Renfe signs $5.9 billion contract to build Houston-Dallas High Speed Rail

Texas Central, United States (Urban Transport News): Texas Central, developer of the high-speed rail corridor, has awarded a contract worth US$ 5.9 billion to Spanis firm Renfe to develop and operate a High-Speed Rail line between Houston and Dallas which will be operational in 2026. The preliminary agreement has been signed between Texas Central and Renfe to design, build and run a 386-km long high-speed rail line in the United States. 

Last year, Texas Central had signed an agreement with the joint venture of Salini Impregilo, one of the largest civil engineering contractors in the world, and its U.S. subsidiary, Lane Construction Corporation. The Italian construction and engineering firm Salini Impregilo will be in charge of building the High-Speed Rail corridor. According to Renfe, the contract value for the design and construction phase is worth about US$311 million, while providing services for operation and maintenance of the line from 2026 to 2042 is expected to bring in another $5.6 billion.

The Houston-Dallas High-Speed Rail line will link the two cities and once it become operational it will complete the journey in less than 90 minutes including a stop at Brazos Valley. However, the developers are waiting for approvals from the federal railroad administration. The construction on the high-speed rail corridor is expected to begin in 2020 and will take an estimated five to six years, which means the service could start by 2026.

According to the Texas Central, the Bullet trains planned to be operated between Houston and Dallas will be based on Central Japan Railway’s Tokaido Shinkansen train system, which is considered as the world’s safest mass transportation system. The new Shinkansen N700S, which is the 6th generation of this train and will be debuted before this summer’s 2020 Olympics.

Texas Central claims that this high-speed rail line is expected to generate US$36 billion in statewide economic benefits over the next 25 years and will create 10,000 direct jobs per year during peak construction and 1,500 permanent jobs when fully operational.