The Texas High-Speed Rail Project: Eminent Domain & Landowner Rights

Historical Context & Challenges of the Texas Bullet Train

Early Proposals and Persistent Concerns

First introduced around 2009, the Dallas-Houston high-speed rail project, primarily advanced by Texas Central Partners (TCP), promised a 90-minute transit option between the state’s two largest metro areas. However, from its inception, significant questions loomed regarding its funding, ridership estimates, realistic cost projections, the potential for taxpayer bailouts, and the true impacts on landowners and communities along its path.

Objective analyses often highlighted a stark contrast between TCP’s optimistic projections and the financial realities faced by similar high-speed rail lines worldwide. For instance, the Reason Foundation, in its report “Texas High Speed Rail: Caution Ahead,” raised serious concerns about the project’s financial viability, particularly the enormous capital needed (estimated by TxDOT at one point to be around $18.3 billion, a figure that later reportedly surpassed $40 billion) and overly optimistic ridership numbers. The foundation concluded that the project might inevitably require significant public subsidies, potentially costing Texas taxpayers hundreds of millions annually. These concerns were echoed by many who questioned whether Dallas and Houston possessed the low car ownership rates and high population densities that make some international lines viable.

The Superconducting Super Collider: A Cautionary Tale

For Dawson & Sodd, the uncertainties surrounding the high-speed rail project evoked a sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of another major Texas project: the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). Proposed in the 1980s and initiated in the early 1990s, the SSC was a massive scientific research facility that, like the bullet train, came with grand promises and significant land acquisition needs. Our firm represented many landowners (more than any other firm) in eminent domain proceedings filed to take their land for the SSC – in many instances, property that had been in the same families for generations.

Despite assurances, the SSC’s cost projections spiraled upwards, from an initial $3 billion to over $13 billion. Just two years after construction began, Congress pulled the plug in 1993. While the project was halted, it was too late for hundreds of homeowners, farmers, and ranchers who had already lost their land. The acquired property sat idle for years, a monument to a costly endeavor. This firsthand experience with the SSC provided Dawson & Sodd with an invaluable perspective on the potential pitfalls of large-scale projects with uncertain financial backing and their profound impact on individual property owners.

Legislative and Landowner Resistance

From the outset, the high-speed rail project faced considerable pushback from rural landowners, lawmakers, and advocacy groups like the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB). TFB and others consistently cited concerns about the negative impact on agriculture, the fragmentation of land, the lack of local access or benefit for the rural counties it would traverse, potential increased tax burdens, and impacts on wildlife.

In response to these constituent concerns, numerous Texas state lawmakers, particularly those representing districts along the proposed route, filed a host of bills in previous legislative sessions. These bills aimed to address issues such as clarifying eminent domain authority for private high-speed rail entities, prohibiting the use of state funds for such projects, requiring security and property restoration bonds, and ensuring landowner rights were protected during survey and acquisition processes.