The Texas Transportation Commission has given the green light to forming a high-speed rail commission to oversee a bullet train project between Fort Worth and Dallas. The Texas Department of Transportation agreed to take $15 million in federal funds in order to study the issue.
This week, commissioners set up a separate high-speed rail commission headed up by former transportation commissioner Bill Meadows.
"The department recommends the creation of the Commission of High Speed Rail in the Dallas-Fort Worth region to advise staff on the development of inner-city rail corridors, new transportation policies, funding and procurement of high speed rail between Dallas and Fort Worth," said TxDOT’s Eric Steven.
The $15 million covers preliminary engineering and environmental studies. A separate track of high-speed rail between Dallas and Houston is being headed up by a private investor
"Texas Central Railway is interested and has announced publicly its plans with private funds to build a line from just north of Houston to just south of downtown Dallas," said Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff.
That project will complete the privately-funded high-speed rail corridor between Houston and Dallas by 2016. TxDOT funded a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington to study the possibility of connecting all major Texas with high speed rail.