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President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking to revive a project that would construct a high-speed railway from Houston to Dallas in Texas utilizing Japanese bullet trains.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing unnamed administration sources, the White House is looking to make an announcement on the project following talks between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington, D.C., this week.
The Japanese government and the White House declined to comment on the report, though the project has seen renewed support from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told KXAS in Fort Worth on Sunday: “We believe in this.”
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A bullet train? in my Texas?! That sounds like some east coast liberal anti-car woke socialism!!
We dont want none of that hippy dippy liberty stealing foreigner mass transit in our glorious state!
/s for the oblivious
But it has the word bullet right in it. Sounds like you’re anti gun. Why do you hate freedom?
Mount a gun on it and you got a deal.
I demand steer horns.
Steer Horns that shoot bullets out of the ends.
I just want to see their faces, when they realise, that Bullet is NOT that bullet they thought…
Gregg Abbott in a few weeks: “Trains?! Sounds like trans… No thanks, Biden!”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-bullet-train-abbott/
This fall (December 3, 2020), the project received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration, and Governor Greg Abbott wrote a letter to the Japanese government, a key investor in the project, voicing his support. The potential benefits of the rail seemed manifold. It would offer travelers a ninety-minute alternative to the four-hour drive between Dallas and Houston and relieve highway congestion that’s projected to double by 2035. It would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And it would create thousands of high-paying jobs at a time when Texas is suffering from both a pandemic-related recession and an oil-price bust.
“The Texas High-Speed Train will be the first truly high-speed train in Texas and the United States, connecting North Texas, Houston and the Brazos Valley in less than 90 minutes, using the safest, most accessible, most efficient and environmentally friendly mass transportation system in the world today,” Texas Central spokesperson Erin Ragsdale wrote in a statement.
Abbott’s letter, however, sparked a firestorm among some of his longtime supporters. Even before the governor expressed support for the rail project, Meier said, her circle of friends had become increasingly wary of him because they believed he was pandering to liberal interests by imposing restrictions on some businesses during the early days of the pandemic. “I was the only one I know of that was still basically supporting him,” Meier said. “If he continues to support the [train], he will not get my vote, and I will passionately spread the word.”
Four days after Abbott penned his letter, his staff walked back his support, telling the Dallas Morning News that the governor intended to reevaluate his position out of concern for Texans’ property rights and because he was provided with “incomplete” information about the project.
Dude has been all over the map, chasing whichever way popular opinion has been blowing.
The only thing certain about conservatives is they will always make the worst possible choice. Always.
It could be that transforming the land value of an couple of abandoned malls into a hot property for developers will ultimately win Abbott over. There’s a lot of money that Texas routinely leaves on the table for ideological reasons, and as the domestic market cools off we’re seeing more push back from the business wing of the party to do real actual infrastructure projects rather than just squeezing rents out of the existing stock.
I could see that. Although, I do wonder when the party will be too far gone for the corporate billionaires to have any control left.
If you consider folks like Musk and Gates to be the modern corporate Pied Pipers, I might argue that it’s their increased control that’s driving people crazy
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I’m so fucking skeptical of this happening though. I hope it does get through.
No New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago though right? Only the Terrible people of Texas?
Give me Seattle to Atlanta!
Houston and Dallas are blue enclaves you absolute dip. The people who live in those cities contain almost all the good people of Texas. Austin too. “The terrible people of Texas” so all the people of texas who aren’t Republican are just nothing to you? This is a huge state with a ton of diversity in culture and opinion. The Texas GOVERNMENT is full of terrible people, and there’s enough terrible people to vote them in, but not every Texan I’d automatically terrible. An absolutely massive portion of us hate what’s happened to our beautiful state.
Yeah well I want a god damn bullet train in Michigan so fuck Texas.
Yeah I don’t hate it because of where it is, though I do think that because of the state it’s in it will disproportionately favor certain people. But I’d rather the East Coast-Midwest line largely for its practicality. Once we’ve got NYC-Chicago you’re never getting rid of that shit if it’s good. And it could be more easily expanded than the texas route
Living in Austin has taught me that the bluest Texans are still redder then most Democrats
The Acela exists at least. Toronto Detroit Chicago should be a thing. Vancouver Seattle Portland should also be a thing, among other corridors.
At least the Texas one seems a cheaper easy to build, populated corridor, that if its made, should set the stage.
With Texas’ hardon against regulations I forsee this having a massive derailment within two decades of it opening.
Hope that isn’t the case, because we do need better mass transit.
Eh maybe. Usually the calls for deregulation are sponsored by the industry giants. So due to there not being a strong passenger rail lobby yet, I can see the regulation being fine. Once someone is trying to get rich then the derailments will start.
Texas conservatives are notoriously anti-regulation now, after decades of being paid to build that platform. There will be as few regulations as possible (with or without a lobby); that is a guarantee.
Texas figured it out?
Texas?
Yeah, this is a real low point. This one hurts.
No one else got your Good Place reference so I just wanted to say, have some frozen yoghurt.
