The Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition got an update Wednesday on a proposed high-speed rail route connecting Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth.
A high-speed rail line connecting Dallas to Houston, being put together by Central Texas Railway, has been talked about for a number of years and currently faces some legal battles with opponents and the eminent domain being used to secure its route.
The DFW high-speed route is being planned by local governments, including the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and the counties of Dallas and Tarrant.
Bill Meadows is the chairman of the Commission for High-Speed Rail in Dallas-Fort Worth.
He provided the coalition with an update on where things stand, most notably highlighting meetings with federal transportation and rail authorities in Washington D.C. late last year.
The irony of high-speed rail is that it is a slow moving process to take from dream to reality. In March of this year the DFW line began seeking private sector proposals for the planned line.
Routes are currently being analyzed and could be picked by the end of the year or in 2017.
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The Dallas to Arlington to Fort Worth route would tie-in to the Houston line, creating a system of high-speed rail. It’s something Meadows said is important to the region’s transportation needs.
“I think people recognize the importance of some alternatives as we begin to recognize that our effort to continue to build roadway infrastructure is not going to meet the demands of the Texas in 2030 or 2040,” Meadows said.
Meadows told the coalition you have to believe in these projects and work on the next steps to make it a reality one day. He highlighted the decades long desire to build what is now the Chisholm Trail Parkway in Tarrant County.
Currently a local government corporation is being developed by the partners on the DFW line. That corporation would put the local project together.
The local entities are also working on a memorandum of understanding with Central Texas Railway. Meadows said it’s critical to that line to have the two million or so residents on the western edge of the Metroplex to have access to it.
A forum on high-speed rail in DFW is slated to take place later this summer.
Meadows said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is supportive of the line because it is a local or regional initiative, not a state or federally created transportation network.
