Japanese rolling-stock manufacturers have been collaborating with the Japan Railways group to expand the business worldwide with its technology and standards used for the shinkansen bullet train system. Texas Central Partners LLC plans to start construction of the Texas Central Railway High-Speed Rail Project between Houston - Dallas next year using the shinkansen bullet train technology.

The company behind the high speed rail project between Houston and Dallas revealed new details yesterday about the project, including that it has only secured about one-quarter of the land needed to make the bullet train a reality—and that it is now under new ownership and management.

"They will continue to provide the tech, especially with the train set, but our Japanese partners are no longer involved in the project going forward," said Andy Gent, of Texas Central. Gent said Texas Central is now backed by Texas investor John Kleinheinz.

The Texas Central representative said the massive bullet train project was stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic and now says they need more time "to figure out if we can put the bigger transaction together with the Trump administration and with the state of Texas."

As of now, only 25 percent of the required 1,600 land parcels have been acquired, including around 500 single-family homes, and some previously secured options on additional properties have expired. Gent emphasized that the project is under reassessment, with partnerships involving firms like Bechtel and Lane Construction, and they are targeting federal grants available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

"The JOBS Act allocated $66 billion in federal grant money that can be available for projects of this nature," Gent said. "So we think we can partner with the federal government to receive the federal funding and the grants that can make this commercially feasible."

Cody Harris (R-Palestine), the bill's author, introduced the legislation to block public money from being spent on associated state road changes.

The bill states that "the legislature may not appropriate money to pay for a cost of planning, facility construction of maintenance, or security for, promotion of, or operation of, high-speed rail operated by a private entity." If passed into law, the legislation would go into effect on September 1.

Terrible terrible terrible planning here.

The Japanese got out of this horrific project before they took the loss on this terrible project. Only 25% of the land secured going on hopes and prayers to get funding from the Trump Administration and the icing on the cake is the state introducing a bill saying they can’t using public money to make improvements to help this project along. Kudos to the Texan government protecting tax payers from this abysmal project!