DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- The Federal Railroad Administration gave its final approval for a high speed bullet train between Dallas and Houston.
The FRA approved framework and safety requirements for this high-speed rail system and the official environmental approval, which will select the path of which the bullet train will follow between Dallas and Houston.
Developer, Texas Central Railroad CEO Carlos Aguilar said the project is privately funded and will be modeled after Japan’s high speed bullet train.
“This is the moment we have been working towards,” said Aguilar. “The release of the final RPA and ROD by the Federal Railroad Administration represents years of work by countless individuals, affirming a very thorough and careful federal regulatory process that will make the Texas Central Railroad the first high-speed rail system to be implemented in the United States.”
Aguilar said in just 90 minutes, passengers will be able to get to and from Houston and they are working to get that number down to under 80 minutes.
He said it will be safe, cost friendly and have a huge economic impact for the region.
“I-45 was rated the most dangerous highway in the country by Popular Mechanics just about a month ago…By having this train, this will provide an option for travelers and will take some cars off the road,” said Aguilar. “I firmly believe this will save lives because this is the safest rail system in the world that we are bringing to Texas.”
Aguilar said in 56 years of operation in Japan, there was no accidents and no fatalities with over 10 billion people transported.
According to Texas Central this project will create more than 17,000 direct jobs during the six years of construction and over 20,000 supply chain jobs.
It will also have over $10 billion dollars in immediate economic impact across the U.S. and will inject an estimated $36 billion in economic benefits over its first 25 years.
“We need new opportunities to recover from the Coronavirus Pandemic quickly and the fact that we can provide up to 17,000 jobs in a very short time frame will be very beneficial for that,” he said.
Aguilar said once in operation, the train will cost less than airline fares.”It will be dynamic pricing for business and leisure travelers and may cost anywhere between under $100 to a couple hundred or more for business travelers,” he said.
Construction is set to begin in the beginning of 2021 and will take about 6 years to construct.
