- This video is sponsored by CuriosityStream.
If you wanna ride a fast train
in the United States right now,
your best option is the Acela corridor in the Northeast
that runs between Washington, DC and Boston,
with stops in Philadelphia and New York.
It's a route that makes absolute sense,
several massive cities all within close proximity,
making train travel competitive with cars and planes.
But there's another region in the country
with very similar advantages.
It's the Texas triangle,
made up of the fourth, fifth, twenty fourth,
and twenty eighth largest metro areas in the US.
Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.
They all exist in one of the flattest parts of the US.
If the Texas triangle were in China or Japan,
you would be able to get between these cities
on a web of high-speed rail right now.
But, we're in Texas.
There is some rail service
between the cities of the Texas Triangle.
The Texas Eagle connects Dallas and Fort Worth
to Austin and San Antonio with once daily service.
And even catch an Amtrak Sunset Limited train
from San Antonio to Houston,
but it only operates three days per week
at a maximum speed of 79 miles per hour.
It truly is limited.
This is disappointing when compared to rail service
in places like California,
let alone places like Japan and Europe.
I'm not the only one to notice
that Texas seems ready-made for high speed rail.
There has long been a proposal for a Texas T-Bone network
that connects the cities via two major routes
that intersects in the city of Temple.
Other proposals literally draw a triangle.
And one high-speed rail proposal
is rapidly approaching the construction phase.
Texas Central is a private rail company
that plans to connect Dallas and Houston,
the two largest cities in the triangle,
with a train that can connect the two,
plus one additional stop, in 90 minutes.
They're planning on using the same train technology
that runs the Japanese Shinkansen.
Texas Central will be the second
privately-built rail service in the United States
after the Brightline in Florida.
That service connects Miami to West Palm Beach
with an extension to Orlando under construction.
But laying the rails and running the trains
is really only half of the successful high-speed rail line.
We need to talk about stations.
How would people get here?
What are around the stations?
Will people need a car when they arrive?
The answer to these questions
comes from station area planning.
Will Texas' station plans
make for a successful high-speed rail network?
Let's talk about that after the bike bell.
(bell rings)
In many cities outside the United States,
there's no real concern
about what's around the train station.
They're already located in central cities
with hotels, restaurants, businesses,
and other attractions within walking distance.
There are also major transportation hubs,
making it easy for travelers
to hop off their high-speed rail
and get on a bus, tram, or commuter rail
to destinations outside of walking distance.
This is one of the primary advantages of traveling by rail.
No long drive out to the airport,
security lines, and extensive boarding processes.
You just hop on a tram to the station,
board your train, and off you go.
That said, you can probably see the problem
with where I am now.
This is Austin's passenger rail station.
There's a YMCA and a park over here,
a busy road over there,
and we're pretty close to downtown Austin.
It's not in the middle of nowhere by any means,
but if Texas Eagle passenger train arriving here
will not be emerging from a grand station
in the center of a bustling city like in Europe.
So let's take a look at the four major metro areas
of the Texas triangle
and see what it would take to get these station areas
to a point where people could have a more seamless,
car-free experience.
And let's start here in Austin.
Here's a look at the map.
It's not dead central in Austin
like a Grand Central Station,
but it is downtown or downtown adjacent
in an area that seems to be growing quickly.
Location is critical to any successful rail station,
and downtown rail stations have the benefit
of being centrally-located
and surrounded by pedestrian-friendly land use patterns
and transportation networks.
There are likely many hotels and restaurants nearby,
perfect for travelers.
And districts with bars, restaurants, and hotels
tend to be 24-hour neighborhoods,
ones that are lively all the time.
This is useful for when trains arrive late.
Travelers can still get a meal
and check in to a hotel safely.
If a rail station isn't smack dab in the middle of downtown,
having some nearby areas for new development can help,
and Austin's station has this.
Those areas can be redeveloped
into a future 24-hour neighborhood.
Here in Austin, there maybe a better place
for that adjacent YMCA,
and that could free up some land for a hotel
or other transportation-supportive uses,
and some of the park land nearby could be converted as well.
Though I'm not advocating
for buildings up against the river,
that trail and park system is a gem
and should not be touched.
The final thing a successful station area needs
is connections to other transit.
Not everyone will be staying at the hotel
next to the station.
None of this new transit
will be located anywhere near this station.
