USA: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has cancelled a $63·9m Federal Railroad Administration grant awarded to Amtrak under the Corridor Identification & Development programme for the Amtrak Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor.
Previously known as the Texas Central Railway project, the proposed 350 km/h line running 390 km from Dallas to Houston was originally envisaged as a purely private sector venture.
Texas Central has been co-operating with Amtrak on various initiatives since 2016. On April 14 the Department of Transportation said the project had become ‘dependent on Amtrak and federal dollars for development work’, and the cost had ‘dramatically ballooned’ to over $40bn ’making construction unrealistic and a risky venture for the taxpayer’.
The grant funding will now be allocated to other rail projects.
The main investor in the Texas Central project is John Kleinheinz, President & CEO of Kleinheinz Capital Partners, who has bought out the previous Japanese interest in the project but still intends to use Japanese Shinkansen technology.
In a statement to Texas Rail Advocates, Kleinheinz Capital Partners said cancelling the grant was ’good news for the overall project’.
It said ‘the first Trump Administration gave this project the green light, but after President Trump left office the project got hung up in the politics of the Biden Administration’s efforts to jam Amtrak and politics into the equation. We agree with Secretary Duffy that this project should be led by the private sector, and we will be proud to take it forward. This project is shovel-ready and will create significant new jobs and economic growth for Texas as part of President Trump’s efforts to boost the US economy.’
Amtrak focus
DOT said Amtrak ridership has recovered since the pandemic, but it has ‘struggled with significant operating deficits’ and ‘high-profile operational challenges’, including delays on the Northeast Corridor and its Horizon coaches being taken out of service owing to corrosion.
‘Fixing these issues is a top priority for FRA’, DOT said, and ’walking away from the Texas Central Railway project at this time will allow Amtrak to focus on necessary improvements to deliver more reliability to its current riders’.
A distraction
‘Underwriting this project is a waste of taxpayer funds and a distraction from Amtrak’s core mission of improving its existing sub-par services’, said Duffy.
‘The Texas Central Railway project was proposed as a private venture. If the private sector believes this project is feasible, they should carry the pre-construction work forward, rather than relying on Amtrak and the American taxpayer to bail them out. My department will continue to look for every opportunity to save federal dollars and prioritise efficiencies.’
Other projects
FRA Chief Counsel Kyle Fields said ‘connecting Dallas and Houston remains one of the more exciting opportunities for new passenger rail in the United States. Today’s announcement reflects a recognition by Amtrak and FRA that federalising the Texas Central Railway proposal is not the best use of taxpayer funding.’
DOT said it is not the end of FRA’s interest in new rail projects, including high speed routes, and it would continue to work with stakeholders to develop cost-effective opportunities.
