Always makes me mad to see so many people fight HSR. It would be great for Dallas and Houston but no, we have to take them to court for everything. We live in such a backward country
Completely agree. Same thing happened in California, but the CAHSR persisted and construction began in 2015. But even while it's been under construction obstacles persist. So frustrating and ridiculous.
Yea, America remains an anomaly...an exception. As usual. It's so very American to buck the global trend towards high speed rail travel; as other countries realise the potential of HSR to be major drivers for their national economies. But America either (still) hasn't joined the dots...or they 'left the chat' so to speak. I'm sure that one day the penny will drop (eg they'll realise the enormous value that HSR brings to countries) - it's just a question of 'when'?
@@robtyman4281 yeah. I think its a matter of time but its just frustrating that it didnt happen in the 80s or 90s and wont be in full force til the 2030s probably
The entire Texas triangle has millions upon millions of residents and is worth well over a trillion dollars. How there is no high speed rail connecting them already is hard to believe. Hopefully this project starts something great in Texas and the rest of the country!
There are multiple flights a day between multiple airports that covers this distance everyday in less time and for less cost with no public monies being used - the Texas HSR will require permanent public money to sustain itself just like all HSR.
@@cxa340 Aren’t airlines also heavily subsided by public funds though? Anyways, HSR isn’t meant to be a highly profitable endeavor. It can simply be a public good. It’s public infrastructure that creates both immediate and long term jobs, better connects millions of people, and reduces pollution and road deaths.
@@ThatJPGamer No - airlines are not subsidized, in fact that pay a higher rate of taxation than do alcohol or tabaco. Not sure how you could ever think that - but no airlines do not receive subsidies, especially on the Houston to Dallas route. Why spend the mi eh on HSR when airlines are not only more efficient but also more sustainable? We would do better to invest the money into airports where the money gets paid back from passenger fees and this costs us nothing than dl build a HSR network that will literally require subsides every year of its existence and still offer tickets that cost more than the average airfare for the same route.
@@cxa340 My apologies if I was wrong about the subsidies, I’ll try and look more into it to learn about it. Still, air travel is among the most polluting means of travel. It’s a problem that would only get worse the more planes we add. It’s also pretty cost prohibitive. Flights are several hundred dollars if booked a week or two in advance, and still well over a hundred dollars if booked months in advance.
@@ThatJPGamer Ok wrong on all those counts 1) for HSR rail to break even it would have to employ the same dynamic pricing model that airlines use - flag pricing would actually make HSR incredibly expensive and far more expensive than the average fare between Dallas and Houston. Again - why should we subsidize HSR when we do not subsidize air travel or roads? Passengers pay taxes when they buy a ticket, drivers pay taxes when they fill their vehicles, why should train riders be left to suck off the public? 2) air travel is far more environmentally friendly than is HSR - when you look at how few gallons of jet fuel is used to transport a passenger then the average aircraft uses less than 10 gallons of fuel per passenger per 1,000 miles. This is far more efficient than HSR which requires huge electric demands from gas or coal fired power plants
Texas Central station in Dallas is directly south of the Amtrak Union Station and lies nearby to the underconstruction subway line through the Convention Center. It would be one stop away from transfering to every local, regional, and national rail line Dallas has to offer.
i don’t understand why texas central doesn’t terminate its trains at Union Station. it would allow for better accessibility and would be cheaper than building a whole new station. all texas central would have to do is pay to expand union station and pay a bit of ‘rent money’ to amtrak for using union station. makes more sense that way.
@ogjk Once you arrive in Dallas, you have to do the same. Maybe some people will brave DART to Plano or TRE to Ft. Worth, but the majority are going to balk because Union Station in downtown Dallas is not safe.
ive always wondered why we focused so much on developing our own technology when we could just pay the Japanese, who have been doing this successfully, to do it for us. Glad these investors made the smart decision
As @@MattUK36 said, Spain has the second largest network in the world with the lowest costs and you should get help from experts who built thousands of km (and iles) oh high speed rail but that, unfortunately, won't help with the cost and financing as it's an internal US problem that no external company, no matter how experian, can change.
@@lws7394 Actually labor is quite cheap in the United States mate. You forget how determined American companies are to not pay their workers properly. In Spain their are tighter regulations on working conditions then their are in the United States.
Now that SW airlines' market share is much larger and the Texas triangle market less important to their operations, they're less likely to be an obstacle this time around. Nonetheless, the Texas TGV 'lambda' corridors would of changed Texas for the better and its loss is devastating.
@@alexspike7331 I’d like to know how much Southwest Airlines is involved in trying to delay California HSR, given their market share in that LA-SF route a high speed train would definitely eat into. It could be none, and maybe is, but at the same time it wouldn’t surprise me if they were a part of that effort just as they were in Texas.
@@hemihempart of the reason for that is that the number of miles of HSR in the US is the same as the amount of property rights in PRC: zero. The CCP can simply displace people if it wants to.
We need to take all money being used for highway expansion in our country and divert it to building out our national rail network -- high speed, low speed regional, suburban rail, subway, and tram... We need to get up to the the world standard for rail, and need to ditch our horrible system of car-centrism as fast as we possibly can.
Those ideas only work in urban and suburban areas. Outside the suburbs (with connections to urban centers), rural folks NEED automobiles as part of their daily lives and jobs.
@@jwil4286*urban places. Suburbs can't use trains, and generate too few money to have any kind of decent infrastructure and services. They get built, decay over 50, 70 years, get abandoned, and a new one is built instead. But to be extremely fair, it's entirely possible to build decent urban places in rural regions, with decent infrastructure and services, sometimes even good transit. Just not in most of the US.
Just as in Calif.. The land owners are holding out for ridiculous amounts for their property and then grabing legislatiors who are being supported by oil interests , to stop the train because it's costing too much. Cutting off their noses to spite their faces snd doing their state and the country harm. Narriw minded people always get in the way of progress. If they spent as much time and money making sure their own legislators were doing their jobs ,representing their constituents, as they do with these tactacs , this country would be a much better place then it is now.
@@dizzotizzo69 That's very noble of you...however this line only benefits the Residents of Dallas and Houston...all the other people in the rural communities get absolutely NO benefit from this ...the train doesn't stop in their communities.
As someone who frequently makes the 8+ hour round trip drive between houston and dallas to see family, I fully support this. It would be nice to just be able to shoot back and forth on a train instead of putting wear and tear on my car and having to dedicate a whole day to driving
We actually have one line and it's the worlds first high speed line that being the northeast corridor from Washington DC to New York and was completed in 1934
Well america is a third world country with no future. China has 25,000 miles of high speed rail for decades, and is the same size and is more geographically challenged because of mountains.
As a professional driver in the limo and ride share business for the last twenty years getting people to and from HSR would be the least of your problems. This would be a boom for rideshare drivers and a lot less complicated than picking up and dropping off at the airport. Most people use rideshare going to and from the airport and a lot of people don’t really like to park at the airport because it’s to complicated and expensive and would be just what the business travelers are looking for so you can scratch that problem off of your list.
California is actually already building the first true HSR in the USA. Even the NEC doesn't have true HSR. So HSR will spread to the rest of the country because of California, not Texas.
@@lukes3748 true. It might seem that way but it's not. Also, we shouldn't dumb down what is and isn't HSR. We need to correctly educate the American public about modern and future rail technology including HSR.
@@mrxman581 the entire rail system in America is flawed, having most of the passenger travel being run by government isn’t the best. Especially with a country of its size, HSR could be a huge opportunity but the government will likely not take that leap for years, which is rather unfortunate because it has the potential to rival air travel and become a much cheaper alternative, especially at a time when plane tickets are through the roof.
Landowners: "I am going to sue this company into oblivion with the hopes of shutting them down for good" also landowners: "Why isn't this company giving us any updates after we sued them, nearly shutting them down for good?"
How to get a quick choo choo in US 1. Reduce military budget by 200 billion 2. Hire Japanese and European contractors 3. Use funds to build everything. No need for private funds 4. Purchase all lands immediately. 5. Throw vast amounts of manpower and funds thus creating a local industry and providing jobs 6. Improve local public transit to increase ridership 7.??? 8. Profit
Nope sorry gotta send $300 billion to Ukraine. Neither of the established political parties are good stewards of our tax money and are prone to corruption.
I'm surprised you haven't covered the Brightline in florida and California/ Nevada. In Florida, this is a prime example of how a privately owned, operated and funded hsr can look like. The one in California and Nevada is in the early stages, but is moving full speed ahead. Good presentation Thanks Bob
The problem with HSR is that the connecting cities both need to have a good rail and other public transport means because not everyone on I-45 is going from one downtown to the other and honestly their final destination could be miles away from wherever the stations connect.
It that same argument could be made against airlines. HSR is better for shorter trips like this as its stations are closer to downtowns. That said, there is nothing that is perfect. We also need smaller, slower rail connecting the small towns surrounding the stops.
I think there should a public-private venture to make Texas Central go on a continuous loop in the Texas Triangle hitting all the major metros. That would be cool if you could go to the main metros around Texas traveling mostly at 205 miles per hour.
I hope this expands beyond Texas. The Shinkansen single-handedly makes the US feel like a third world country - it really changes your concept of transportation and urban planning
Let me be clear that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world classifications were designed by the US to separate her allies from the Soviets. “3rd world” always referred to those who didn’t pick a side during the Cold War. So you’re definitely using the phrase incorrectly. If you mean to say it makes the US feel like a “poor” country then thats just an opinion thats not grounded in reality. And although transportation isn’t a problem here, statistically, perhaps we need to do some superfluous spending just for the added redundancy.
