After a decade of hype, Dallas-Houston bullet train developer faces a leadership exodus as land acquisition slows

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Ten years ago, the company Texas Central High-Speed Railway announced plans for a trailblazing bullet train between Dallas and Houston. But in recent years, it's made little visible progress in financing the project and acquiring property for the route.

Donovan Maretick, a Navy veteran who lives in Harris County, has fought the company’s efforts to survey and purchase his land. He moved to a more rural area of the state to seek some quiet for his family — and he doesn’t intend to give that up so a private entity can build an intercity bullet train.

“Public support and momentum are on our side, and this project can be completed swiftly,” Abbott wrote. After Abbott’s 2020 letter to the Japanese prime minister, Carlos Aguilar, Texas Central’s CEO at the time, also declined to answer specific questions, but said the company was “focused on finalizing financing and getting ready for execution."

“You’re not supposed to be able to exercise this authority or power without some checks and balances,” he told the Tribune. “This opinion really opens the door and allows anyone who wants to build an electric railway anywhere in the state of Texas the ability to do so.” What’s more, eminent domain isn’t a fast and clean operation. If a landowner doesn’t want to sell, Texas Central would likely have to sue and kick off what’s called a separate condemnation process — complete with arguments and hearings — for each landowner who won’t voluntarily give up their land and doesn’t agree that the money Texas Central offers is adequate compensation.

Texas Central has long said it would use eminent domain only as a last resort and it would prefer to amicably buy the land needed for the project. How many parcels it needs has long been a mystery. While Texas Central has released a map of the line’s route, it has remained mum for years on how many purchases it would take to amass the land needed for the project.

 

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Because Abbott’s donors control him and the legislature his donors being the oil industry.Big Oil isn’t going to allow a bullet train to eat into its profits.

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