet train’s footprint over its 240-mile route would be 100 feet wide and 3,000 acres total, a far cry from the Trans-Texas Corridor, which was expected to be 10 times wider than that in some areas.