No Crystal, Texas Central Railway will NOT take land from Texans and outsource jobs to Japan.
Recently, Crystal Wright, a conservative blogger and contributor to The Hill, put out a post attacking Texas Central Railway as something that “ needs to be stopped dead in its tracks before taxpayers are railroaded and left holding the tab.” Unfortunately for the “Conservative Black Chick”, the facts that she brought to her aid were cherry picked, misguided, and some flat-out false. Doubly unfortunate for “Conservative Black Chick”, this article that you are reading here on the High Speed Rail America Club happens to be written by a “conservative Hispanic/white dude” — there goes the political bias argument.
There’s only one thing Crystal got half right; President Barack Obama’s high-speed rail plan didn’t work out the way he planned it at all, and it was terribly timed with the rise of Tea Party governors and the subsequent rejection by the populace of anything that had the President’s signature anywhere. A complete disaster though, it was not however. Because of that failure, projects such as All Aboard Florida and Texas Central Railway were able to emerge as solutions from the private sector. Our governor in the state of Florida, Rick Scott, “the same Rick Scott” who stopped the previous government sponsored high-speed rail project, just happens to support All Aboard Florida.
So what exactly happens when opposition groups come out of the woodwork to oppose large private sector rail projects, and accuse them of stealing tax payer money, taking jobs to another country (or outright just calling the project “All Aboard Auschwitz”) , and claiming that the project will decrease property values? This happens:
There’s my literal concrete, steel-rebar reinforced proof of where the jobs are going, Crystal. Now to Texas, where again, a company is planning to do a similar project, with a similarly composed vocal minority opposition. The main difference being that All Aboard Florida, under Florida East Coast Rail Industries, already had the right of way to the tracks — TCR does not, yet. That’s where eminent domain comes in, and to explain eminent domain, here’s Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump:
(WATCH: THE DONALD TRUMP WALL TRAIN?!)
Many of these communities are either ignoring their nation’s history of how rail development by private companies shaped our modern country, and/or are ignoring the fact that TCR will bring in $36 billion dollars in indirect economic benefit to the state for the next 25 years. Ms. Wright even cited a Reason Foundation report which stated that only two high-speed rail systems earn a profit, something we have time and time again proved blatantly false . The same Reason Foundation, as well as respected director of transportation policy Robert Poole, stated that the railroad would ultimately be good for Texas, also stating:
Texas Central Railway and All Aboard Florida are private-sector projects, to be done via project finance that must be paid back from the project’s own revenues. There is little or no risk to taxpayers, federal or state, in either project.
Ms. “Wright” again is “Wrong” in pinning the TCR project as a government funded project that will lose money, when we know that the Central Japan Railway company, the private company that is helping to create Texas Central Railway, makes a profit.
As I’ve stated, I understand what the land owners are going through; my family from Cuba owned large tracts of land and businesses as well. There’s a stark difference between a private company taking only 100 feet of right-of-way that will be passable, versus a tyrannical dictatorship confiscating property for its own use. With TCR, billions of dollars will go back into the economy and land owners will be paid at or above market value; with communism, you don’t get either. I have nothing against Crystal, and I hope that she understands the reality of what high-speed rail, correctly done, means for our country’s infrastructure, our economy, and our jobs.
Demetrius J. Villa is the President and founder of the High Speed Rail America Club, an organization that researches, promotes, and advocates for the building of high-speed rail and transit in the United States, as well as collaborating with other organizations to make it possible. He is an Honors student at Florida International University and majoring in International Business.
