“Unfortunately, we are five years in and I can see five more years,” said Kyle Workman, president of Texans Against High-Speed Rail.
At a Wednesday night town hall organized by the group and attended by local and state officials along with U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, elected leaders promised the crowd a fight starting in Washington, where regulators are expected to release safety requirements for high-speed trains and consider whether the Texas Central project is a federally-recognized railroad.
“After we stop them again in Washington, this battle shifts back to Texas,” Brady told the crowd of landowners, mostly from Grimes, Montgomery, Waller, Harris and Madison counties.
Texas Central aims to develop a 240-mile sealed rail corridor from south of downtown Dallas to near Loop 610 and U.S. 290. The path travels along a utility corridor through 11 rural counties, where thousands of residents vigorously oppose the train. Critics have called the project, expected to cost $15 billion or more, a boondoggle that will require a taxpayer bailout while using eminent domain to steal land that has been owned by families for decades.
“We are not going to let our taxpayers get on the hook for this project,” Brady told the crowd.
Texas Central officials have said they may seek federal loans open to any railroad, but will not proceed unless they have the private financing necessary. The company plans to use Japanese Shinkansen trains to operate the service, which also opens the door to investment from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation that funds the export of Japanese technology to other countries.
In a statement, Texas Central said it remains committed to the project, noting the support of more than 100 groups and organizations.
“It is not surprising that those few detractors would also attempt to be vocal as progress is being made,” the company said.
Critics, however, say the opposition is far larger than the company claims, noting its own events draw hundreds of residents, just as the Trans-Texas Corridor did 15 years ago. State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, championed the fight against the massive freeway and utility line project from 2003 to 2010 that would have developed 1,200-foot corridors of tollways, railroad tracks and utility lines to speed commerce around Texas’ metro areas through rural lands. She said many of those same Navasota-area people were in the crowd this week.
Kolkhorst reminded them to make their voices heard.
“The power comes from the people to the government, not the other way around,” she said.
©2020 the Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