The closest stop will be about 15 minutes walk that way.
Now, part of this is because Austin's high-speed rail plans
are well into the future,
but this doesn't bode well for making this station
a hub for local transportation.
So the final verdict for Austin is mixed.
The location has some promise,
but long-term transportation plans ignore it entirely.
If high-speed rail to Austin became a reality,
these plans could change,
but it doesn't bode well.
But what about the two cities
that are getting high-speed rail,
Houston and Dallas?
Surely, their stations will hit the mark.
Well, m-maybe?
Let's take a look at the description of Houston's station
on the Texas Central's website.
"Near the interchange of US 290 and Interstate 610
in Northwest Houston."
Okay, citing proximity to highway interchanges
isn't promising.
But they are aiming to connect the station
to the region's growing bus rapid transit network,
so that's something.
And it's possible that the high-speed rail station
will stimulate new, dense development
in a suburban location.
The site is an abandoned shopping mall,
so this rail station is a definite upgrade.
Let's head north to the Dallas Metroplex.
The new station will be constructed
in the Cedars neighborhood south of Downtown Dallas.
This is a neighborhood already served by light rail
that connects to downtown.
In fact, it connects the neighborhood
to Dallas' Union Station,
a beautiful building that already hosts Amtrak,
light rail, streetcar, and bus.
Texas Central says the station isn't big enough
to accommodate high-speed rail
and existing freight uses
make it impossible to use the station.
It's a shame that high-speed rail
couldn't use at historic downtown station,
but if the connections between these two stations
are good enough,
maybe it won't make a difference.
Both the Houston and Dallas stations are pragmatic
if the goal is to get these lines built.
They don't require extending high-speed rail tracks
into the heart of either city,
which can be costly.
It remains to be seen
how passengers will get to and from these stations,
and if lively, 24/7 districts will spring up around them.
There's one last city and station to explore, San Antonio.
The city has an existing Amtrak station,
nestled right on the edge of downtown.
It's a rather uninspired building
that handles the city's very limited passenger rail traffic.
It's located right next
to their beautiful, historic train station
worthy of something like high-speed rail.
It's currently used as an event space,
but it's not impossible
to see it return to passenger service
if Texas Central or a government agency
were to purchase it.
Though not located in the heart of downtown,
it is in a historic district
with room for future growth and development.
It's also neighbors with the Alamodome sports arena,
the convention center, and the Tower of the Americas.
The Alamo historic site and San Antonio Riverwalk
are within walking distance.
There's just one problem.
Interstate 37 cuts the station off
from everything but the Alamodome,
and even the Alamodome
is separated by a concrete car canyon.
A walk along Commerce Street isn't too bad,
and I've definitely crossed under worse highways,
but there were need to be some connectivity improvements
to make this station area work.
A Riverwalk expansion, new light rail service,
or some sort of shuttle
could help connect the station to nearby destinations.
All of those destinations
would be hugely popular with travelers.
San Antonio's station is probably the best
located to allow people to take a train,
hop off, and reach some great attractions
without needing a car.
If we can agree that a successful train station
is centrally-located, within a 24-hour district,
and has great transit access,
then we can also agree
that the stations in Texas' major cities
are missing some key pieces.
If I had to choose,
I'd say San Antonio's station has the most possibility,
but if Dallas' new station can be well connected
to the convention center and downtown generally,
it could be a contender.
A good high-speed rail system needs two things:
a good rail network and great stations.
Texas Central hopes to do both,
and they're not alone.
Longtime rival California
has plans for its own high-speed rail system.
And unlike Texas Central,
they've already begun construction on segments of the track.
But the plan has been mired in controversy
and cost overruns.
What's the latest on California's high-speed rail plans?
I posted a quick synopsis
of the successes and failures of that project
over on Nebula.
That content actually replaces this ad
because there aren't any ads on Nebula.
We're calling this bonus content Nebula Plus
and you'll see a lot of it over there, and not just from me.
Lots of other creators are doing the same thing.
It's proven quite popular
and I know you'll enjoy all of the Nebula Plus offerings
on the platform.
Nebula is great, and it's made even better
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CuriosityStream is the source
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If you'd like to know more
about railroads outside of Texas and California,
you can watch "On the Rails,"
a series that takes you on a tour of railroads
all over the world.
It's a great compliment to this video.
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That's less than $15 a year
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