Texas is, but everyone has NIMBYs, including Texas.
As for that bill, only Dallas, Houston, and their suburbs are cities that the HSR will run through. And when the counties and school districts see what the property taxes will be annually from a HSR, their opposition will drop quickly. ;)

The HSR qualifies, just as a railroad within the Texas Transportation Code, to get eminent domain powers. It doesn't matter what type transportation mode it is; waterway, highway, airway, or railway; private or public. They will still have to go to court and all the legal steps to get a judge to approve it, usually the only issue is arriving at the honest value for the land. TXDOT wants it to happen. The Electric Utilities already have easements to the property in question for their power lines. Technically, that's all the railroad will need, if they build an elevated railroad guideway over your property. The farmer or ranchers will still own the land, and can access the other side of the tracks simply by driving under the viaducts. Not every farmer or rancher will oppose selling easements away, money talks!

The railroad following US 290 out of Houston to the northwest is absolutely straight for 50 miles or so, then there would be a curve to head north around the Harris County line, where the power line is absolutely straight 50 miles or so to Jewett Texas, where the train will maneuver around a few lignite mines and power plant, then head north again absolutely straight 50 miles or so until entering Ellis County, with a few right and left turns the last 50 miles or so into Dallas County and Dallas. Every one of those 50 mile segments lasts 15 minutes or so at 200 mph. :)

So it w shouldn't be much of an issue in the rural areas, but mainly around Dallas and Houston.

I think if they choose the I-45 option, they should put at stop at The Woodlands. It would be a huge ridership generator.

How can an I-45 routing help ridership when the HSR train will not have any stations between Dallas and Houston? At best, they're proposing maybe one intermediate station on SH 30 halfway between College Station and Huntsville, potentially attracting customers from both I-45 and SH-6.
While the environmental study hasn't been completed and the routing hasn't been officially verified,Texas Central has already stated its preference of the Utility corridor. So I suggest the I-45 routing is dead for all practical purposes.

?

I'm not following but either-way, a Woodlands stop would be a no-brainer; the airport, prosperous bustling area, etc.

For commuter rail yes, but not for HSR!!!!
Does Woodlands provide Houston's Metro any tax revenues?

Meet the Opposition to Texas High-Speed Rail

Read More: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015...d-rail/390576/




http://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/cit...lead_large.jpg




http://www.texansagainsthsr.com/#sthash.tViSCFI0.dpbs

http://i.imgur.com/17LKJRx.png?1

What are we doing to oppose high-speed rail in Texas?

- Working with legislators and other elected officials directly and through our lobbyist to support the creation and passage of legislation to oppose high-speed rail in Texas.

- Hosting meetings throughout the state to increase awareness and raise funds to support this effort.

- Making grassroots efforts easier by providing sample letters and the ease of sending letters directly from our website, as well as utilizing social media to keep you informed and engaged in the high-speed rail opposition conversation.

I don't get it. Anyone can yet count 5 metro areas that should be slashing Texas's face with HSR lines already. Houston, San Antonio, Dallas Fort Worth, Austin and maybe even el Paso. What would they wait for any longer to make business faster within their own state?

“There are no profitable high-speed rail lines in the world,” Workman said. “They are all heavily taxpayer supported.”

Definitely, it's still pretty expensive. But even though it's complex, they should try assessing indirect benefits. Sometimes, it may well be worth paying taxes...

Makes me thinking, the Europeans always made the same mistake in the space industry. That's how we never funded any Euro space shuttle, while easily able to develop some. The indirect research and tech benefits would be significant to the entire continent. It just takes a little feeling about strategy to understand.

I'm not sure business is really made faster by a train like this. Technology like video conferencing has drastically reduced the need for business travel. I would assume this would be used far more for personal travel.

I do wonder about the economics though. Things like bad weather and clogged freeways make trains in the NorthEast seem like a relatively better idea. However, building anything in the NorthEast is so insanely expensive that the price would seem to counterbalance any sort of improved utility. Questions like these are no reason for politicians to get involved though. If private investors lose their ass on this project, that's their problem not the governments.

Why would anyone be against high speed rail, especially a privately funded one at that?!

Boggles my mind, sigh.

Because it is Tejas, where the most patriotic thing you can do is consume as much oil as possible. Also, everyone knows only those pinko socialist Europeans ride trains.

Unfortunately, no. Certainly not. Sorry, but you can't always be convincing enough online. Do you have any experience about this? People still have to see you for real. They need to see your very physiognomy, the way you move, your actual tone while facing them, just your everything about your work. They simply still need to actually see you to remain confident.

What do you think? Remote work hardly works for 3 days a week for now within greater Paris alone. Are you seriously thinking greater Paris is late on that matter? Uhh, no. It is way larger than you would ever thought of it, sprawling like any random US crazy ass. Of course, people won't always trust in you online. Sometimes they will, but not always. And they are right about that.

In short, develop HRS in Texas, if you want it to survive somehow. Cause this real world will have no mercy.

Only in fluff jobs where people don't have any technical knowledge and make judgments based on how attractive a salesman is. I've been on hundreds of conference calls and driven to a different office maybe 5 times in my life. I guess that's the difference between being an engineer (and having people evaluate your technical knowledge) and being a salesman (and having people evaluate you on your looks and fashion). I've had dozens of teleconferences with people in Houston about oil refineries we were working on and I'd assume given the nature of Texas as an oil industry state they would be more focused on technical performance. This isn't DC-NYC where your big jobs are government lobbying and finance.

^ No. It's far from being that simple, even for an actual engineer. Believe it. BTW, what the hell does "being good looking" or attractive or whatever mean? Are you raving? You're a complexed victim? It means nothing much to my butt so long as you're neither too fat nor too anorexic like a fashion victim.
Hm, yeah, they are panicking for sure. They're going mad, huh? Even folks from neighboring Louisiana don't like them anymore.

You're wasting your skills.

Studies have consistently showing that more attractive individuals do considerably better in sales. But the real point is what is gained seeing a person face to face that isn't gained from a phone or computer except for evaluating their looks? It doesn't really matter though, the economics of projects isn't really what this forum is about.

Are you high?

The same thing it's always about: property.

The same property that expanding or building new highways would use?

Or the same property that building the pipeline made with Brazilian steel to export Canadian oil to consumers in Europe and Asia would use?

Watch and Weep
 

YouTube clip of anti-HSR Nimby's.

hahahahaha wow