Dallas City Council members hit the brakes on a proposed elevated high-speed passenger rail line that would connect with Arlington and Fort Worth.
The council, including Mayor Eric Johnson, approved a resolution 14-0, with council member Jaime Resendez absent. The June 12 action pauses the project for at least four months as city officials conduct a long-range economic impact study to determine the effects of the rail project in the Central Business District.
Council member Jesse Moreno said there are still many unanswered questions about the project, currently proposed to run along the Interstate 30 corridor.
“This is a critical part of downtown Dallas,” he said, adding that the city is investing major funding for downtown projects such as the expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
In their resolution, council members said, “the City Council does not support construction of any above ground passenger rail lines through downtown and adjacent areas aside from streetcar projects.”
Furthermore, the resolution states that the council “will reconsider the Dallas to Fort Worth high speed rail alignment upon completion of the economic impact study.”
The council’s pause in the rail project evoked memories of transportation disputes between Dallas and Fort Worth that have lingered for more than 100 years. Conflict arose starting in 1876 when Fort Worth residents rallied to bring the Texas & Pacific rail line to town. Since then, the two cities have bickered over similar conflicts involving the construction of Interstate 35 east and west as well as with the creation of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Concerns about the high-speed rail project first surfaced at the December 2023 Regional Transportation Council meeting, the independent transportation policy group of the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens, who chairs the Regional Transportation Council, said she wasn’t bothered by the Dallas resolution.
“I don’t have any criticism about any entity, but I think a study will show the need for high-speed rail in the region,” Bivens told the Fort Worth Report. “People thought we’d never have the Chisholm Trail (Parkway) … There’s a challenge I haven’t seen at the RTC that everybody doesn’t come out a winner.”
Dallas council members said they were resolute in their belief that the residents of Dallas should not be shortchanged by the project, which they said could siphon off economic growth to Arlington and Fort Worth.
They are also concerned that many of their questions about the project have not been answered.
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins said he supported an economic impact study to avoid jeopardizing local businesses and residents that could be affected by the rail project. He cited the Dallas Area Rapid Transit line that extends down Lancaster Avenue at ground level.
“You’ve got rail going right down the middle of the street,” he said. “We are Dallas. I understand the region, but we are Dallas.”
The council resolution, Atkins said, won’t stop the project but will pause it for several months as city officials conduct their study.
Dallas raised concerns about the proposed seven-story high, elevated rail line that would cut through planned downtown redevelopment work, including the new $3.7 billion convention center.
Stops in Fort Worth and Arlington would be underground, an issue that concerned Dallas officials.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments explored an underground option in Dallas, transportation director Michael Morris previously told the Fort Worth Report, but that option didn’t work for the “one-seat ride” approach that could eventually connect Fort Worth to Houston through Dallas.
“You would defeat the whole purpose of having a high-speed rail to have the seamless connection because you’d have a 40-minute travel time penalty, so we just need time for people to understand that,” Morris said.
Morris did not immediately return a call from the Fort Worth Report on June 12.
Ghassan “Gus” Khankarli, Dallas transportation director, said the study will look at positives and negatives of the project as well as alternative alignments for the proposed rail route.
“In this case, there may be two or three alignments to look at,” he said.
The study, Khankarli said, would provide “clarity and consistency” on the ramifications of high speed rail.
A 2017 Federal Railroad Administration study determined that the travel time for a high-speed electric train going 220 miles per hour is 35 minutes compared to TRE’s 83 miles per hour trip that takes 55 minutes and includes several stops from Fort Worth to Dallas. The project would cost more than $11 billion to construct, excluding maintenance costs.
Dallas council members said they had been told about one alignment without consideration to alternatives.
“We can pause, tap the brakes and that’s OK because this would affect Dallas for the next 100 years,” said council member Omar Narvaez, who currently serves as chair of the transportation and infrastructure committee and vice chair of economic development committee.
Some council members questioned the need for building a new rail line when the Trinity Railway Express already serves as a commuter line between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Others felt that until a Dallas to Houston high speed rail line is formally approved by Congress, there’s no need to discuss a new line to Arlington and Fort Worth.
“There’s no point of the Dallas to Fort Worth rail if the Dallas to Houston rail doesn’t happen,” Council member Cara Mendelsohn said.
She cited Dallas’ lack of involvement in DART’s Silver line, which will run across northern Dallas County from Garland to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport once it launches in 2025.
Council member Jaynie Schultz said the Dallas economic impact study should examine the potential effects on Interstate 30 and the TRE over the next 50 years as well as economic consequences.
She said Arlington, not Fort Worth, would be the biggest economic challenger to Dallas if the rail project is approved.
“We must have Dallas first, and we should,” she said.
Regarding the proposed I-30 rail line, Mendelsohn said, “They’ve offered a route, but we don’t have to buy it.”
Dallas officials will work together with other entities but won’t forsake the wishes of the city’s residents, Atkins said.
“We are Dallas,” he said. “We represent the city of Dallas. We don’t represent the region.”
The American High-Speed Rail Act of 2024, introduced in Congress recently, could provide $205 billion over the next five years to plan and build a national high-speed rail network.
North Central Texas Council of Governments and partner Amtrak each received $500,000 — totalling $1 million — from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program to spur the creation of a high-speed rail line from Fort Worth to Dallas and Houston.
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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