First of all, let me say that I view the report in question with a good deal of skepticism given the tendency of things like this to get talked up and then blown up. Second, it's a private initiative without clear backing at the moment in most stories (either from the state, the federal government, or any known investors), so that puts it in the same category as any of the half-dozen non-starter LA-Vegas operations that started up and then sputtered. With that said, Newsmax (a source that I do NOT trust, and their story is full of inaccuracies on Amtrak, but I'm digging and trying to sort things out so I'll take what I can) and the Star-Telegram say that the Central Japan Railway is involved.
So...I got this initially off of Dvice (an oddball technology newsletter I signed up for years ago that's affiliated with the SciFi channel), but apparently there is a company looking to put in a high speed line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston. The company is called the Texas Central Railway, and they seem to have (as I noted) investment interest from one of the big Shinkansen operators. So...thoughts on the chances of this going somewhere?
For what it's worth, I looked up CJR's financial numbers, and they're certainly profitable enough to back a venture like this (they seem to have annual profits in the $1-1.5 billion range, and they only send about 1/5 of that out the door in dividends...so that would offer a billion dollars in profits that they could put in behind this, and over 6-8 years that means that they might be able to foot the bill themselves).
http://scifi.sparklist.com/t/22108/329373/4774/3/
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/tag/texas-central-railway/
http://blogs.star-telegram.com/honkin_mad/2012/05/bullet-trains-from-dallas-fort-worth-to-houston-once-riders-arrive-theyll-need-a-car-not-enough-mass.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/09/3949397/group-aims-to-raise-10-billion.html
So...I got this initially off of Dvice (an oddball technology newsletter I signed up for years ago that's affiliated with the SciFi channel), but apparently there is a company looking to put in a high speed line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston. The company is called the Texas Central Railway, and they seem to have (as I noted) investment interest from one of the big Shinkansen operators. So...thoughts on the chances of this going somewhere?
For what it's worth, I looked up CJR's financial numbers, and they're certainly profitable enough to back a venture like this (they seem to have annual profits in the $1-1.5 billion range, and they only send about 1/5 of that out the door in dividends...so that would offer a billion dollars in profits that they could put in behind this, and over 6-8 years that means that they might be able to foot the bill themselves).
http://scifi.sparklist.com/t/22108/329373/4774/3/
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/tag/texas-central-railway/
http://blogs.star-telegram.com/honkin_mad/2012/05/bullet-trains-from-dallas-fort-worth-to-houston-once-riders-arrive-theyll-need-a-car-not-enough-mass.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/09/3949397/group-aims-to-raise-10-billion.html