Quote:
Originally Posted by drummer
It seems that the Georgetown senator's argument was to "protect" people whose land rights were seemingly being infringed upon as well as keep taxes from contributing to the construction and development of the rails. I don't disagree that people shouldn't have their land essentially stolen from them, but that's not what's happening here, especially if they primarily utilize right-of-way, with a few exceptions to straighten out the lines, as is needed for HSR (doing sharp curves at 200 mph isn't wise), in which cases I'm sure deals can be made.
|
The landowners will be fairly compensated, the land isn't being stolen from them for nothing.
The little rider they had submitted, thankfully removed now, didn't limit TXDOT's actions to just financially, it limited TXDOT's actions
completely. Every time the railroad had to cross a TXDOT funded highway, TXDOT couldn't assist Central Texas in any way what-so-ever, including not releasing rights cross the highway that Central Texas may had been willing to pay for. It was a complete overreach, and the Texas House told the Texas Senate so.
Central Texas is going to need to make contracts with TXDOT to cross highways. Without these agreements, building anything 240 miles long in Texas is impossible.