@@ahyes589 the CAHSR is already under construction and has the funding to complete the first section in the Central Valley. The Texas project is vaporware for now. That's a huge difference.
(Was initially just a reply but I wrote too much so I'll copy it here too lol). Here are some indirect benefits rural towns can benefit from the Texas high speed rail. First, lesser congestion in highway. Because of this, bulk and agricultural products from rural towns can be delivered to ports and cities much faster, thus bringing profit to farmers and other businesses bigger and faster. Next, the Texas high speed rail will be 100% electrified. This is very significant since when you reduce the number of cars that runs on the freeway, the fuel that is supposed to be used by cars can instead be used somewhere like farms and mines fueling trucks and other machinery at a cheaper price due to lower demand. Another benefit would be the significant cut in co2 emissions. Because of this, air quality will significantly improve in the rural towns due to lesser cars. If air quality improves, this usually boosts the quality and quantity of crops, and these rural towns can become major tourist destinations due to the cleanliness of air and the scenery. If folks from urban towns realize this, tourism and businesses can sprung up in these rural towns. And if that happens, they might even build infill stations in the said town to facilitate the ever-growing traffic. If you don't believe me, look up the Taiheiyō Belt of Japan, which I think is where the Texas HSR based some insights upon. The Taiheiyō Belt is an urban corridor similar to the Northeast megapolis of the US. Although you could argue that access to the ocean is a huge factor to the development, if you ask local or read data, they will say another reason, the High-speed rail line or Shinkansen. Because of this, residents of Tokyo and Osaka, 2 cities that are 500 kilometers or 310 miles, travel between the 2 cities usually occur less than 3 hours compared to a car trip of over 6 hours. It's this long because of the mountainous terrain of Japan. But look at the Texas HSR corridor, it's mostly flat, the most ideal terrain for a HSR. Who knows, the Texas HSR might even run 400 to 500 kph or 250 to 310 mph due to the idealness of the terrain.
Rural towns will benefit little without a station nearby. The train will be a nuisance to locals if it has to cross at grade, which is looking more and more likely with budget constraints. Air quality in these small towns is already good, so it is unlikely to get much better even if highway traffic is halved. These towns are already on a busy mainline interstate route, but are passed up by urbanites because they are "boring farm towns" which is true to a degree. These are farm towns that city dwellers already pass by except to refill their gas tank and high speed rail will make it even easier to leave them in the dust to crumble. I would love to see a train, but America ain't Japan and Japanese ideology cannot simply be transplanted without thorough evaluation.
It's hilarious to see how many Americans fight against the improvement of their own country. Even if you are (and forever will be) a driver, this is good for you. It will take cars off the road meaning less traffic to fight with everyday. Remember, the very best places in the world to drive are also the best places for public transit and none of them are in the US.
You clearly haven't been to the center of the United States. There is no such thing as road congestion there. It's only in the biggest cities that road congestion happens, most people just drive. It's super convenient. You can leave when you want, you don't have to rely on a timetable, you have an easier way to transport things like groceries, there is plenty of space to park, it gives you more flexibility to move around once you get to your destination. You just won't understand it unless you try to live in the United States outside of the largest cities like Los Angeles.
For those interested, the project has started back up with investors from Fort Worth (Early 2024). Now, the proposed origin of the High-Speed Rail will start in Fort Worth (Texas' largest rail passenger using city), go east to Dallas, and then head south to Houston
As someone who travels to Houston every month or so it might work. It has to be priced at a point that it is cheaper tan driving as well. It currently costs 60-70 dollars in gas to go round trip. So tickets would have to be appropriately priced. Also factor in the cost of getting from the train station to where I need to go in Houston, which is close to the hobby airport. Houston is a city designed for having a car and not having one in Houston is extremely inconvenient. This sounds like a good idea, but if its priced similarly to amtrack prices in the northeast, ill probably consider taking my car anyway out of the convenience factor when I am in Houston.
One of the biggest opponents of high speed passenger rail is the airlines. There is enough air and rail passengers to support both modes of travel, plus utilizing high speed rail for mail and package delivery will enable mail and packages to be delivered within hours with same service. Texas may not get this mode of travel for a long time due to backward thinking.
The problem is air is both faster, cheaper, and has better connectivity - you have literally more flights per day between the 4 airports than this rail line could support and it is finer much faster and at a much cheaper cost that requires no public monies while HSR always requires public subsidies.
@@cxa340 Air is fast, but the TSA isn't and is a huge pain-point for me to travel by air. Air travel is EXPENSIVE too! I already own a car and can travel 500 miles for around $30 of fuel, which blows any plane ticket for that distance out of the water! I will concede the connectivity until the atlantic ocean causeway is opened someday. Lastly, airlines get TONS of public monies, did you forget about the 2020 COVID bailouts using taxpayer money?
After living in Germany, Korea and visiting Japan many of times, I always wonder how are we SOOOOO behind on this type of transportation. I would literally just go to Dallas for lunch with friends and come back that some day. I know people that live in Katy that have a longer driving to work than 90 mins .
@@The_king567 what oil company you work. LOL just because you live under a rock and clearly do understand the dichotomy of public and private transportation with the governance of the citizenry
I'm surprised this project doesn't include additional park & ride stations. A lot of people will be going from where they live in the suburbs to the centre of the other city. That works in both directions of course so you'd have one park & ride stop about 10 to 15 miles south of Dallas and another about 10-15 miles north (or outside) of Houston. Extra stops do add time to the journey but it's not much - about 5 minutes per stop. These are particularly successful in the UK and in some cases they lead to a lot of new development around the park & ride station. I guess whoever builds the railway could cash in on that too? The other thing I'm surpirsed at is the planned service frequency. 1 train per hour off peak? That's not enough for turn-up-and-go kind of travelling. You need at least 2/hr. If you can't fill em with enough people then make the trains shorter. Overall you'd still generate more traffic for the railway.
People will also take Uber or have someone drop them off at the train station. Not everybody will need to drive and park at the station. My son and I will definitely use it frequently here in Nw Houston.
No high speed rail connects two sprawling urban areas with no practical public transit. Since people will still need to drive to the train, then drive from the train to their destinations, they will simply drive the whole trip. Houston and Dallas both need to build practical (high frequency, high density) local transit before it will be practical to use public transit to connect the two metros.
Not possible considering their areas are essentially Giant suburbias. public transit needs actual density to be useful and logistical. if you don't live /work/ or have places to go within the relatively small walkshed of a public transit station, its effectively useless/
Yes, traveling in countries like Japan, China, and in western Europe, i noticed that these countries not only have good high speed train networks, but they also have a compliment of subway, local, and regional trains that allows people to transfer to another train and get to another destination within the metro of the particular city in a timely manner. Dallas and Houston are huge and spread-out metro areas, and unless i am going right to the city center, there needs to be another form of transportation that I can quickly transfer to if i am going to want to use the high-speed rail. If my destination is outside the city center in another area or i am trying to visit multiple areas, Taking the Bullet train would likely not benefit me. This is why if built. i think this project likely would not get a healthy amount of ridership. There needs to be a complementary network or transportation for this to be viable for most people.
@fatviscount6562 In Europe they have freight cars attached to the train (for major lines). Put your car on the train, have a drink and you get to destination with your car unloaded and waiting for you.
Most logical comment here. Trinity Metro is horrible while DART has some form of better transit, and the mid cities have absolutely no mass transit. This project is doomed without significant change in how DFW and Houston travel.
How about the flights between these cities? There are lots of flights between Dallas and Houston and people taking flights instead of driving would face essentially the same problem of taking train because they don't have their car in the destination city. If flights between these cities work, can't just the same solution be applied to the case of train?
Some of the benefits to HSR is that it would allow more people to attend events in different cities. The weather related incidents at the airports are ridiculous. You get constant flight delays, then you have to wait for the planes that got stuck up in the air to land and then the delayed flights have to leave, no more pilots issues because the pilots flew to many hours or didn’t show on time if at all and the number one issue when your flight is delayed is that the airlines keep stalling you knowing full well that that flight is never going to leave and then it’s a mad scramble for everyone to have to try to find a hotel near the airport or sleep at the airport. Some people even catch rideshare to different cities to try and catch a different flight. The benefits of HSR far exceed the cons because the roads have reached their maximum limits and adding lanes are to expensive and have to be maintained and it’s pointless because they just add to the congestion and usually cost the drivers more money because you have to pay to use those extra lanes. If you could find a way to make it cost efficient you could have a direct express train and a commute train for those who would rather commute than drive farther beyond the city limits but that would have to be studied. But on the event side this would benefit both cities because their is always something going on in both cities and Dallas and Houston areas are both growing faster than any other city and HSR will be the answer to the transportation problem.
I clicked on the video because the thumbnail shows Japan's maglev, the fastest train in the world which is now under testing and ready to run from 2027!
It's ready to run, but the tunnels cannot be constructed until one of the local governments gives permission to build in a certain area. Which they have refused to do, citing concerns to water flow changes causing change to habits of local animals on the mountains. So the real timeline is 2029-2030 at best, assuming they can get the approval of said local government.
Technically, there is a small maglev route already in use in China. The only public working one right now. It goes to an airport but many people who ride it just do it for the experience. More like an amusement park ride.
@@StarboardPitotTube As I understand it, the relatively short line that connects to an airport in China is the only one operating as public transit. There are other maglevs used for testing purposes including in Germany.
@@mrxman581 To give some examples of other operating maglev trains: Linimo in Japan, Changsha Maglev express and Shanghai Metro S1 in China, and the Incheon Airport Maglev.
