high speed rail in Texas: $30-BILLION COST

WAXAHACHIE – There are two sides to every story. 

The momentum in Ellis County seems to be turning its back on the high-speed rail question.

According to Kyle Workman, chairman and president of Texas Against High Speed Rail, “This project’s cost estimate is now at $30-billion.

“The company has laid off the majority of its staff and still does not have the plans, permits or funds to move forward, so this project is far from shovel-ready as they claim.”

In a release issued late last month by TAHSR, the final environmental impact statement of the project has been released by the Federal Railroad Administration and that could be an impetus to move the project forward.

However, the impact study alone is not a greenlight to begin to construct or operate the project. 

Workman said about the statement, “This is not a done deal. 

“There are still many obstacles the project must overcome; namely, the Texas Supreme Court appeal of the Miles case regarding the company’s eminent domain status, raising $30-billion for a project that is embattled with legal and land acquisition issues, and the Surface Transportation Board’s lack of jurisdiction that would provide the otherwise absent regulatory framework needed to make this project possible, just to name a few.” 
In the coming days, Texans Against HSR’s legal teams, landowners, and experts will be reviewing the 10,000-page document to identify all the errors, omissions, and areas of concern to be submitted to the FRA.

Earlier in May, Texans Against High Speed Rail lost a battle down south in regard to the Miles case (landowners wanting to keep their land) when what was defined as a “dangerous eminent domain precedence” passed in court regarding ranch land in the path of the rail line.

While the ruling was not the outcome expected, the companies involved with the High-Speed Rail in Texas cannot access or condemn property, and some landowners are appealing the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, the release said.

Blake Beckham, attorney and Special Litigation Counsel to Texans Against HSR said, “If ever there was a ruling that created ‘The Wild, Wild, West’ of eminent domain authority, this is it. 

“This ruling creates a dangerous precedent that would allow anybody with $300 and a computer to immediately obtain the extraordinary power of eminent domain by simply filing papers with the Texas Secretary of State self-declaring to be a railroad. 

“This is not and cannot be the law in Texas.”

Workman concluded, “We are disappointed the Court of Appeals treated these fundamental private property rights, cherished by all Texans, with such disregard.”