Will Amtrak’s Dallas-Houston high-speed train inspire a rail revolution?

To travel between Dallas and Houston, drivers take Interstate 45, passing through stretches of forests and rolling pastures with plenty of traffic jams at either end. The trip can last from three and a half to five hours.

Amtrak wants to build a high-speed train that would cut that trip to 90 minutes. It’s one of a handful of high-speed rail projects that have received attention lately, like Florida’s Brightline between Miami and Orlando which recently opened and Brightline West between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which is under construction.

“We — and it’s not just me — we want to bring high-speed rail to the United States,” Andy Byford, senior vice president of high-speed rail at Amtrak, said at the Southwestern Rail Conference in Hurst, Texas. “It is a system that is used safely in most developed countries around the world, with the exception of the United States.”

The idea of ​​a high-speed train connecting Dallas and Houston has been floating around for years, but Amtrak officials say it could now be built within a decade if federal funding is granted. Last year, Amtrak took the lead on the project by announcing a partnership with Texas Central, the private company charged with developing it.

“I definitely think it’s viable. I think it’s the most interesting city pairing in the United States,” Byford said.

But high-speed rail is getting a lot of attention in a state ruled by cars and trucks. Some are skeptical that high-speed rail will ever be built.

“I don’t think there is the political will in this country to pay for this,” David Peter Alan, editor of the trade magazine Railway Age, said at the conference.

Amtrak said it could cost more than $30 billion; Byford said he is seeking equity, federal dollars and private funds to finance it.

The agency will also need to work with landowners in rural Texas who oppose the project. Some people don’t want a high-speed train in their backyard.

Still, support for the project is growing. Last December, the Federal Rail Administration gave it a boost with a $500,000 grant to study the scale of the project. Amit Bose, FRA administrator, said FRA is behind in part because Texas is booming.

“We can’t ignore the size of Texas and the amount of growth happening there,” Bose said.

That’s why Byford at Amtrak said now is the time to start building better transportation options.

“The alternative is to condemn Americans to ever-busier highways, and to condemn taxpayers to simply pay for ever-increasing highway widening,” he said.

Byford predicts that if Amtrak succeeds in building the Texas line, it will launch even more rail projects across the country.