San Antonio to Austin to Dallas to Houston with stops in temple, Victoria, and the bravos valley. Also a line connecting El Paso to San Antonio with a stop in San Angelo and midland.
you know why the HSR in japan was already successful by the time it started? there was already a very broad network of public transportation in every city in the toukaidou sen.
The only way I see this being practical for Dallas and Houston is if they switch it to be the Dallas, Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Houston high speed rail. That would only increase its size slightly adding a bit of a outward bow shape towards the other 3 cities, but it would drastically increase potential riders. 30 billion dollars for only 2 cities is kind of insane. Even if it cost 40 billion dollars if it connected 4 major cities and 1 mid sized city with Waco it may just be worth it.
High speed rail projects, in Texas especially, need to go the extra mile and locate their stops within the urban core. The main advantage of taking HSR over flying is that you go from city center to city center, without all the airport logistics at each end of the journey. Cutting costs by putting the stations in the suburbs diminishes this and kneecaps the line's ability to compete with Southwest Airlines (who have actively opposed Texas HSR for decades) and even just driving.
I think the first step of this project should be making Houston and Dallas more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Then the funding of this mega project should come from the US government and Texas government. The biggest obstacles of this project are the car and plane lobbies.
Not trying to pick a fight but it's 106 in Dallas right now...and there's not a lot of people walking, jogging or biking...and Houston is just as hot with the added benefit of humidity and mosquitoes. I agree with your sentiment but think that the bike lanes and walking paths would be awfully lovely places between 9AM and 9PM for half the year.
@@EskayDuro Good point! But I think the temperature can be lowered by creating more shadows by planting trees. Cities which all full of concrete are very hot in the summer time.
@@Bruh-jr2ep Yes, Sir I absolutely agree that we( Texas especially) could do a great deal more to make our cities much more livable.... unfortunately it's just too easy to move farther out into the suburbs.
@@Bruh-jr2epAgreed, but it's not and either/or option. Texas can do both things. They can fund the pedestrian improvements locally and get help from the federal government for the HSR project. Though the local funding might require raising taxes to do it. Los Angeles city and county residents voted and approved raising the sales taxes to build a county-wide public metro rail system. The first light rail line opened in 1990 and the system continues to expand because of this funding. However, if the majority of residents don't support it, it's not going to happen.
Not really possible as the video explains both DFW and Greater Houston areas are MASSIVE especially for their populations. They are essentially giant suburbias like the majority of other American cities/metropolitan regions. To put their size into scale, the Greater Houston area alone is nearly twice the size of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area despite the Tokyo metropolitan area containing more people than all of Texas. To increase their density to a significant degree their populations alone would have to grow well into the tens of millions. Theres also the added issue of everyone wants to live in suburbia, not really a high density urban metropolis like NYC.
On the entire United States Eastern seaboard, I-95 suffers the same congestion troubles between Boston Massachusetts and Jacksonville Florida. A bullet line i would call, the United States Atlantic bullet line would be perfect if built from Boston Massachusetts to Jacksonville Florida. This line would move millions of americans up and down the entire United States Eastern seaboard every year. This would not only free up heavy congestion on i-95 and ease the frustrations of many who sit stranded at airports due to cancellations and delays during the holidays and travel seasons, but would also improve infrastructure and economic growth. Traveling at speeds of up to 200 to 225 plus, the Atlantic bullet line would stop in one or two cities in each state it travels through. I drive to Jacksonville Florida from Lancaster Pennsylvania every year and it takes me about 12 to 13 hours. Making the same trip in an EV would take 4 to 5 hours longer due to all the sitting times and limited range. But with this highspeed train set, i could make the 829 mile trip in just 4 to 6 hours instead of 12 to 13 hours. You damn right i would park my car and take the train, wouldn't you? Highspeed bullet train technology is something the mighty United States of America should of had decades ago and yet for decades all they ever did is talk about it. It's a shame that the country who put a man on the moon to jump around and pick up rocks at a cost of billions just has no intrest in improving infrastructure and economic growth by putting highspeed bullet train technology on the ground. Many americans who swear by electric vehicles and yet turn away the idea of obtaining highspeed bullet train technology which is also (fully electric). But California is atleast trying to make an effort to introduce highspeed bullet trains with the California highspeed rail project. I hope that one day a bullet train line will be installed in the eastern seaboard but till then, highspeed bullet trains and maglev super train technology is the new american dream. Hats off to you Japan and China and the rest of the far more advanced countries of the far east and Europe. Texas all i hear is talk. I will believe it when i see it.....
One more advice guys. New york -los Angeles 350kmh what a rentable touristic trip. That would be the roller coaster of adults and the living book to the children. 12 hours from coast to coast? Amazing. In a uniquely developed and landscaping dotted country like USA that would be the Apple(brand) of the rails .how many Americans would pay for a seat everyday? I'm telling you.
There IS NO heart of downtown in Dallas and Houston. Just like people who FLY between those two cities, they rent a car. Or car sharing companies spring up. Seriously what's more American than an entrepeneur seizing an opportunity to rent or carshare vehicles to high income business travelers. This line is SUCH a no-brainer... but maybe that's the problem... no brains.
My only issue with the rail, is ok it saves me about 1.5-2hours compared to driving, but now I am in another city with no car, and don’t expect me to want to bus around or pay more $$$ for Uber’s everywhere…
While many of the new hsr-networks around the US sound great, I fear that because literally every state has a different system, the network will be a nightmare to combine into a national network...
Their biggest problem outside of the legal challenges was funding. They struggled to raise anywhere near what they needed after the court battles started. The other problem is transportation connections in the destination cities: I think it would have a better chance in another decade or so, if transportation networks within Dallas and Houston are improved
The United States as a whole is so far behind on getting High Speed Rails as an option to travel instead of by plane or car. It's a multi-trillion dollar project that needs to happen and it would significantly reduce the need to drive everywhere if you knew that it would cut the times in half that way and there's always someone who will give you an Uber drive somewhere or a bus ride to the general area of choice.
I love how the state government won't give any money to hsr as they think that rail will only work if privately funded, yet just approved 85 billion in state PUBLIC funds towards roads.
I love the initiative but I feel the bullet train will soon be obsolete, why not go all the way and develop a mag lev system, or even a hyper loop type of transport?
You know what's insane? I graduate from college in oklahoma RIGHT BEFORE THIS SHIT OPENS. im from houston so i couldve easily used this thing to go home for a long weekend. A 4 hour drive to dallas is nothing if i get to avoid i45. Albiet dallas would still be a pain in the ass but id have to go through it anyway.
Things I want in the Texas high speed rail system: -Destinations to Austin, San Antonio, Galveston, Corpus Cristi, etc. -All stations must have Bucc-EE’s.
I think the first step before this is to build a railway infrastructure within the cities first which would benefit the cities a ton anyway then connect the two cities and then repeat with the other big cities in America and connect them all via high-speed rail
seeing a Shinkansen in Texas would make me ridiculously giddy. how cool would that be? like holy shit! I grew up in the Dallas area and I would definitely go back to visit and take the mo'fuckn Texas Shinkansen, yee haw (even if it's to stinky Houston lol)! I hope I get to see a decent U.S. Shinkansen network in my lifetime.
Why is building high-speed rail so expensive in the US? In Western Europe or Asia they're building high-speed rail networks for a couple billion that cover the vast amount of their countries. I can understand the US being more expensive by a few billion. Workers here make more, corps here want bigger profits, and this is privately funded and not state-owned. But it's so baffling how infrastructure in the US is 10-20x more expensive, the work isn't state of the art, and the completion times are horrendous. What exactly is inflating the cost so damn much?
You don’t know what you’re talking about they are massively expensive to build in Asia and Europe read a book they’re not profitable. Most of the world doesn’t have them for a reason.
(1) I think it would be good to develop a high-speed railroad in the United States with a yen loan (guarantor is the US government). (2) If the United States introduces Japanese high-speed railroads (Shinkansen, Linear Shinkansen) and Japan purchases American fighter planes, planes, missiles, and resources, I think it will circulate.
Top speed of 220 mph on an 88 mile route costing $7.3 B. Built in 7 years with 4 stations and perhaps the beginning of an eventual 500 mile route from Jakarta to Surabaya.
It will never happen. They have talked about a HSR between San Antonio and Dallas, then Dallas-Houston, then Houston-San Antonio for 25 years. Every time everyone gets excited and the proposed route is announced. SA to DFW with a stop in Austin, Waco and Temple… then every small town along the way gets upset on why they don’t get a stop. After explaining a train that goes 120+ mph needs 5 miles to get up to speed and 5+ miles to slow down the train can’t stop every 15 miles and still be efficient. Plus with SouthWest Airlines having $49 flights between the three city pairs the train would need to be faster than 2.5 hours and $49 to be worth it.
The problem: you’re in the destination city, you don’t have a car, public transit isn’t very good. Do you start wishing you’d just driven your car there? I’m walking distance from one of the new sections of Brightline tracks in Florida, a bit south of Stuart. I have to cross the tracks to get to most things. There are no plans for there to be a Brightline station within 30 miles of me. Say I want to go to Orlando or Miami by train. Will Brightline provide bus service to the two stations nearest me? (It might help if they do.) It’s the lack of other infrastructure that has me skeptical about these ventures. In my case, Brightline doesn’t seem to want my business, and I’m dubious about how to get around at my destination.
Even with the mass transit, few will use it because mass transit in the US is a crime magnet, attracting undesirable people and the socially violent. No sane person is going to subject themselves to that.
