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Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 1:37 AM
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electricron electricron is offline
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Location: Granbury, Texas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flatiron View Post
Will this ever be a reality?
Not until a steady continuous funding sources are developed and put into place. That will require some form of taxes, which isn't likely for the project as envisioned.

The best hope for a train service between Austin and San Antonio already exists, Amtrak's Texas Eagle once a day round trip. A state supported slow train connecting these two cities, and others between San Antonio and Fort Worth or Dallas is the next likely Amtrak provided train service. A brand new privately funded HSR line instead of the slow train is the third likely scenario. The least likely scenario was the Lone Star commuter train - because local revenue streams are very unlikely to be large enough to build it.

Minnesota's 150 mile long Northern Lights intercity rail project probably is the best resource for estimating costs, they project $500 million to implement a 90 mph max speed train services with four round trips a day, up to $1 billion to implement a 110 mph max speed train with eight round trips a day. Remember that was for 150 miles, it's closer to 300 miles between Fort Worth and San Antonio, so double the prices for a non HSR train service that will require yearly subsidies. The costs to implement real HSR will depend upon how much of the Dallas to Houston HSR line can be used. It'll probably costs over $10 billion to implement, but that's just a guess.
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