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[quote user="oltmannd"] A ten year time line will turf out just about any private investor for any project.  The ROI goes in the toilet if you have to wait ten year for any income to show up once investment begins. It doesn't have to take this long.  It only takes 2-3 years to build an intermodal terminal from scratch - studies, permits, design, construction- the whole deal. [/quote] Private investors will put up the money for a capital project if they have a strong reason to believe that they will earn their risk adjusted returns.  Our nuclear power plant, which took more than 12 years to build and bring on-line, was funded by private debt.  Whether private investors would put up the money for a rail project that is estimated to take 10 years to build is unknown. Heck, whether they will put up any money remains to be seen, inasmuch as the financial viability of the project is uncertain. I was part of a team that pushed for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit referendum. We told everyone, probably because we believed it, that we would build the light rail system without any federal money. Ha! That notion did not last very long, primary because the planners had grossly under estimated the cost of the system. I suspect the promotors of Texas High Speed Rail will have the same insights if the project gets off the ground. A Dallas to Houston line will face some major challenges in addition to attracting the capital to built the project. With the exception of the college town of Bryan, there are no large communities between Dallas and Houston along the proposed line. Accordingly, the success of the project with depend on attracting end point riders, which means that the rail system will have to compete directly against Southwest Airlines for these passengers. Dallas is two communities.  One is largely affluent; the other is largely struggling.  The affluent folks live in an arch that sweeps north and east from Arlington through the northern half of Dallas County and Collin County, which includes affluent north Dallas.   A train from downtown Dallas to Houston goes through the southern portion of the county.  Even if the promotors built a station in southern Dallas County, it is not likely to draw many patrons.  Potential passengers from affluent "Dallas" would have to drive into downtown Dallas to catch the train.  This means that they would have to drive by Dallas Love Field, which is the home of Southwest Airlines.  Why they would do that is problematic.  Moreover, for now at least, there are not enough people living downtown Dallas and downtown Houston to constitute a major potential customer base for the train. I hope they make a go of it; I hope it lays the groundwork for a line from San Antonio to Dallas.  But they have some real challenges to overcome.  Attracting private capital is just one of them.
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