The main problem I see is when you get to Houston, at the current destination, you will be dropped off on the most congested highway in the state of Texas. There is no local train connection there and the buses are horrible here. The buses and trains are only available in the city limits of Houston and suburban areas they are unavailable. The intersection is where Hwy 610, IH 10, Hwy 290, Hwy 59, IH 45 all come together. The majority of population lives in the suburbs and where I live it would take an hour to get to that location from where I live. But then again I would have to cross the train tracks somewhere along the way and I’m not sure if that would add additional time to my commute to that location. I’m sure the car rental businesses will be thrilled to have new a new location to open in. They brag about no security checks to get on train. In Texas, that is just inviting our mentally unstable population to go kill a large group of people. Trapped on a train going 200mph would be easy pickings for someone wanting to kill a large group of people. In Texas, as you know, we love our guns and anyone can buy them here. No where in Texas is it really safe anymore. Shootings at schools, malls, workplaces, etc.. are common here. One thing to note IH 45 is not the only way to Dallas. Most of the traffic on IH 45 is 18 wheeler trucks traveling out of the port located in Houston that’s why I never travel on IH 45. I’ve ridden on high speed trains in other countries but population density there is considerably higher than in Texas with additional stops not just one in the middle of nowhere. Huntsville has 7 prison units with a population larger the town itself. College Station is an hour away and so you will need some way to get back and forth. By the time this thing ever gets built I think $30 billion is a low bid.
It’s interesting it’s privately funded. It’s good in a sense that they will likely be more efficient, make less useless stops, and built much faster. However, high speed rail isn’t traditionally a profit making business, it’s more of a utility like a highway. A lot of routes do not make money. I wonder if ticket prices will therefore be quite high.
Privet companies are in no way "more efficient" and in the world there are plenty of supper efficient huge construction project built by governments. The Madrid Barcelona high speed line, built bybthe governments, is 620km (38tmi) direct and 645km (400mi) with side tracks ( to enable fast direct trains bypassing cities and side tracks to get into the center of those cities on part of the trips. The total cost was 9B€ (~10B$) even with adjustment to inflation it's still low.
For their profit model I assume that they will try to do something similar to Brightline and get the majority of their profit of real estate near the stations. Though I wonder how they will do that with few stations.
A state owned railway doesn't need to make money. It is a service you pay for with your taxes. No one is asking highways to turn a profit, quite the opposite. They cost huge amounts to buy and maintain as well. Maintenance cost of a rail network is much, much lower per passenger compared to highways. But this being a private company fucks with that logic, as the profit-motive gets in the way.
@@AL5520I mean Japan high speed rail is really profitable because they treat it like real estate. Brightline is also doing this. People forget this that passengers rail used to be proftible, but they government out so many regulations that made it unprofitable.
@@AL5520he’s talking about the United States, home of light rail lines easily costing 500 million dollars a mile. For whatever reason, governments within the US are horrific at building rail at any reasonable cost
They have been talking about this for the last three decades since I've been living in Texas. Sounds like a good proposal, but I doubt we will even see this by 2030.
The population figures for Dallas and Houston metro areas are totally jacked up and turned around. Dallas is number 4, and Houston number 5, and both are listed as considerably smaller than they actually are. The same situation in rankings as of 2022 for Atlanta and Miami are the same, with Atlanta the larger of the two, according to 2022 estimates. This video was posted two weeks ago, and these population figures look to be from 2010 or possibly even 2000.
Let me know when they break ground and actually start building.... I have heard about this for ten years now.... I am still waiting. I used to live in Kansas City. They started talking about light rail back in the 1970s. They finally after 50 years have a 2 mile stretch open. They are adding another five miles within 2 years. Let me know when it is finished. The US is so backward when it comes to rail transportation as compared to the rest of the world.
I've heard some idea of a future branch from Brazoa valley to Austin and San Antonio. I also wonder if there could be a future extension from Dallas to Ft. Worth to connect with the existing Amtrak line (which is pathetic, but perhaps with some more connections, it could be improved in the future.)
The French just got on with the job. No greedy lawyers! The sparsely populated regions of France are similar to Texas. But you don't have public transport infrastructure at either city. Urban America was born on the car.
We are hopeful that this project will be successful, but our only concern is traffic in the cities. Even if HSR is completed, there will be traffic congestion in the city if all traffic beyond it is by car. On the other hand, public transportation in Dallas and Houston is poor compared to the rest of the countries where HSRs are located. Considering the population size of both cities, the development of a subway or elevated rail system should be considered.
HSR is supposed to connect cities yet they skipped over Waco, College Station, Bryan and Waxahachie just to save maybe ~5 miles on the route from Dallas to Houston. This is why I can’t take all these new HSR proposals in the US seriously, they always just focus on linking points A and B and ignore C through Z, which would basically destine them to failure if they were to get built
Very cool. One question: @6:52, how would this high speed train "drastically upgrade Texas's Amtrak railway infrastructure?" It would seem to replace it, no?
The problem is the way infrastructure is funded in the USA. In most countries around the world the government funds and builds infrastructure. It simply happens unlike in the USA which is filled with half finished projects and lots of empty talk.
Meanwhile, china has 25,000 miles of high speed rail, and the USA has ZERO. China is the same size, and way more geographically challenging. I thought america was rich though, but when it comes to construction it suddenly becomes "too expensive" or "too big". America is a laughing stock
@@hemihem In some ways the USA might be a laughing stock but it's still better than living in a Communist country like China that controls it's people by censoring the internet and punishing anyone who criticizes the Communist government. Or lying to the world about Covid and not being transparent resulting in millions of deaths around the world. That's on China's government. That's not laughable, that's criminal and shameful!
@@hemihem China has money, but the people are all rather poor. So they don't have the money to move around in something like a car and instead rely on motorcycles and trains. It's because of the wealth of Americans, combined with all of the space they have to spread out, plus the importance of private ownership of property (a concept that doesn't exist in China).
Do you know that’s not a good thing right government should not fund infrastructure I’m amazed this has to be explained do you people not know history you clearly don’t
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Only Brightline can get these kind of project done...
Please make a similar video about Brightline West, and how that high speed rail project compares to this one.
Indonesian hsr finis
Always makes me mad to see so many people fight HSR. It would be great for Dallas and Houston but no, we have to take them to court for everything. We live in such a backward country
Completely agree. Same thing happened in California, but the CAHSR persisted and construction began in 2015. But even while it's been under construction obstacles persist. So frustrating and ridiculous.
@@mrxman581 Yup CA should have had HSR for the entire first phase by now, but noooooo lawyers gonna lawyer.
@@Mike__B yup. CAHSR has had to deal with a myriad of obstacles including tons of frivolous lawsuits
Yea, America remains an anomaly...an exception. As usual.
It's so very American to buck the global trend towards high speed rail travel; as other countries realise the potential of HSR to be major drivers for their national economies. But America either (still) hasn't joined the dots...or they 'left the chat' so to speak.
I'm sure that one day the penny will drop (eg they'll realise the enormous value that HSR brings to countries) - it's just a question of 'when'?
@@robtyman4281 yeah. I think its a matter of time but its just frustrating that it didnt happen in the 80s or 90s and wont be in full force til the 2030s probably
The entire Texas triangle has millions upon millions of residents and is worth well over a trillion dollars. How there is no high speed rail connecting them already is hard to believe. Hopefully this project starts something great in Texas and the rest of the country!
There are multiple flights a day between multiple airports that covers this distance everyday in less time and for less cost with no public monies being used - the Texas HSR will require permanent public money to sustain itself just like all HSR.
@@cxa340 Aren’t airlines also heavily subsided by public funds though?
Anyways, HSR isn’t meant to be a highly profitable endeavor. It can simply be a public good. It’s public infrastructure that creates both immediate and long term jobs, better connects millions of people, and reduces pollution and road deaths.
@@ThatJPGamer
No - airlines are not subsidized, in fact that pay a higher rate of taxation than do alcohol or tabaco. Not sure how you could ever think that - but no airlines do not receive subsidies, especially on the Houston to Dallas route. Why spend the mi eh on HSR when airlines are not only more efficient but also more sustainable? We would do better to invest the money into airports where the money gets paid back from passenger fees and this costs us nothing than dl build a HSR network that will literally require subsides every year of its existence and still offer tickets that cost more than the average airfare for the same route.
@@cxa340 My apologies if I was wrong about the subsidies, I’ll try and look more into it to learn about it.
Still, air travel is among the most polluting means of travel. It’s a problem that would only get worse the more planes we add. It’s also pretty cost prohibitive. Flights are several hundred dollars if booked a week or two in advance, and still well over a hundred dollars if booked months in advance.
@@ThatJPGamer
Ok wrong on all those counts
1) for HSR rail to break even it would have to employ the same dynamic pricing model that airlines use - flag pricing would actually make HSR incredibly expensive and far more expensive than the average fare between Dallas and Houston. Again - why should we subsidize HSR when we do not subsidize air travel or roads? Passengers pay taxes when they buy a ticket, drivers pay taxes when they fill their vehicles, why should train riders be left to suck off the public?
2) air travel is far more environmentally friendly than is HSR - when you look at how few gallons of jet fuel is used to transport a passenger then the average aircraft uses less than 10 gallons of fuel per passenger per 1,000 miles. This is far more efficient than HSR which requires huge electric demands from gas or coal fired power plants
Texas Central station in Dallas is directly south of the Amtrak Union Station and lies nearby to the underconstruction subway line through the Convention Center. It would be one stop away from transfering to every local, regional, and national rail line Dallas has to offer.
i don’t understand why texas central doesn’t terminate its trains at Union Station. it would allow for better accessibility and would be cheaper than building a whole new station. all texas central would have to do is pay to expand union station and pay a bit of ‘rent money’ to amtrak for using union station. makes more sense that way.
