[phoenixboi08]

Originally Posted by CHAPINM1

In Texas, they have been able come come a lot farther with this project than it's sister project out in California which has had problems from the get go.

CAHSR is under construction.

DSC_0034 by California High-Speed Rail, on Flickr

Nothing has broken ground yet in Texas...

Originally Posted by CHAPINM1

We are all rooting for you all in Texas and that this will show how it's done right.

Building an HSR line that solely caters to business travelers isn't inherently what should count as "doing it right."

Originally Posted by CHAPINM1

This project is completely privately financed from my understanding and at least appears to be smooth sailing all considering.

...they said they'd be under construction by now, when they initially announced the project. Since, that date has continually been pushed back, the cost estimate is still murky, and we've gotten no firm details about their financing (other than the vague notion that there's commitment from a consortium of investors: Bank of Japan, Japanese Gov't, JR, etc).

"Our goal is to complete the financing at some point when the project progresses a little bit further in the approvals process,"
he says. "We hope to be in a position where we
would be under construction by late 2016 or early 2017, and that would allow us to complete and commission
the system in a 2020-2021 period. So the big requirement for financing is going to be during that 2017 to
2020-2021 period."

Look, I'm not starting an argument here. I'm all for this project (although, I still have major concerns with TXCentral's plans).

However, this strange bias that leads us to never discuss this program's shortcomings while insisting CAHSR is a long-shot (even while 80-90% of the trunk-line is fully funded, and under construction!) drives me nuts!