Texas Central Railway

Texas Central or Texas Central Partners, LLC, is a private company that is proposing to build a high-speed rail line between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. It plans to use technology based on that used by the Central Japan Railway Company and trains based on the N700S Series Shinkansen. The company has indicated that the journey time would be less than 90 minutes, with service beginning as early as 2026. Company Lone Star High-Speed Rail LLC was founded in 2009, changing its name to Texas Central Railway in 2012. Texas Central Partners, LLC (TCP), was founded on September 24, 2013, as the company to build and operate the service, with the rail line itself owned by the separate Texas Central Railway (TCR). Texas Central Partners is working with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and TxDOT to develop the Environmental Impact Statement required by NEPA. In July 2015 the company announced that it had secured $75 million of private funding to allow the project to move forward from feasibility studies to development planning. On June 11, 2022, CEO Carlos Aguilar stepped down after leading Texas Central since December 2016. Since 2022, Michael Bui acts as CEO. Amtrak began working with the company to revive the project in 2023 including submitting applications to federal programs for grant funds. Route On August 10, 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a report that supported the so-called utility corridor for the line. In December 2017, the FRA further released their draft environment impact statement for the High-Speed Rail that proposed the preferred route.