Dallas leaders returned this week from a trade mission to Asia with extra praise for the bullet train technology proposed for a link between Dallas and Houston.
Mayor Mike Rawlings and other North Texas leaders rode the high-speed trains in Japan and Taiwan.
“We get this done between Dallas and Houston, it will be a game changer for the state of Texas,” Rawlings said.
At the same time, some southern Dallas neighbors question the benefit of high-speed rail that’s planned to cross their neighborhoods with no stops.
“It’s coming through our community and it’s coming too close to our community,” said Highland Hills Neighborhood Activist Clara McDade.
The proposed route for the elevated railway runs along an existing ground level railroad track, part of it beside Interstate 45.
The Dallas City Council received briefings on the Texas Central Railway plans earlier this year.
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It could be within sight of McDade’s home near Simpson Stuart Road and Paul Quinn College, but she only found out Tuesday.
“Are they going to put some noise barrier there or what are they going to do?,” she asked. “We have not got those questions answered as of yet. But as of today, I am pushing this forward and I’m going to get the neighbors involved.”
McDade’s neighborhood City Councilman Erik Wilson met the North Texas delegation in Taiwan to ride on the high-speed train there last week.
“It is nothing like a freight train that you know today, [with the] loud horns and the loud rumbling. This train is actually really smooth. It is even quieter than a DART bus going by,” Wilson said.
The councilman said he saw homes in Taiwan much closer to the high-speed rail line than they would be in Dallas. He said the new travel option would be a benefit to everyone.
“It’s going to be helpful for the entire city,” Wilson said.
Rawlings said he was very impressed with the changes he witnessed in Taiwan and Japan as the result of high-speed rail.
“Anybody who would see this would be very, very covetous of the project for the state of Texas,” Rawlings said.
McDade said a southern Dallas high-speed rail stop could serve Paul Quinn College and benefit the community. But planners say more stops would slow the trip to Houston and only a single downtown Dallas high-speed rail station is planned.
“If it’s not going to do anything for us. Why should we put up with that?,” asked McDade.
Opponents elsewhere along the path to Houston have the same complaint. They want to stop the high-speed rail project in the Texas Legislature next year.
Central Texas Railway plans to raise around $15 billion from entirely private sources with no tax support and have service running by 2022.
