State lawmakers learn that the high speed passenger train project between Houston and Dallas is not dead.
But the status of where Texas Central is, remains unknown.
Three members of the House Transportation Committee were unsuccessful in getting answers from Texas Central CEO Michael Bui during a committee hearing on Wednesday.
Bui, who represents Texas Central through a Houston consulting company, was there to provide testimony opposing House Bill 2357, which would require high speed rail companies to give the state the same information they give to the federal government.
Click HERE to read and download House Bill 2357 as presented on May 3, 2023.
Bui said requiring the public release of proprietary and confidential information is unprecedented and is an attempt to stop the Texas Central project.
Bui did not answer requests for an update that came from three committee members, two landowners in the path of the railroad who are opposed to the project, and two county officials.
Committee chairman Terry Canales of Edinburg told Bui that “you’ve hung this over this community’s head”, “nobody knows what’s going on, they’ve (landowners and local governments) been trying to contact you, you haven’t responded”, “and I think you at least as a good actor owe them some answers”.
Grimes County judge Joe Fauth said “the simple questions are, who are we dealing with, what’s the timeline for the project, does the project have money to even exist? If it doesn’t, I need to quit wasting your (state lawmakers) time, they (Texas Central) needs to quit wasting out time. We need to move on with our lives in Grimes County.”
Fauth said adding “Having access to regularly updated information would greatly benefit our ability in the county to plan for future growth. We would know what traffic patterns might be (and) routes for EMS, school buses, our sheriffs, (and) our volunteer fire departments.”
Fauth says Texas Central owes Grimes County $180,000 dollars in property taxes and the company barely made last year’s tax payment deadline.
As of Friday (May 5, 2023), the transportation committee recommended HB 2357 to be recommended to the calendars committee with a favorable report without amendments.
Click below to hear some of the comments from the May 3, 2023 meeting of the Texas House transportation committee.