The Dallas to Houston high-speed train seems to be on track following an FRA grant to Amtrak totaling $63.9 million.
The development of a high-speed, 90-minute train running across 10 counties from Dallas to Houston with a stop in Brazos Country goes back years. Development on the project was significantly set back in 2020 during Covid. However, following Amtrak’s overtaking of the project initially initiated by private company Texas Central Railway, the project has been reinvigorated.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded Amtrak a federal grant of $63.9 million to go towards its operating costs and advancing the project as a part of the company’s $150 million funding efforts.
The project seemed to be limbo for a few years up until last August when Amtrak and Texas Central Partners renewed negotiations on the project’s advancement. In December 2023, Amtrak received an investment of $500,000.
According to a report from KERA News, Andy Byford, senior vice president at Amtrak stated in a Southwestern Regional Rail Conference that construction on the Dallas-Houston high-speed train could begin in the 2030s.
“This is very much a project that Amtrak is now leading,” Byford said, per KERA News report. “I have to make sure that in any recommendation I give to my CEO and my board, that is a project that is worthwhile pursuing. And right now, having looked at the revenue forecasts and done our due diligence to date, I still think that is the case. That again, though, does not mean that it’s a done deal.”
The Dallas-to-Houston high-speed train isn’t the only locomotive in the works in the Dallas area. This past August, the Dallas-Fort Worth high-speed train received an additional $1.6 million to go towards its development.
Amtrak has also proposed the development of rail lines running from Dallas to Miami and Dallas to New York.