The Biden administration granted over $60 million to Amtrak for a stalling Texas high-speed rail project that has been failing to acquire private investment, according to grant records.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) granted $63.9 million on August 2 to Amtrak for the Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor project, which has been mired by delays since 2022 under private railroad company Texas Central, with top executives resigning as the initial private funding ran dry. The grant comes after a long line of funding from the federal government to Amtrak in pursuit of high-speed rail, with the FRA last granting $500,000 for the Texas project in December 2023 to study a Dallas-Houston high-speed rail connection.
“The federal budget deficit approaches $2 trillion, our national debt exceeds $35 trillion, and the White House is wasting scarce federal taxpayer dollars on this controversial, failing, insolvent and foolish $40 billion Amtrak pork project,” John Sitilides, federal affairs advisor to ReRoute the Route, a Texas coalition opposed to the use of taxpayer funds on the project and its current alignment, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The White House would better spend that $64 million [sic] to build or repair schools, hire hundreds of border patrol agents, or deliver health care to thousands of veterans in need.”
The project’s original budget of $10 billion has increased significantly, with estimates putting the price tag at $40 billion, according to a study by the Reason Foundation in 2023.
The project has been criticized as a waste of money that could otherwise be spent upgrading existing infrastructure for planes and cars, as well as potentially cutting through privately owned land using its eminent domain privileges, numerous experts told the DCNF.
The project was initially a private venture between Texas Central and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, with former Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar saying in 2021 that it would not accept federal grants or tax money but would be open to a loan, according to Texas-based outlet WFFA. The project aimed to use Japan’s “Shinkansen” bullet train technology, according to a White House fact sheet released in April.
“$64M of taxpayer money should not be wasted on a High-Speed Rail project that not only has a negative impact on rural Texas but on all of the United States. In a time of a global food shortage, we cannot allow our farmland to be destroyed, and taxpayer dollars squandered for an unsustainable and unnecessary project like this,” Republican Texas Rep. Jake Ellzey told the DCNF. “I will continue to demand answers about how a foreign entity can lobby our government without complying with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and I will challenge the unrealistic ridership projections of Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, and Texas Central.”
As of January 2024, the project only acquired $650 million in private investment, which is only 1.6% of the projected construction, according to an executive summary by ReRoute the Route provided to the DCNF. Texas Central also has yet to acquire 60% of the proposed land it needs to complete the proposed 240-mile line.
Biden has supported rail projects as president, designating $66 billion in 2021 for Amtrak’s maintenance, modernization and expansion of existing lines in the northeast and mid-Atlantic. The government-operated company has never made a profit and is estimated to continue to lose around $1 billion per year.
Construction has been stalled over acquiring the rights to build on the land along the proposed track, with the Texas Supreme Court granting Texas Central eminent domain powers in 2022, according to The Dallas Morning News. The approval could allow Texas Central to cut right through land given to former slaves like Morney-Berry Farm, which has been run by the same family for more than 100 years, according to D Magazine.
Union Pacific Railroad executives warned of the potential dangers involved with bullet trains, like the possibility of electromagnetic interference in using high-voltage powerlines on rails going through cities like Houston, according to the executive summary from ReRoute the Route. Texas Central’s rail would run within 580 feet of Atmos Energy natural gas pipeline compressor station in Waller County, with the Waller County Sub-Regional Planning Commission saying there is a risk of gas ignition from powerlines during regular gas venting procedures.
The Biden administration also allocated over $3 billion to support California’s own high-speed rail project, which was first approved in 2008 but has failed to make notable progress. Also, Biden provided $3 billion in funding for another high-speed rail project connecting Southern California with Las Vegas, Nevada, which is only one-fourth of the estimated $12 billion needed.
The Department of Transportation (DOT), Texas Central and the White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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