All aboard? Amtrak could fast track Houston-Dallas bullet train. (Editorial)

The rub, of course, is that no private company has ever actually completed a high-speed rail project in the U.S. without public funding. 

It appears that Texas Central Railroad won’t, either, despite nearly a decade of trying.

But despite earlier indications of the railroad’s demise — departed CEO, disbanded board of directors, halted land acquisitions, unpaid taxes — Texas Central may have found a way to get back on track.

The company announced last week through a press release that it was “evaluating a potential partnership” with Amtrak to study the project and secure federal funding. While Amtrak had already struck agreements with Texas Central in 2016 to provide ticketing using its reservation system, this announcement suggests a much more substantial partnership. The two entities have submitted applications to several grant programs administered by the Federal Railroad Administration that would help Texas Central complete study and design work. 

“If we are going to add more high-speed rail to this country, the Dallas-to-Houston Corridor is a compelling proposition and offers great potential,” said Andy Byford, Amtrak’s senior vice president of high-speed rail development, in a statement. 

“Potential” is one thing. Reality is another.  

Transit enthusiasts may read this announcement as a legitimate lifeline for the project, and those of us with family, friends or business in Dallas would love it to be thus. But an Amtrak-Texas Central collaboration raises even more questions that neither entity seem prepared to answer. Neither Amtrak nor Texas Central responded to our requests for comment. 

If Amtrak, now armed with an extra $22 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law, is the white knight rail service that can deliver shovels in the ground for a much-needed transportation alternative connecting Texas’ two largest cities, then yee-haw. Our immediate hope is much simpler: that Amtrak’s involvement will force Texas Central to come clean about the project’s details. 

Ever since the company disbanded its board of directors last year and installed a consultant, Michael Bui, as its CEO, there have been few signs of life. Even after the Texas Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 that the company had the right to use eminent domain, it hasn’t made any land acquisition efforts in the past two years. The Chronicle’s Dug Begley reported last year that Texas Central owed at least $623,000 in property tax bills for dozens of properties it owns across Texas, including for the nearly 50 parcels of land it acquired in Harris County. Landowners on the train’s proposed route have had their property rights effectively neutered, unable to refinance, sell, or develop their land until they know whether the high-speed rail will even be built. 

Meanwhile, seemingly the only time Bui has shown his face in public was to beat back a bill that would’ve required Texas Central to disclose its financing, an organizational chart, details on construction costs and plans for foreign investment, among other provisions. Bui testified at a House Transportation Committee in May that such information is “proprietary and confidential,” adding that “any private company would hesitate to put that out there to others’ benefit.” The bill never made it to the House floor. 

Three months later, Amtrak appears poised to come to the rescue, supported by the mayors of Houston and Dallas, who have long championed the project. Yet while Amtrak’s entry legitimizes the bullet train as a potential public investment, it won’t have the financial wherewithal to shoulder the construction costs alone, which have ballooned from an initial estimate of $10 billion to upwards of $30 billion. Amtrak has never turned a profit in its history, and has to contend with a long backlog of neglected maintenance before it can even think about integrating high-speed rail on its plodding, leisurely nationwide network. Even the additional $22 billion Amtrak received from the infrastructure law won’t help Texas much; it can only spend those funds on track improvements and train car upgrades. 

For now, the best it can do is help Texas Central apply for grants from the railroad administration to fund “state-supported corridors.” The infrastructure law gave the federal agency $36 billion to spend on new rail projects, but Texas Central will face national competition for those funds. High-speed rail projects in California and Florida, which are much farther along in construction, are also seeking grant funds. Texas also has no shortage of naysayers in the state Legislature and Congress eager to put the screws on this project. 

Yet, the bullet train does have some things in its favor. Texas Central has already completed some of the necessary environmental reviews and engineering design work, and has the eminent domain authority to acquire the remaining land along the proposed route. The infrastructure funds earmarked for the railroad administration have a shelf life through 2026, meaning the agency should be highly motivated to get that money out the door as quickly as possible for shovel-ready projects, and construction costs in Texas are generally lower than in other states. 

Of course, with our tax dollars now in play, Texans deserve to know how costly and disruptive that construction will be. We welcome Amtrak’s involvement and interest in improving rail corridor service in our state. First, though, we hope Amtrak will succeed in getting a straight answer to a question Texans have been asking for years: is the Houston-Dallas bullet train even viable in the first place?