State Budget Rider Raises Bullet Train Questions; Texas Leads in Grocery Space

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Photo of Buffalo Bayou Park: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • Let Travis Scott (and Beyoncé or whomever) PAY FOR THEIR OWN monument if they want one. They aren’t either public servants or patriots, and they have already been paid for what little they did.

  • So basically no jobs added in 2015, should expect similar revision for 2016 and the oil drag will continue far longer than expected and well into 2018. Sure sounds bleak to me. We may have avoided a recession, but sales tax receipts off by 10% and downward adjusting home values in the midst of an expanding population base sure sound like recessionary trends to me.

  • So its okay to subsidize airports and PUBLICLY owned airlines but its not okay to MAYBE subsidize a train? Who are these people and their like-minded dimwits? When did people forget that the government built the interstates, sea ports, airports? Governments all over the WORLD subsidize transportation infrastructure to stimulate growth. Morons!

  • PRIVATELY OWNED bullet trains. Clickbait title

  • When I glanced at “Dallas Chef John Tesar Opening Steakhouse Knife in Unnamed Houston Hotel” I thought it was a crime story.

  • BLS revises job creation number down…..Have they every underestimated job creation?!?!?

    BWAHAHAHAHA. More lies and BS out of the BLS. Hey look, over there, its a Unicorn!

  • To follow on Joel’s comment, it’s not just the number of jobs…it’s the type. Look at those percentage changes over the last year. Mining & Logging, which includes most oil and gas jobs (-10.8%), manufacturing, which supports many oil and gas activities (-5.0%). Professional & Business Services were stagnant (-0.1%). The strongest and most significant offsetting growth came from Government (+3.7%), Education & Health (+3.3%), and Leisure & Hospitality, which includes restaurants (+3.6); but those jobs are not anywhere nearly as well-compensated and by and large they don’t create as much indirect employment.

    https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.tx_houston_msa.htm

  • Seriously, I feel like the Texas legislature has a bunch of idiots at times. We’ve been subsidizing various transportation methods of decades — it’s just that certain Texans choose to not include various forms of rail transportation into the equation. I’m not all rosy-eyed thinking that somehow this will come into existence w/o government assistance (what project ever has?), but’s not ban them from providing guidance and planning support.

  • Yo Sid. Dont you think a government subsidized train will hurt the amount of people that buy a government subsidized plane ticket? Regarding infrastructure, what aint that train using what infrastructure that is already in place. Say like right of ways. I am not even touch the government taking people land to help a private company. This isnt Russia.

  • Perhaps Texas Central should build a “demo” line between Dallas and Fort Worth. That will teach that upstart Houston … right? After all, who needs infrastructure?

  • Are the rail folks this blind to see when Texas legislature does not want you, there’s nothing you can do. They’ll just keep passing law after law to put obstacles in the way (a good move in my opinion) unil the Rail Radicas give up or their financing is yanked.

  • @WR There is already a line between Dallas and Ft. Worth. Ridership as of 2014 was 8,200 persons per day.
    http://www.trinityrailwayexpress.org/index.html

  • @commonsense Southwest Airlines does not want this. A lot of lobbying going on behind the scenes. Just look at the number of flights between Houston and Dallas in the AM and PM. That is revenue SWT does not want to give up.

  • TCR: We want to build this private train with private money.
    .
    Righties: No public money for trains!
    .
    Lefties: There’s nothing wrong with public money for trains!
    .
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • @Purple City, the problem with TCR is that it’s mathematically impossible for them to build and operate with only private funds, even according to their own projections.