In an age when passenger rail is severely limited across the US, Texas Central aims to succeed where public efforts have struggled – but it faces local resistance

The waiting room at the Amtrak station in the country’s fourth-biggest city was all but deserted on a recent weekday afternoon, but that was hardly surprising – the only train of the day had already departed.



Sepia-tinted photographs on the walls of Houston’s station depict a golden age of passenger rail that is long past in Texas, like most other parts of the US.



Now there are only six trains per week from Houston, three headed west to Los Angeles, three east to New Orleans. The service to San Antonio leaves at 6.55pm and arrives at 12.05am: a 225-mile journey that can be made more cheaply, quickly and frequently by bus.

Yet if a private company succeeds in its bold ambition, the city famous as the hub of big oil will one day be a beacon of public transportation: connected to Dallas with Japanese-style bullet trains zipping at 205mph on new track to new stations.

In a country with severely limited passenger rail service away from the crowded parts of the north-east and west coast, a state where the car is king might seem an unlikely target for a major rail project. But Texas is not alone.



The first private intercity passenger railway since 1983 is due to open in Florida later this year, with the Brightline service to run between Miami and West Palm Beach, then extending to Orlando.

Another private company wants to operate between Las Vegas and California.

Meanwhile, a new service is proposed for northern Indiana. Another business in New England hopes to connect Worcester to Providence. And a controversial, troubled, high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco is under construction with public money, at least initially.

More schemes could follow if Donald Trump follows through on his campaign pledge for a $1tn infrastructure package likely to lean heavily on public-private partnerships, though the high-speed rail stimulus plan that Barack Obama announced in 2009 faltered amid Republican resistance.

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“If private investors want to take the risks and see that there’s a business there, that’s a very good solution, idea, for our infrastructure needs,” said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Move: How to Rebuild and Reinvent America’s Infrastructure. “The public sector is not going to do it. There’s an honourable role for the private sector in setting up private systems.”

Texas Central, the company behind the Dallas-to-Houston plan, is confident it can deliver without public funds. It says the project will cost about $15bn in total and be operational around 2024, linking the cities in 90 minutes. “We will not accept or pursue grants to build or operate the system. We will have a compelling economic model that will attract equity and debt to get this built,” said Tim Keith, the company’s president. “It’s perfect for high-speed rail … Texans have told us that they will leave their cars and trucks behind for a safe, predictable, comfortable and productive trip.”

Some 240 miles apart, separated by flat, sparsely populated terrain, the two fast-growing metropolitan areas have a combined population of nearly 14 million people – about half the population of Texas. Yet the only ways to travel between them are by air, car or bus.

Still, an assortment of lawmakers, landowners and sceptics are trying to knock Texas Central’s plan off the rails before a piece of track is laid. Texas politicians have introduced more than 20 bills aimed at making life difficult for the project. Critics cite the fear that people along the route will be forced to sell land by a process known as “eminent domain” – which Texas Central says it wants to avoid – and claim that the train will struggle financially and become a drain on the taxpayer.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A bullet train in Tokyo Photograph: Prisma Bildagentur AG/Alamy

While eminent domain is used by oil and gas pipeline companies, and Texas politicians often cite the state’s business-friendly climate, preserving individual rights and minimising government spending are leitmotifs for many in this highly conservative place.

“The people that we have supporting us are taking this fight personally. A large percentage of them are not directly affected landowners but recognise the slippery slope that this puts us on. We’re talking about a private company trying to do it for private gain,” said Kyle Workman, president of the Texans Against High Speed Rail group. “Why would we give them the authority to take people’s private property to do that?” Especially, he added, when there is “a high probability of this thing failing colossally financially”.

Kanter said American transport infrastructure has always mixed the public and private. “I wouldn’t worry about a bailout until later,” she said. “I mean, no one has said we shouldn’t have automobiles in America because we had to bail out the auto companies.”

