Like It Or Not, Texas Takes Another Step Towards High Speed Rail

DALLAS, TX —Although it's moving at a glacial pace now, the Lone Star State took another step toward high-speed rail this week. An Italian firm has been elected to lead design work on the proposed bullet train that will take travelers from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes flat.

Tuesday, Texas Central made an official announcement that Webuild, a Milan-based company, has closed a contract for the project's design.

One of the reasons that progress is so slow on something that would seemingly add to the quality of Texans' lives? Well, many don't like the state using eminent domain to grab up the private land needed to create a path for the express, and others simply don't like the cost.

In design alone, the bullet train will slurp up $16 billion.

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It's no surprise then that the announcement was decried by the president of Texans Against High Speed Rail, who said the announcement was just a way to try to increase support for what some consider an unpopular initiative.

The system Texas Central Railroad proposes to build in Texas intends to replicate the service-proven Japanese Tokaido Shinkansen high-speed rail system, as operated by the Central Japan Railway Company.

Texas Central chose this system because of its reputation as being one of the safest and most punctual train systems in the world. In its 55-year history, the trains have transported over 10 billion passengers with a safety record of zero operational passenger fatalities and zero accidents since first deployed, according to news sources.

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