@ogjkmight as well go to Austin and San Antonio instead
What subway under construction!? It has been proposed just like this rail line but nothing has been done.
@ogjk Once you arrive in Dallas, you have to do the same. Maybe some people will brave DART to Plano or TRE to Ft. Worth, but the majority are going to balk because Union Station in downtown Dallas is not safe.
ive always wondered why we focused so much on developing our own technology when we could just pay the Japanese, who have been doing this successfully, to do it for us. Glad these investors made the smart decision
Nah, the Spaniards do it just as well and way cheaper
As @@MattUK36 said, Spain has the second largest network in the world with the lowest costs and you should get help from experts who built thousands of km (and iles) oh high speed rail but that, unfortunately, won't help with the cost and financing as it's an internal US problem that no external company, no matter how experian, can change.
@@AL5520You can't build in US at 'Spanish costs' . Labour and other costs are a lot higher in US.
Japanese railway tech and train are actually the most expensive, it would be much cheaper to go with European trains.
@@lws7394 Actually labor is quite cheap in the United States mate. You forget how determined American companies are to not pay their workers properly. In Spain their are tighter regulations on working conditions then their are in the United States.
Southwest Airlines filed a lawsuit against the Texas HSR project in the 1990s, and was at least partly responsible for it getting shut down.
The only reason why they did that lawsuit is because of profit
So sad. They should look at the landscape and get behind it. Branch off a Southwest HSR division. And still make money. 🤷♂️
Now that SW airlines' market share is much larger and the Texas triangle market less important to their operations, they're less likely to be an obstacle this time around. Nonetheless, the Texas TGV 'lambda' corridors would of changed Texas for the better and its loss is devastating.
@@alexspike7331 I’d like to know how much Southwest Airlines is involved in trying to delay California HSR, given their market share in that LA-SF route a high speed train would definitely eat into. It could be none, and maybe is, but at the same time it wouldn’t surprise me if they were a part of that effort just as they were in Texas.
I’m happy rail transit is gaining steam in the US now. It’s much needed, and will benefit a lot of people! 😊
Need 15 more years to see progress.
America is a laughing stock, china already has 25,000 miles of high speed rail
America, zero. Lol
@@hemihempart of the reason for that is that the number of miles of HSR in the US is the same as the amount of property rights in PRC: zero. The CCP can simply displace people if it wants to.
"Gaining steam" love that subtle old-fashioned pun.
@@jwil4286they built it's HSR lines in empty areas 💀💀💀
I hope this project will have an successful end :)! We need more train tracks, like they have in the EU!
the problem lies with how corrupt the government is
not gonna happen
@@frankdicreator2235cope
The us needs turns walkable their cities
@@mohammedawad7841 exactly and less car centric places with wide protected bike lanes on every road!
We need to take all money being used for highway expansion in our country and divert it to building out our national rail network -- high speed, low speed regional, suburban rail, subway, and tram... We need to get up to the the world standard for rail, and need to ditch our horrible system of car-centrism as fast as we possibly can.
Those ideas only work in urban and suburban areas. Outside the suburbs (with connections to urban centers), rural folks NEED automobiles as part of their daily lives and jobs.
@@jwil4286 80% of the population lives in urban and suburban areas.
@@jwil4286No one has mentioned anything about preventing people from driving at all.
@@jwil4286*urban places. Suburbs can't use trains, and generate too few money to have any kind of decent infrastructure and services. They get built, decay over 50, 70 years, get abandoned, and a new one is built instead.
But to be extremely fair, it's entirely possible to build decent urban places in rural regions, with decent infrastructure and services, sometimes even good transit. Just not in most of the US.
@@marcbuisson2463trams are better fit for suburb
Just as in Calif.. The land owners are holding out for ridiculous amounts for their property and then grabing legislatiors who are being supported by oil interests , to stop the train because it's costing too much. Cutting off their noses to spite their faces snd doing their state and the country harm.
Narriw minded people always get in the way of progress. If they spent as much time and money making sure their own legislators were doing their jobs ,representing their constituents, as they do with these tactacs , this country would be a much better place then it is now.
Ever think that some folks just don't WANT to sell their birthright? For any amount of money?
@@EskayDuro I'd sell it for the greater good of humanity.
@@dizzotizzo69 That's very noble of you...however this line only benefits the Residents of Dallas and Houston...all the other people in the rural communities get absolutely NO benefit from this ...the train doesn't stop in their communities.
@@EskayDuro and how many people live in these rural communities to the combined 15 million or so in the two cities? Maybe 1 million?
@@Alepfi5599 Do their rights and freedoms and happiness not matter as much as those of the urbanites? That's what you are insinuating?
As someone who frequently makes the 8+ hour round trip drive between houston and dallas to see family, I fully support this. It would be nice to just be able to shoot back and forth on a train instead of putting wear and tear on my car and having to dedicate a whole day to driving
USA should've had high speed rail a long time ago
bUt FreEdOm!!!111! oUr CouNtrY iS ToO LaRGe!!1! it'S sOciaLisM!1!!
We actually have one line and it's the worlds first high speed line that being the northeast corridor from Washington DC to New York and was completed in 1934
Well america is a third world country with no future.
China has 25,000 miles of high speed rail for decades, and is the same size and is more geographically challenged because of mountains.
Take a plane.
@@bedinskiboi Sounds like somebody's scared of flying
As a professional driver in the limo and ride share business for the last twenty years getting people to and from HSR would be the least of your problems. This would be a boom for rideshare drivers and a lot less complicated than picking up and dropping off at the airport. Most people use rideshare going to and from the airport and a lot of people don’t really like to park at the airport because it’s to complicated and expensive and would be just what the business travelers are looking for so you can scratch that problem off of your list.
PS don’t forget the comfort and convenience you get on HSR and a lot of people don’t like to fly because of the fear of crashing.
It’s good to see high speed rail grow to outside of the northeast in the us, hopefully it’ll pave the way for more high speed rail in the future!
California is actually already building the first true HSR in the USA. Even the NEC doesn't have true HSR. So HSR will spread to the rest of the country because of California, not Texas.
northeast doesnt even have high speed rail by international standards
@@blushdog true, but relative to american rail standards it seems that way
@@lukes3748 true. It might seem that way but it's not. Also, we shouldn't dumb down what is and isn't HSR. We need to correctly educate the American public about modern and future rail technology including HSR.
@@mrxman581 the entire rail system in America is flawed, having most of the passenger travel being run by government isn’t the best. Especially with a country of its size, HSR could be a huge opportunity but the government will likely not take that leap for years, which is rather unfortunate because it has the potential to rival air travel and become a much cheaper alternative, especially at a time when plane tickets are through the roof.
Landowners: "I am going to sue this company into oblivion with the hopes of shutting them down for good"
also landowners: "Why isn't this company giving us any updates after we sued them, nearly shutting them down for good?"
This is where high speed rail makes sense in ths US, replacing car traffic on maybe 300 mile or less routes.
How to get a quick choo choo in US
1. Reduce military budget by 200 billion
2. Hire Japanese and European contractors
3. Use funds to build everything. No need for private funds
4. Purchase all lands immediately.
5. Throw vast amounts of manpower and funds thus creating a local industry and providing jobs
6. Improve local public transit to increase ridership
7.???
8. Profit
Nope sorry gotta send $300 billion to Ukraine. Neither of the established political parties are good stewards of our tax money and are prone to corruption.
Why does it have to be profitable? The notion that "hurr gubmint hasta b run liek a biznis" is killing our infrastructure.
@@andyjay729because it won’t work otherwise it’s crazy. This has to be explained to you people.
@@andyjay729because that’s how they pay for it dude read a book
I'm surprised you haven't covered the Brightline in florida and California/ Nevada. In Florida, this is a prime example of how a privately owned, operated and funded hsr can look like. The one in California and Nevada is in the early stages, but is moving full speed ahead.
Good presentation
Thanks
Bob
BLW is moving full speed ahead?
I hope they build one out in West Texas, make it easier to cross the state, I'm excited for the possibilities of the future.
The problem with HSR is that the connecting cities both need to have a good rail and other public transport means because not everyone on I-45 is going from one downtown to the other and honestly their final destination could be miles away from wherever the stations connect.
It that same argument could be made against airlines. HSR is better for shorter trips like this as its stations are closer to downtowns. That said, there is nothing that is perfect. We also need smaller, slower rail connecting the small towns surrounding the stops.
I think there should a public-private venture to make Texas Central go on a continuous loop in the Texas Triangle hitting all the major metros. That would be cool if you could go to the main metros around Texas traveling mostly at 205 miles per hour.
I think you are on to something!
I hope this expands beyond Texas. The Shinkansen single-handedly makes the US feel like a third world country - it really changes your concept of transportation and urban planning
It is a third world country indeed
Excuse me , but California is actually already building the first true HSR system in the USA, not Texas.
@@mrxman581 Assuming either of them will actually be completed
Let me be clear that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world classifications were designed by the US to separate her allies from the Soviets. “3rd world” always referred to those who didn’t pick a side during the Cold War. So you’re definitely using the phrase incorrectly. If you mean to say it makes the US feel like a “poor” country then thats just an opinion thats not grounded in reality. And although transportation isn’t a problem here, statistically, perhaps we need to do some superfluous spending just for the added redundancy.
@@ahyes589 the CAHSR is already under construction and has the funding to complete the first section in the Central Valley. The Texas project is vaporware for now. That's a huge difference.
