COMMENT OF THE DAY: BEFORE WE EVEN GET AROUND TO A BULLET TRAIN 
“This train is needed and do-able, and I bet there are federal funds all up in it . . . However, shouldn’t Houston be moved to higher ground first — before making the long-term commitment?” [movocelot, commenting on Possible Station Locations for Houston-to-Dallas High-Speed Rail: Jersey Village, Mangum Manor, Downtown?] Illustration: Lulu
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If this bullet-train is needed so Danny badly …….then route the disaster through your back yard. The Heights, Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, and Mangum Manor, have been exploited ENOUGH. ENOUGH IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH ! I urge all the Natives of these beautiful sub-divisions to engage in civil disobedience, in protesting the destruction of our “Hoods”, any further……
cant tell in this COTD is sarcasm or not. HOTTAKE either way.
I didn’t understand the cotd. Why does houston need to be higher for a train that can be elevated when needed?
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@joseph – the best route follows the old hempstead highway and would not affect you. But if it did, tough. We really need a high speed rail and if we have to go through some transitional areas where people are betting on home values to rise in order to do it, then so be it.
If you want to get to Dallas faster, let’s open up the smaller airports to more commuter flights or use larger planes at Hobby and Intercontinental instead of puddle jumpers. I oppose it for the route it will take BEFORE it hits Hwy 290. It plans on using utility right-of-ways, instead of expanding existing RR right-of-ways. That means ranch, farm, and hunting lands will be bisected, with no way to get to the other side of your property. Current utility easments allow the landowner to use the surface of their property for grazing, hay, etc. The easements are either underground or overhead. Therefore, the easements went the straightest route across tracts of land. with little disruption to the surface owner’s use of the property. And if you think the landowners will get a decent price for lands taken by eminent domain, you are sadly mistaken. I sure can’t afford to fight them in court. In my area, land is going for $10-13,000 per acre, but they would PAY ag exempt “value” of $6500/acre. If they take 3 of my 13 acres, I lose ag exempt status and get to listen to a train whizzing by, just a couple of hundred feet from my house, scaring my animals to death. The remaining 10 acres is now taxed at full value, but unsellable, since no one wants to buy next to these tracks.
I bet you would be singing a different tune if you had land on the proposed route, Houstonian. They should not be allowed to use eminent domain on this private venture.