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[quote user="CMStPnP"] You would have to explain why it would be politically dangerous to avoid Dallas?    Also, land is dirt cheap in Texas it is not anything near approaching land values in California.    Further, just South of DFW is the less urbanized route to DFW Airport.      I would agree at some point they would want to connect DFW terminal to both Dallas and Ft Worth but right now as it stands DFW Airport has the space for a high speed rail terminal, the passenger count to support it and room for additional parking.     I can't see them building to either downtown area  Dallas or Ft. Worth as it doesn't make any financial sense when you have a terminal equal distance between the cities with a relatively easy approach to it from the South.     I could be proven wrong and we'll have to see what the final plans are.      Houston and San Antonio are smaller airports but even Houston Intercontinental is large enough it might merit a stop, IMO.  [/quote] No one knows for sure how it will play out or whether it will play out. I don't find your scenario plausible. The name of the airport that you are suggesting as an anchor for the train is the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It is not the Fort Worth/Dallas International Airport. Nor is it called the Mid-Cities or Metroplex Airport. Dallas was and is a major voice on the airport board.  The light rail line that will serve the airport is the Dallas Area Rapid Transit line.  The major stakeholder in the TRE is DART, although the T owns part of it, and it plans to build a line from Fort Worth to the Airport, running for the most part along an existing rail line. Dallas is the largest political, economic, and social factor in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It has had a major voice in the Metroplex, and it is like to continue to have a major voice.     If the line ran straight south from the mid-cities, there would be little reason for people in Dallas or its northern suburbs, who are amongst some of the areas most affluent citizens, to use it. Driving to DFW airport to catch a train to Houston would not make a lot of sense.     According to several recent articles in the business press, land across the U.S., especially farm or potential farm land, is not dirt cheap.  One of the outcomes of the Fed's super low interest rates has been a run-up in the price of agricultural land. This has been true for Texas as well. It is not the only driver, of course, but it is a factor according to the experts.   To make the line viable, i.e. financial successful, the trains will eventually have to connect Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston, and I believe that the only viable route, i.e. one that the investors will be able to afford, is along existing rail lines, with some straightening of the lines south of Dallas. A more interesting question is why the promotors are thinking Dallas to Houston.  A potentially more viable route, i.e. more population, would be Dallas, Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio.  DOT's vision is for the so-call Texas triangle, which would be Dallas to San Antonio, with a cut-off to Houston near Austin. As you say, we'll have to wait until it happens, if indeed it happens at all.  That is the $64,000 question.
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