(Was initially just a reply but I wrote too much so I'll copy it here too lol). Here are some indirect benefits rural towns can benefit from the Texas high speed rail. First, lesser congestion in highway. Because of this, bulk and agricultural products from rural towns can be delivered to ports and cities much faster, thus bringing profit to farmers and other businesses bigger and faster. Next, the Texas high speed rail will be 100% electrified. This is very significant since when you reduce the number of cars that runs on the freeway, the fuel that is supposed to be used by cars can instead be used somewhere like farms and mines fueling trucks and other machinery at a cheaper price due to lower demand. Another benefit would be the significant cut in co2 emissions. Because of this, air quality will significantly improve in the rural towns due to lesser cars. If air quality improves, this usually boosts the quality and quantity of crops, and these rural towns can become major tourist destinations due to the cleanliness of air and the scenery. If folks from urban towns realize this, tourism and businesses can sprung up in these rural towns. And if that happens, they might even build infill stations in the said town to facilitate the ever-growing traffic. If you don't believe me, look up the Taiheiyō Belt of Japan, which I think is where the Texas HSR based some insights upon. The Taiheiyō Belt is an urban corridor similar to the Northeast megapolis of the US. Although you could argue that access to the ocean is a huge factor to the development, if you ask local or read data, they will say another reason, the High-speed rail line or Shinkansen. Because of this, residents of Tokyo and Osaka, 2 cities that are 500 kilometers or 310 miles, travel between the 2 cities usually occur less than 3 hours compared to a car trip of over 6 hours. It's this long because of the mountainous terrain of Japan. But look at the Texas HSR corridor, it's mostly flat, the most ideal terrain for a HSR. Who knows, the Texas HSR might even run 400 to 500 kph or 250 to 310 mph due to the idealness of the terrain.
Rural towns will benefit little without a station nearby. The train will be a nuisance to locals if it has to cross at grade, which is looking more and more likely with budget constraints. Air quality in these small towns is already good, so it is unlikely to get much better even if highway traffic is halved. These towns are already on a busy mainline interstate route, but are passed up by urbanites because they are "boring farm towns" which is true to a degree. These are farm towns that city dwellers already pass by except to refill their gas tank and high speed rail will make it even easier to leave them in the dust to crumble. I would love to see a train, but America ain't Japan and Japanese ideology cannot simply be transplanted without thorough evaluation.
Loving the in depth research and visualisation as always 😊
Let’s get it! We need this. Make it happen 😬
It's hilarious to see how many Americans fight against the improvement of their own country.
Even if you are (and forever will be) a driver, this is good for you. It will take cars off the road meaning less traffic to fight with everyday.
Remember, the very best places in the world to drive are also the best places for public transit and none of them are in the US.
You clearly haven't been to the center of the United States. There is no such thing as road congestion there. It's only in the biggest cities that road congestion happens, most people just drive. It's super convenient. You can leave when you want, you don't have to rely on a timetable, you have an easier way to transport things like groceries, there is plenty of space to park, it gives you more flexibility to move around once you get to your destination. You just won't understand it unless you try to live in the United States outside of the largest cities like Los Angeles.
Nope it’s a waste of time and money in my taxes should not pay for this or you it’s not fair
This isn’t improvement
The highspeed rail has to be intergrated with a good public transit network and carsharing
They'll probably plant the stations in giant parking lots
@@leonpaelinck atleast near to the station
Which both Dallas and Fort Worth do not have, great mass transit.
@@wonderhomie2011 they need to before worldcup begins
For those interested, the project has started back up with investors from Fort Worth (Early 2024). Now, the proposed origin of the High-Speed Rail will start in Fort Worth (Texas' largest rail passenger using city), go east to Dallas, and then head south to Houston
As someone who travels to Houston every month or so it might work. It has to be priced at a point that it is cheaper tan driving as well. It currently costs 60-70 dollars in gas to go round trip. So tickets would have to be appropriately priced. Also factor in the cost of getting from the train station to where I need to go in Houston, which is close to the hobby airport. Houston is a city designed for having a car and not having one in Houston is extremely inconvenient. This sounds like a good idea, but if its priced similarly to amtrack prices in the northeast, ill probably consider taking my car anyway out of the convenience factor when I am in Houston.
One of the biggest opponents of high speed passenger rail is the airlines. There is enough air and rail passengers to support both modes of travel, plus utilizing high speed rail for mail and package delivery will enable mail and packages to be delivered within hours with same service. Texas may not get this mode of travel for a long time due to backward thinking.
The problem is air is both faster, cheaper, and has better connectivity - you have literally more flights per day between the 4 airports than this rail line could support and it is finer much faster and at a much cheaper cost that requires no public monies while HSR always requires public subsidies.
@@cxa340 Air is fast, but the TSA isn't and is a huge pain-point for me to travel by air. Air travel is EXPENSIVE too! I already own a car and can travel 500 miles for around $30 of fuel, which blows any plane ticket for that distance out of the water! I will concede the connectivity until the atlantic ocean causeway is opened someday. Lastly, airlines get TONS of public monies, did you forget about the 2020 COVID bailouts using taxpayer money?
@avagd6293
Texas may not get this mode of travel for a long time due to backward thinking.
Oil industry lobbying is not backward thinking.
@@VintageToiletsRockabolish the TSA.
After living in Germany, Korea and visiting Japan many of times, I always wonder how are we SOOOOO behind on this type of transportation. I would literally just go to Dallas for lunch with friends and come back that some day. I know people that live in Katy that have a longer driving to work than 90 mins .
Easy because we don’t want it. It’s a waste of money read a book.
@@The_king567 what oil company you work. LOL just because you live under a rock and clearly do understand the dichotomy of public and private transportation with the governance of the citizenry
@@22cowboys I work for shell and private anything is always better then government ran anything
@@The_king567 so you do drive or fly because thats owned by the city, state and federal government right.
@@22cowboys usually yea
I'm surprised this project doesn't include additional park & ride stations. A lot of people will be going from where they live in the suburbs to the centre of the other city. That works in both directions of course so you'd have one park & ride stop about 10 to 15 miles south of Dallas and another about 10-15 miles north (or outside) of Houston. Extra stops do add time to the journey but it's not much - about 5 minutes per stop. These are particularly successful in the UK and in some cases they lead to a lot of new development around the park & ride station. I guess whoever builds the railway could cash in on that too?
The other thing I'm surpirsed at is the planned service frequency. 1 train per hour off peak? That's not enough for turn-up-and-go kind of travelling. You need at least 2/hr. If you can't fill em with enough people then make the trains shorter. Overall you'd still generate more traffic for the railway.
Great video! Love how you shared all the details of the project.
People will also take Uber or have someone drop them off at the train station. Not everybody will need to drive and park at the station. My son and I will definitely use it frequently here in Nw Houston.
No high speed rail connects two sprawling urban areas with no practical public transit. Since people will still need to drive to the train, then drive from the train to their destinations, they will simply drive the whole trip.
Houston and Dallas both need to build practical (high frequency, high density) local transit before it will be practical to use public transit to connect the two metros.
Not possible considering their areas are essentially Giant suburbias.
public transit needs actual density to be useful and logistical.
if you don't live /work/ or have places to go within the relatively small walkshed of a public transit station, its effectively useless/
Yes, traveling in countries like Japan, China, and in western Europe, i noticed that these countries not only have good high speed train networks, but they also have a compliment of subway, local, and regional trains that allows people to transfer to another train and get to another destination within the metro of the particular city in a timely manner. Dallas and Houston are huge and spread-out metro areas, and unless i am going right to the city center, there needs to be another form of transportation that I can quickly transfer to if i am going to want to use the high-speed rail. If my destination is outside the city center in another area or i am trying to visit multiple areas, Taking the Bullet train would likely not benefit me.
This is why if built. i think this project likely would not get a healthy amount of ridership. There needs to be a complementary network or transportation for this to be viable for most people.
@fatviscount6562 In Europe they have freight cars attached to the train (for major lines). Put your car on the train, have a drink and you get to destination with your car unloaded and waiting for you.
Most logical comment here. Trinity Metro is horrible while DART has some form of better transit, and the mid cities have absolutely no mass transit. This project is doomed without significant change in how DFW and Houston travel.
How about the flights between these cities? There are lots of flights between Dallas and Houston and people taking flights instead of driving would face essentially the same problem of taking train because they don't have their car in the destination city.
If flights between these cities work, can't just the same solution be applied to the case of train?
Some of the benefits to HSR is that it would allow more people to attend events in different cities. The weather related incidents at the airports are ridiculous. You get constant flight delays, then you have to wait for the planes that got stuck up in the air to land and then the delayed flights have to leave, no more pilots issues because the pilots flew to many hours or didn’t show on time if at all and the number one issue when your flight is delayed is that the airlines keep stalling you knowing full well that that flight is never going to leave and then it’s a mad scramble for everyone to have to try to find a hotel near the airport or sleep at the airport. Some people even catch rideshare to different cities to try and catch a different flight. The benefits of HSR far exceed the cons because the roads have reached their maximum limits and adding lanes are to expensive and have to be maintained and it’s pointless because they just add to the congestion and usually cost the drivers more money because you have to pay to use those extra lanes. If you could find a way to make it cost efficient you could have a direct express train and a commute train for those who would rather commute than drive farther beyond the city limits but that would have to be studied. But on the event side this would benefit both cities because their is always something going on in both cities and Dallas and Houston areas are both growing faster than any other city and HSR will be the answer to the transportation problem.
I would ride it I live in Houston and it sounds like a fun trip.
I clicked on the video because the thumbnail shows Japan's maglev, the fastest train in the world which is now under testing and ready to run from 2027!