Biden shouldn’t be doing shit for Texas. He should try push this mainstream across the country. But Texas wants to secede Abbott probably find away to make this not happen anyway and funds will be stolen and wasted.
Umm. Not really, it’s because Amtrak is involved now in Texas and the Build Back Better Act has sent money for several projects not just Houston to Dallas. Cali HSR, Las Vegas to LAX, Orlando to Tampa, Seatle-Tahcoma-Portland, and Atlanta to Charlotte all got funds. All these projects (with the exception of Cali) are using federal/private funds, so state governors can’t really pull the plug (Cali HSR is a constitutionally mandated project approved by the voters of the state… to use state funds).
They had to use > bullet> train to get them onboard.
so you just shoot the train? I gotta see this gun!
Maybe it’s a diesel bullet train and they’re “running coal”?
So I mentioned the odd dichotomy that Texas has in another post
Hey, trust me, I know how this shit goes. I’m in Kansas.
Yeah, not going to happen. Most projects of this size are dead in arrival, even if faintly realistic at the start.
How about you just start with good rail infrastructure and upgrade and improve there? So many more gains for a fraction of the cost.
NRA did not do their homework with this one…
Greg Abbott is not about to let this dope idea happen. Ain’t no way.
Why not do it from NYC to WDC?
There’s a lot less stuff in the way in Texas
California has been trying to build a bullet train from LA to SF for decades. Would love to see them get some help with it.
I wish. That would serve the most people, and we clearly want it the most. However, the estimated costs for that were so far into the $100Bs, that you might use $T.
They’re taking a path of continuous improvement so we get slightly better every year, without ridiculously huge project costs. It’s probably not the best way of doing things, but at least we have useable service.
One of the proposed upcoming projects is to re-route Acela inland through Connecticut. While it’s great that the regionals provide service to all those coast towns, there’s just no way of straightening the curves, or raising speeds. If that happens, we’ll see the express on different tracks than regional. It’ll be interesting to see how that works and who screams
Yeah but when someone revisits this in 5 years it will cost more…
I really don’t think cost should come into doing something like this. What’s the cost of NOT doing it? My whole life I’ve heard people along the East Coast wanting it. It’s one of the richest regions and has the one of the predicted greatest benefits in the country. If you are going to start making high speed rail why not make it where it’s useful?
but when someone revisits this in 5 years it will cost more
Decades. There are decades worth of improvement projects
Sure, you don’t have to convince me. You probably don’t need to convince most lemmings. But we don’t control the money.
Acela already is successful. It’s in high demand, regularly takes tens of thousand of drivers off the road, greatly reduces airline shuttle flights, and I believe is the only part of Amtrak that is profitable. Imagine what it could do if it could meet demand! Imagine how much more in demand it would be if it were high speed rail!
The current piecemeal approach is probably the least efficient way to do it, plus it will never actually be high speed - it’s merely what the politicians were able to do
Because all the politicians from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey will demand that their cities be included on the stops, and cutting into the efficiency of the whole project.
And all the landowners in between would have to be paid off at market rates for that land, so it’d be much more expensive on that front.
The year is 2008 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
The year is 2016 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
The year is 2024 and Texas residents are being promised a bullet train.
I’d prefer some other state to get it than Texas. If Texas is going to deny federal money for unemployment and for healthcare, then Texas doesn’t deserve federal money for other good projects.
And this is coming from someone in Texas who would benefit from it.
Texas GOP governor Greg Abbott has told state employees to try to avoid federal money because it might come with strings that require treating non rich and non whites as human.
Remember when Greg Abbott had a tantrum and basically shut down the Texas-Mexico border to most road traffic and fucked over all the rest of the US who was depending on products to come from Mexico?
Let Texas feel what it would be like to secede.
At the same time HSR could encourage social lives and urban neighborhoods that would encourage less conservative thinking. I think if we get into petty partisanship, it will just continue to spiral until we have a second civil war.
until we have a second civil war.
Please, no more… I can only get so erect.
Conservatism is a fucking scourge. We need to finish the job this time.
Are you really arguing for armed conflict in the United States?
Edit: a word
I am not. But since conservatives have been champing at the bit for years to severely oppress or exterminate the normal people, and since they give the normal people no choice in the matter but to defend our existence, the threat needs to be proactively stopped to minimize the loss of life.
I didn’t decide to be their enemy. In fact, I have turned the other cheek and politely ignored their aggression and threats for decades. And still, conservatives have decided that normal people are their enemy, despite us just trying to live our lives peacefully.
Throughout history, conservatives have always oppressed and killed their nation’s most vulnerable, peaceful people. That’s just who conservatives are at their core. What we are seeing today is that same story playing out again. Unchecked conservatism is loudly warning the normal people that it is coming for us. And conservatives are acting on those threats.
So, seeing what fate awaits me, and being told by them for a lifetime that I am their enemy, there seems to be no choice but to embrace the fight to have a chance to survive.
Fuck conservatives. They are doing this. They insist that the quiet, peaceful, thoughtful, vulnerable, normal people are their enemy. They did this and they have earned any ounce of pain their fight causes them. I only hope the other normal people will stand up and resist them as well. The fight is already under way. Most are just pretending everything is going to be OK. That’s deadly complacency for rest of us. Action is needed. Now.
