The Biden administration has awarded Amtrak more than $60 million for a high-speed rail project in Texas that has stalled after failing to attract private investment, according to grant records.
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Granted On August 2, Amtrak was awarded $63.9 million for the Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor project, which has been under the control of private railroad company Texas Central since 2022 and has been plagued by delays and seen executives resign after initial private funding dried up. The grant comes after a string of federal funding awards to Amtrak to make the high-speed rail a reality, which the FRA said it had been working on last year. Grant $500,000 for a Texas project to explore a high-speed rail connection between Dallas and Houston in December 2023.
“With the federal budget deficit approaching $2 trillion and the national debt exceeding $35 trillion, the White House is wasting scarce federal taxpayer money on a controversial, failed, bankrupt and foolish $40 billion Amtrak profit-driving plan,” John Citirides, federal affairs counsel for ReRoute the Route, a Texas coalition that opposes the use of taxpayer funds for the plan and its current direction, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The White House should put that $64 million to better use.” [sic] It will build or rehabilitate schools, hire hundreds of Border Patrol agents, and provide health care to thousands of needy veterans.”
The project's original budget of $10 billion has grown significantly, to an estimated $40 billion. According to According to a survey conducted by the Reason Foundation in 2023.
Many experts told the DCNF that the project has been criticized for wasting money that could be used to upgrade existing infrastructure for planes and cars, and for potentially cutting into private property through the use of eminent domain.
A northbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train arrives at Moorpark Station in Moorpark, California on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
The project was originally a private venture between Texas Central and Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and former Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar said in 2021 that it would not accept federal subsidies or tax money but would be open to loans. According to The project was announced in the Texas-based WFFA and will utilize Japan's “Shinkansen” technology. According to According to a fact sheet released by the White House in April:
“$64 million in taxpayer money should not be wasted on a high-speed rail project that will negatively impact not only rural Texas, but the entire United States. In a time of global food shortage, we cannot allow our farmland to be destroyed and taxpayer money to be wasted on such an unsustainable and unnecessary project,” Republican Texas Rep. Jake Ellzey told DCNF. “I continue to demand explanations for why foreign entities are able to lobby the government without complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and I challenge Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, and Texas Central's unrealistic ridership projections.”
According to a summary provided to the DCNF by ReRoute the Route, as of January 2024, the project has only attracted $650 million in private investment, just 1.6% of the planned construction amount. Texas Central also has yet to acquire 60% of the land needed to complete the proposed 240-mile line.
Biden has supported rail projects as president, committing $66 billion to maintaining, modernizing and expanding Amtrak's existing tracks in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic in 2021. The government-run company has never turned a profit and is expected to continue losing about $1 billion a year.
Construction has been stalled over acquiring the rights to build on land along the proposed rail line, with the Texas Supreme Court granting eminent domain to Texas Central in 2022. According to The approval could allow Texas Central to walk away with land given to former slaves, such as the Mauney Berry Farm, which has been operated by the same family for more than 100 years, according to the Dallas Morning News. According to To D Magazine.
According to an executive summary from ReRoute the Route, Union Pacific railroad officials have warned of potential dangers associated with high-speed rail, such as the potential electromagnetic interference that could result from using high-voltage power lines on tracks through cities such as Houston. Texas Central's tracks would run within 580 feet of an Atmos Energy natural gas pipeline compression station in Waller County, where the Waller County Subregional Planning Commission said there was a risk of gas igniting from the power lines during normal degassing procedures.
The Biden administration also allocated more than $3 billion to support a high-speed rail project in California that was first approved in 2008 but has not made any significant progress. Biden also provided $3 billion in funding for another high-speed rail project linking Southern California to Las Vegas, Nevada, but that's only a quarter of the estimated $12 billion needed.
The Department of Transportation (DOT), Texas Central and the White House did not immediately respond to DCNF's requests for comment.
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