Another bad high-speed rail bill gets April 2 hearing in Austin
March 29th, 2019
March 29, 2019 - TRA Newswire -
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on HB 1367 in Land and Resource Management. Texas Rail Advocates does not support this bill and urges that it be quashed.This is another of about two dozen bills that, again this session, are trying to derail a $15 billion dollar game-changing project to connect Texas' two biggest metros.
This is a very narrowly focused bill that specifically would try to kill a private enterprise, Texas Central Railway, from bringing high-speed rail service to Texans and giving them a transportation choice. The author, freshman state representative Cody Harris of Palestine said in his own press release and was quoted in the Corsicana Daily Sun on February 16, 2017 stating: “I will fight tooth and nail to kill the high-speed rail project.”
According to Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody, "the bill singles out the high-speed rail project by adding different requirements on negotiations with landowners than any other infrastructure project and that's just not fair and not the Texas way of doing business in our state."
Texas Central spokesperson Holly Reed said "This bill actually gives us less flexibility to meet landowners’ requests. Since most of the route is adjacent to other infrastructure, it could be confusing to landowners as it is bad policy to have different requirements for different projects. This bill is one that was introduced by the author as having the goal to ‘harm or kill the project’. This bill was introduced last session and not passed because it was bad then, and it is bad now. Please let the members of the committee know you support the train and not House Bill 1367."
Members of the House Land and Resource Management Committee could be voting on this as early as Tuesday morning. Those members are Chairman Tom Craddick (Midland) and Representatives Sergio Munoz (Mission), Cecil Bell (Magnolia), Kyle Biedermann (Fredericksburg), Terry Canales (Edinburg), Ben Leman (Brenham) Ina Minjarez (San Antonio), Jonathan Stickland (Bedford) and Shawn Thierry (Houston).
Contact information for members of the Land & Resource Management Committee can be found here.
Texas Rail Advocates supporters for high-speed rail and national organization (Rail Passengers Association with 28,000 members) urges that HB 1367 be rejected.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on HB 1367 in Land and Resource Management. Texas Rail Advocates does not support this bill and urges that it be quashed.This is another of about two dozen bills that, again this session, are trying to derail a $15 billion dollar game-changing project to connect Texas' two biggest metros.
This is a very narrowly focused bill that specifically would try to kill a private enterprise, Texas Central Railway, from bringing high-speed rail service to Texans and giving them a transportation choice. The author, freshman state representative Cody Harris of Palestine said in his own press release and was quoted in the Corsicana Daily Sun on February 16, 2017 stating: “I will fight tooth and nail to kill the high-speed rail project.”
According to Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody, "the bill singles out the high-speed rail project by adding different requirements on negotiations with landowners than any other infrastructure project and that's just not fair and not the Texas way of doing business in our state."
Texas Central spokesperson Holly Reed said "This bill actually gives us less flexibility to meet landowners’ requests. Since most of the route is adjacent to other infrastructure, it could be confusing to landowners as it is bad policy to have different requirements for different projects. This bill is one that was introduced by the author as having the goal to ‘harm or kill the project’. This bill was introduced last session and not passed because it was bad then, and it is bad now. Please let the members of the committee know you support the train and not House Bill 1367."
Members of the House Land and Resource Management Committee could be voting on this as early as Tuesday morning. Those members are Chairman Tom Craddick (Midland) and Representatives Sergio Munoz (Mission), Cecil Bell (Magnolia), Kyle Biedermann (Fredericksburg), Terry Canales (Edinburg), Ben Leman (Brenham) Ina Minjarez (San Antonio), Jonathan Stickland (Bedford) and Shawn Thierry (Houston).
Contact information for members of the Land & Resource Management Committee can be found here.
Texas Rail Advocates supporters for high-speed rail and national organization (Rail Passengers Association with 28,000 members) urges that HB 1367 be rejected.