So… you are advocating for a civil war. Just one that “your side” wins completely, this time. As if that’s a real possibility.
What action are you referring to, that you want from normal people?
I’m not advocating for it. I’m anticipating what conservatives have been demanding since the last one. The action I refer to is whatever is necessary to stop the threat.
I am not speaking a mysterious language here. You are “just asking questions” in a bad faith effort to search for some kind of gotcha moment. If history is our guide, the widespread stochastic terrorism and lynchings that will be at the heart of this new war, if it happens, will come from the right, not the left.
Conservatism is a plague of oppression and death. It always has been. We either marginalize it now or experience the violence that comes from unchecked conservatism.
Ok, I’ll just say it: calling for any kind of civil war is fucking stupid. And you’re saying you’re hard for one. Fuck you first wanting to kill people, you weird person.
That’s all I’m saying, no gotcha moment, you did that to yourself in the first fucking post. I agree with you about reactionaries, they’re a scourge. But fuck you for wanting them dead wholesale, which is your obvious call.
You really think the side which worships guns and survival would lose to the side with empathy?
I’m terrified of a second civil war because I know it means not just my own death, but the death of rational thought in the US.
We won last time. We didn’t finish the job, so they have been working toward a rematch ever since.
Yes they have. And we haven’t.
Both sides of the last one thought it would be over in one battle, and both sides believe the same thing again. I have terrible news how the first one went for both sides.
While I agree that Texas is not the most “deserving,” if it gets rapidly improving infrastructure it will probably at least flip into a swing state, with more liberals than fascists. “Punishing” them just lets them play victim.
I wish they were more than playing sometimes. If they’re going to claim persecution then we should persecute them a little.
is accelerationism everywhere now? just let a single good thing happen geez
Dallas? Nobody in Houston wants to go to fucking Dallas.
Hah! Nice one
In all seriousness, the two cities do a ton of business together. Dallas is the state’s financial capital and Houston is its largest port and energy export terminal. The air travel between these cities runs every 30 minutes from sun up to sun down, with a few overnights to boot, completely maxed out. And I-45 is a clogged bowel of a highway during every major holiday and sports event.
Yeah, it’s a fair cop. I’m sure the train would see plenty of use. It’s just that I’ve lived in and around Houston for a plurality of my life, and the only thing that really makes me feel connected to my fellow Houstonians is a shared, exaggerated disdain for Dallas.
I always thought thing that really brought Houstonians together was rodeo and bbq.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don’t care about those things, or sports. Not many other things come to mind that Houston broadly agrees on.
I don’t care about those things
I can’t imagine why you’d be more invested in hating Dallas than eating brisket or going to the closest thing we’ve got to an amusement park since AstroWorld closed.
Not many other things come to mind that Houston broadly agrees on.
We all hate trains for some reason. But like bikes? Its a bit confused, I’ll admit.
I’m not invested in it at all; it’s supposed to be funny. And I’m not hostile to the rodeo, it’s just never appealed to me. Honestly, I don’t know that you’d get broad consensus on any of this stuff across greater Houston— excepting support for local sports teams—it’s pretty heterogenous. Then again, what do I know; I just live here, I’ve never really felt like part of the community. That’s kind of the point!
Honestly, I don’t know that you’d get broad consensus on any of this stuff across greater Houston
You definitely create a bunch of traffic around NRG.
excepting support for local sports teams—it’s pretty heterogenous
There’s definitely a Houston food culture, particularly with the intersection of East Asian and Creole. I had a bowl of crawfish etouffee Ramen Noodles at Tatsuya that I challenge you to find anywhere else. Houston is definitely a blended culture, but I wouldn’t call it heterogenous. The old 80s-era red lines have run thin and the appeal of cheap real estate has done more than just toss the city’s salad.
I just live here, I’ve never really felt like part of the community.
Maybe I get a different perspective living inside 610. Maybe COVID refreshed my outlook on my neighborhood. Maybe ten years in the same spot just gave me a chance to meld with my neighbors. But I definitely vibe with my neighbors more than I did out in Sugar Land or even on campus in Austin.
When I run into people at the park or in the tunnels that I recognize, despite being a a city of several million, it feels like a smaller town than it is.
Lol my wife is from DFW and the first thing she said was “why the fuck would anyone want to go to Houston?”
Texas cities (like most in US, but TX seem on another level) are car centric urban sprawl. Nobody really wants to go to any of them for the city itself. We might go to the Dallas Zoo, or Dallas art gallery (both are nice), but not “Dallas”.
I do enjoy going to “London” or “Paris”.
London is so small though, the gas station isn’t even open much - better to drive to Junction. At least Paris is the County Government.
The Fort Worth zoo is so much better than the Dallas zoo.
Agreed. A bunch of loud, dangerous vehicles taking up the majority of public space with their lifeless, hard infrastructure while polluting the air and filling our brains with micro plastics.
Just three or four decades after the rest of the civilized world! Yeah!