It's ready to run, but the tunnels cannot be constructed until one of the local governments gives permission to build in a certain area. Which they have refused to do, citing concerns to water flow changes causing change to habits of local animals on the mountains. So the real timeline is 2029-2030 at best, assuming they can get the approval of said local government.
Technically, there is a small maglev route already in use in China. The only public working one right now. It goes to an airport but many people who ride it just do it for the experience. More like an amusement park ride.
@@mrxman581 there are already multiple maglevs in China, Korea, and Japan, despite none of them being high speed though
@@StarboardPitotTube As I understand it, the relatively short line that connects to an airport in China is the only one operating as public transit. There are other maglevs used for testing purposes including in Germany.
@@mrxman581 To give some examples of other operating maglev trains: Linimo in Japan, Changsha Maglev express and Shanghai Metro S1 in China, and the Incheon Airport Maglev.
San Antonio to Austin to Dallas to Houston with stops in temple, Victoria, and the bravos valley. Also a line connecting El Paso to San Antonio with a stop in San Angelo and midland.
you know why the HSR in japan was already successful by the time it started? there was already a very broad network of public transportation in every city in the toukaidou sen.
As a texan i cant wait for the rail line
The only way I see this being practical for Dallas and Houston is if they switch it to be the Dallas, Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Houston high speed rail. That would only increase its size slightly adding a bit of a outward bow shape towards the other 3 cities, but it would drastically increase potential riders. 30 billion dollars for only 2 cities is kind of insane. Even if it cost 40 billion dollars if it connected 4 major cities and 1 mid sized city with Waco it may just be worth it.
High speed rail projects, in Texas especially, need to go the extra mile and locate their stops within the urban core. The main advantage of taking HSR over flying is that you go from city center to city center, without all the airport logistics at each end of the journey. Cutting costs by putting the stations in the suburbs diminishes this and kneecaps the line's ability to compete with Southwest Airlines (who have actively opposed Texas HSR for decades) and even just driving.
I think the first step of this project should be making Houston and Dallas more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Then the funding of this mega project should come from the US government and Texas government. The biggest obstacles of this project are the car and plane lobbies.
Not trying to pick a fight but it's 106 in Dallas right now...and there's not a lot of people walking, jogging or biking...and Houston is just as hot with the added benefit of humidity and mosquitoes.
I agree with your sentiment but think that the bike lanes and walking paths would be awfully lovely places between 9AM and 9PM for half the year.
@@EskayDuro Good point! But I think the temperature can be lowered by creating more shadows by planting trees. Cities which all full of concrete are very hot in the summer time.
@@Bruh-jr2ep Yes, Sir I absolutely agree that we( Texas especially) could do a great deal more to make our cities much more livable.... unfortunately it's just too easy to move farther out into the suburbs.
@@Bruh-jr2epAgreed, but it's not and either/or option. Texas can do both things. They can fund the pedestrian improvements locally and get help from the federal government for the HSR project. Though the local funding might require raising taxes to do it.
Los Angeles city and county residents voted and approved raising the sales taxes to build a county-wide public metro rail system. The first light rail line opened in 1990 and the system continues to expand because of this funding. However, if the majority of residents don't support it, it's not going to happen.
Not really possible as the video explains both DFW and Greater Houston areas are MASSIVE especially for their populations.
They are essentially giant suburbias like the majority of other American cities/metropolitan regions.
To put their size into scale, the Greater Houston area alone is nearly twice the size of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area despite the Tokyo metropolitan area containing more people than all of Texas.
To increase their density to a significant degree their populations alone would have to grow well into the tens of millions.
Theres also the added issue of everyone wants to live in suburbia, not really a high density urban metropolis like NYC.
Great Video! Very detailed and informative
On the entire United States Eastern seaboard, I-95 suffers the same congestion troubles between Boston Massachusetts and Jacksonville Florida. A bullet line i would call, the United States Atlantic bullet line would be perfect if built from Boston Massachusetts to Jacksonville Florida. This line would move millions of americans up and down the entire United States Eastern seaboard every year. This would not only free up heavy congestion on i-95 and ease the frustrations of many who sit stranded at airports due to cancellations and delays during the holidays and travel seasons, but would also improve infrastructure and economic growth. Traveling at speeds of up to 200 to 225 plus, the Atlantic bullet line would stop in one or two cities in each state it travels through. I drive to Jacksonville Florida from Lancaster Pennsylvania every year and it takes me about 12 to 13 hours. Making the same trip in an EV would take 4 to 5 hours longer due to all the sitting times and limited range. But with this highspeed train set, i could make the 829 mile trip in just 4 to 6 hours instead of 12 to 13 hours. You damn right i would park my car and take the train, wouldn't you? Highspeed bullet train technology is something the mighty United States of America should of had decades ago and yet for decades all they ever did is talk about it. It's a shame that the country who put a man on the moon to jump around and pick up rocks at a cost of billions just has no intrest in improving infrastructure and economic growth by putting highspeed bullet train technology on the ground. Many americans who swear by electric vehicles and yet turn away the idea of obtaining highspeed bullet train technology which is also (fully electric). But California is atleast trying to make an effort to introduce highspeed bullet trains with the California highspeed rail project. I hope that one day a bullet train line will be installed in the eastern seaboard but till then, highspeed bullet trains and maglev super train technology is the new american dream. Hats off to you Japan and China and the rest of the far more advanced countries of the far east and Europe. Texas all i hear is talk. I will believe it when i see it.....
One more advice guys. New york -los Angeles 350kmh what a rentable touristic trip. That would be the roller coaster of adults and the living book to the children. 12 hours from coast to coast? Amazing. In a uniquely developed and landscaping dotted country like USA that would be the Apple(brand) of the rails .how many Americans would pay for a seat everyday? I'm telling you.
There IS NO heart of downtown in Dallas and Houston. Just like people who FLY between those two cities, they rent a car. Or car sharing companies spring up. Seriously what's more American than an entrepeneur seizing an opportunity to rent or carshare vehicles to high income business travelers. This line is SUCH a no-brainer... but maybe that's the problem... no brains.
I can't wait until this project is complete 👍😍
My only issue with the rail, is ok it saves me about 1.5-2hours compared to driving, but now I am in another city with no car, and don’t expect me to want to bus around or pay more $$$ for Uber’s everywhere…
They’re gonna build more transit around each city if a successful high speed rail opens
From a convenience standpoint, The proposal is screwed up. In it's current passenger only configuration, it will never be built.
So would the train be called the Shinktexan?
It'd probably end up being called the bullet train, that's what HSRs are usually known as
While many of the new hsr-networks around the US sound great, I fear that because literally every state has a different system, the network will be a nightmare to combine into a national network...
Yeah. It should really be a federal effort just like the interstate highway system was.
i wonder why US govt doesn't build railways ????
@@Ishantyagiofficialit’s stupid, dumb, expensive and not wanted
@@BrandtAbsoluno it shouldn’t
@@Ishantyagiofficialthey shouldn’t
Their biggest problem outside of the legal challenges was funding. They struggled to raise anywhere near what they needed after the court battles started. The other problem is transportation connections in the destination cities: I think it would have a better chance in another decade or so, if transportation networks within Dallas and Houston are improved
As someone who lives in Houston and takes I-45 to Oklahoma a few times a year, I have never made the drive in less than four hours.
The United States as a whole is so far behind on getting High Speed Rails as an option to travel instead of by plane or car. It's a multi-trillion dollar project that needs to happen and it would significantly reduce the need to drive everywhere if you knew that it would cut the times in half that way and there's always someone who will give you an Uber drive somewhere or a bus ride to the general area of choice.
hoping it soon becomes a Reality nationwide & part of greater AMTRAK system
One minor detail.... Texas TGV was killed by the airlines...
I love how the state government won't give any money to hsr as they think that rail will only work if privately funded, yet just approved 85 billion in state PUBLIC funds towards roads.
Probably because people like good roads before they care about good trains.
If they even manage to break ground on a high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston by 2026 I'll be shocked.
I hope it gets done someday I enjoyed it.
The stations need to be downtown and a high populated suburb on the way
Nice, I love me some good high quality japanese rails
Next up: Fort Worth - Waco - Austin - San Antonio - Corpus Christi - Brownsville?
We are like 40 years behind on our trains 😅
Just get it done Texas👍
I love the initiative but I feel the bullet train will soon be obsolete, why not go all the way and develop a mag lev system, or even a hyper loop type of transport?
It's all good until a tornado outbreak runs across the line & destroys it.
You know what's insane? I graduate from college in oklahoma RIGHT BEFORE THIS SHIT OPENS. im from houston so i couldve easily used this thing to go home for a long weekend. A 4 hour drive to dallas is nothing if i get to avoid i45. Albiet dallas would still be a pain in the ass but id have to go through it anyway.
The Texas Triangle will be here one day mark my words.
Things I want in the Texas high speed rail system:
-Destinations to Austin, San Antonio, Galveston, Corpus Cristi, etc.
-All stations must have Bucc-EE’s.
Can’t agree anymore with that I also think a line connecting El Paso and San Antonio would be really good with a stop in San Angelo.
@@ianbrown2326 Imagine college football season if Texas has high speed rail terminals in every college town in the state including the major cities.
I think the first step before this is to build a railway infrastructure within the cities first which would benefit the cities a ton anyway then connect the two cities and then repeat with the other big cities in America and connect them all via high-speed rail
It's pretty sad how such a rich place depends on benevolent corporations to invest and build what should be public transit.
California hsr is at least being built. This is just really quiet V and weird right now
seeing a Shinkansen in Texas would make me ridiculously giddy. how cool would that be? like holy shit! I grew up in the Dallas area and I would definitely go back to visit and take the mo'fuckn Texas Shinkansen, yee haw (even if it's to stinky Houston lol)! I hope I get to see a decent U.S. Shinkansen network in my lifetime.
Why is building high-speed rail so expensive in the US? In Western Europe or Asia they're building high-speed rail networks for a couple billion that cover the vast amount of their countries. I can understand the US being more expensive by a few billion. Workers here make more, corps here want bigger profits, and this is privately funded and not state-owned. But it's so baffling how infrastructure in the US is 10-20x more expensive, the work isn't state of the art, and the completion times are horrendous. What exactly is inflating the cost so damn much?
You don’t know what you’re talking about they are massively expensive to build in Asia and Europe read a book they’re not profitable. Most of the world doesn’t have them for a reason.
(1) I think it would be good to develop a high-speed railroad in the United States with a yen loan (guarantor is the US government).
(2) If the United States introduces Japanese high-speed railroads (Shinkansen, Linear Shinkansen) and Japan purchases American fighter planes, planes, missiles, and resources, I think it will circulate.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Indonesia has built the world's first high-speed railway established in the Southern Hemisphere, named Whoosh!
Top speed of 220 mph on an 88 mile route costing $7.3 B. Built in 7 years with 4 stations and perhaps the beginning of an eventual 500 mile route from Jakarta to Surabaya.
It will never happen. They have talked about a HSR between San Antonio and Dallas, then Dallas-Houston, then Houston-San Antonio for 25 years. Every time everyone gets excited and the proposed route is announced. SA to DFW with a stop in Austin, Waco and Temple… then every small town along the way gets upset on why they don’t get a stop. After explaining a train that goes 120+ mph needs 5 miles to get up to speed and 5+ miles to slow down the train can’t stop every 15 miles and still be efficient. Plus with SouthWest Airlines having $49 flights between the three city pairs the train would need to be faster than 2.5 hours and $49 to be worth it.
The problem: you’re in the destination city, you don’t have a car, public transit isn’t very good. Do you start wishing you’d just driven your car there?
I’m walking distance from one of the new sections of Brightline tracks in Florida, a bit south of Stuart. I have to cross the tracks to get to most things. There are no plans for there to be a Brightline station within 30 miles of me.
Say I want to go to Orlando or Miami by train. Will Brightline provide bus service to the two stations nearest me? (It might help if they do.)
It’s the lack of other infrastructure that has me skeptical about these ventures. In my case, Brightline doesn’t seem to want my business, and I’m dubious about how to get around at my destination.
Even with the mass transit, few will use it because mass transit in the US is a crime magnet, attracting undesirable people and the socially violent. No sane person is going to subject themselves to that.
The main problem I see is when you get to Houston, at the current destination, you will be dropped off on the most congested highway in the state of Texas. There is no local train connection there and the buses are horrible here. The buses and trains are only available in the city limits of Houston and suburban areas they are unavailable. The intersection is where Hwy 610, IH 10, Hwy 290, Hwy 59, IH 45 all come together. The majority of population lives in the suburbs and where I live it would take an hour to get to that location from where I live. But then again I would have to cross the train tracks somewhere along the way and I’m not sure if that would add additional time to my commute to that location. I’m sure the car rental businesses will be thrilled to have new a new location to open in. They brag about no security checks to get on train. In Texas, that is just inviting our mentally unstable population to go kill a large group of people. Trapped on a train going 200mph would be easy pickings for someone wanting to kill a large group of people. In Texas, as you know, we love our guns and anyone can buy them here. No where in Texas is it really safe anymore. Shootings at schools, malls, workplaces, etc.. are common here. One thing to note IH 45 is not the only way to Dallas. Most of the traffic on IH 45 is 18 wheeler trucks traveling out of the port located in Houston that’s why I never travel on IH 45. I’ve ridden on high speed trains in other countries but population density there is considerably higher than in Texas with additional stops not just one in the middle of nowhere. Huntsville has 7 prison units with a population larger the town itself. College Station is an hour away and so you will need some way to get back and forth. By the time this thing ever gets built I think $30 billion is a low bid.
Sorry guys ...is this a Texan pranks ? 😂😂😂😂😅😅😅😅
It’s interesting it’s privately funded. It’s good in a sense that they will likely be more efficient, make less useless stops, and built much faster. However, high speed rail isn’t traditionally a profit making business, it’s more of a utility like a highway. A lot of routes do not make money. I wonder if ticket prices will therefore be quite high.
Privet companies are in no way "more efficient" and in the world there are plenty of supper efficient huge construction project built by governments.
The Madrid Barcelona high speed line, built bybthe governments, is 620km (38tmi) direct and 645km (400mi) with side tracks ( to enable fast direct trains bypassing cities and side tracks to get into the center of those cities on part of the trips. The total cost was 9B€ (~10B$) even with adjustment to inflation it's still low.
For their profit model I assume that they will try to do something similar to Brightline and get the majority of their profit of real estate near the stations. Though I wonder how they will do that with few stations.
A state owned railway doesn't need to make money. It is a service you pay for with your taxes. No one is asking highways to turn a profit, quite the opposite. They cost huge amounts to buy and maintain as well. Maintenance cost of a rail network is much, much lower per passenger compared to highways.
But this being a private company fucks with that logic, as the profit-motive gets in the way.
@@AL5520I mean Japan high speed rail is really profitable because they treat it like real estate. Brightline is also doing this.
People forget this that passengers rail used to be proftible, but they government out so many regulations that made it unprofitable.
@@AL5520he’s talking about the United States, home of light rail lines easily costing 500 million dollars a mile. For whatever reason, governments within the US are horrific at building rail at any reasonable cost
They have been talking about this for the last three decades since I've been living in Texas. Sounds like a good proposal, but I doubt we will even see this by 2030.
The population figures for Dallas and Houston metro areas are totally jacked up and turned around. Dallas is number 4, and Houston number 5, and both are listed as considerably smaller than they actually are. The same situation in rankings as of 2022 for Atlanta and Miami are the same, with Atlanta the larger of the two, according to 2022 estimates. This video was posted two weeks ago, and these population figures look to be from 2010 or possibly even 2000.
I live just outside of Dallas County. This is the first time I've heard about the plan. It must b e a secret.
They should have trains that carry boarded automobiles
I’d pay extra for that
Let me know when they break ground and actually start building.... I have heard about this for ten years now.... I am still waiting. I used to live in Kansas City. They started talking about light rail back in the 1970s. They finally after 50 years have a 2 mile stretch open. They are adding another five miles within 2 years. Let me know when it is finished. The US is so backward when it comes to rail transportation as compared to the rest of the world.
I've heard some idea of a future branch from Brazoa valley to Austin and San Antonio. I also wonder if there could be a future extension from Dallas to Ft. Worth to connect with the existing Amtrak line (which is pathetic, but perhaps with some more connections, it could be improved in the future.)
I wish it connects Dallas - Austin- San Antonio- Houston.
The French just got on with the job. No greedy lawyers! The sparsely populated regions of France are similar to Texas. But you don't have public transport infrastructure at either city. Urban America was born on the car.
Tecas megalopolis gona be huge like tokyo eventually
I was with you until "km" and "kph". What is this gibberish - every American watching this
Yeah, every Brit colony has problems writing "km/h".
We are hopeful that this project will be successful, but our only concern is traffic in the cities. Even if HSR is completed, there will be traffic congestion in the city if all traffic beyond it is by car.
On the other hand, public transportation in Dallas and Houston is poor compared to the rest of the countries where HSRs are located. Considering the population size of both cities, the development of a subway or elevated rail system should be considered.
It will be another 10 years before it even gets built, it won’t be open for riders before 2035
HSR is supposed to connect cities yet they skipped over Waco, College Station, Bryan and Waxahachie just to save maybe ~5 miles on the route from Dallas to Houston. This is why I can’t take all these new HSR proposals in the US seriously, they always just focus on linking points A and B and ignore C through Z, which would basically destine them to failure if they were to get built
Very cool. One question: @6:52, how would this high speed train "drastically upgrade Texas's Amtrak railway infrastructure?" It would seem to replace it, no?
You would think the airlines have hourly shuttles the way Eastern Airlines did to LGA, DCA and BOS? $30B is a huge amount money for one project.
The problem is the way infrastructure is funded in the USA. In most countries around the world the government funds and builds infrastructure. It simply happens unlike in the USA which is filled with half finished projects and lots of empty talk.
Agreed. The funding schemes in the USA is broken and inefficient. And underfunded on top of it
Meanwhile, china has 25,000 miles of high speed rail, and the USA has ZERO. China is the same size, and way more geographically challenging.
I thought america was rich though, but when it comes to construction it suddenly becomes "too expensive" or "too big".
America is a laughing stock
@@hemihem In some ways the USA might be a laughing stock but it's still better than living in a Communist country like China that controls it's people by censoring the internet and punishing anyone who criticizes the Communist government. Or lying to the world about Covid and not being transparent resulting in millions of deaths around the world. That's on China's government. That's not laughable, that's criminal and shameful!
@@hemihem China has money, but the people are all rather poor. So they don't have the money to move around in something like a car and instead rely on motorcycles and trains. It's because of the wealth of Americans, combined with all of the space they have to spread out, plus the importance of private ownership of property (a concept that doesn't exist in China).
Do you know that’s not a good thing right government should not fund infrastructure I’m amazed this has to be explained do you people not know history you clearly don’t
I'll eat my hat if this project completes before 2040.