Proposed Texas high-speed Houston-Dallas rail lands $500K in federal funds

fresh funds

Texas high-speed bullet train has some fresh financial fuel. Photo of the N700 courtesy of © JR Central

Amtrak and its partners will receive more than $2.1 billion in a federal program to improve existing routes and expand Amtrak service across the U.S.

That includes $500,000 from the Federal Railroad Administration awarded to the long-in-the-works high-speed rail project between Houston and Dallas, as well as another $500,000 awarded to the I-20 Corridor Long-Distance Passenger Rail Project.

The funding is via the newly-passed Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act and includes multiple grants that will go to Amtrak and partners. This includes:

$108.5 million to Amtrak for station and service upgrades;
$2 billion to Amtrak partners in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maine for infrastructure upgrades
$34.5 million to 39 states and localities for planning and development of 69 new and improved intercity passenger rail corridors

These grants were awarded through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program for projects located across the National Network, as well as the Corridor Identification and Development Program (Corridor ID).

FRA Administrator Amit Bose says in a statement that these will be "transformative rail projects" that will provide climate-friendly alternatives to congested roads and airports.

“Today’s investments in passenger rail nationwide, made possible by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are another step forward as we expand and modernize our country’s rail network, providing more Americans the world-class passenger rail they need and deserve," Bose says.

Amtrak was awarded funding on a variety of projects, including four Corridor programs, designed to create a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects.

Those include:

Texas High-Speed Rail Corridor. This proposed corridor would connect Houston and Dallas, Texas, with a new, dedicated and grade separated high-speed passenger rail service. This would provide new service on a new alignment, with station stops in Dallas, Brazos Valley and Houston.
Long Island Northeast Regional Extension. This proposed corridor would extend three existing daily Northeast Regional round trips between Washington, DC and New York City east to Ronkonkoma, NY, with stops at Jamaica (Queens, NY) and Hicksville, NY. This would entail track, station and infrastructure upgrades to accommodate these trains and better integrate Amtrak service with Long Island Rail Road commuter service.
Daily Cardinal Service. This proposed corridor would increase Cardinal service to operate daily, versus three days per week currently. This route operates between New York City and Chicago via Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
Daily Sunset Limited Service. This proposed corridor would increase Sunset Limited service to operate daily, versus three days per week currently. This route operates between Los Angeles and New Orleans via Houston, San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; Tucson, Ariz.; and other communities.

The release does not say exactly how the $500,000 will be used. According to TxDOT, the current estimate for construction of track between Houston and Dallas is approximately $16 billion.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The high-speed train project, which is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100,000 tons per year, is back on track. Photo courtesy of JR Central

Houston-Dallas bullet train gets back on the rails, races greener Texas travel

speeding back

In the latest chapter in the saga of the high-speed bullet train between Houston and Dallas, Amtrak is now involved.

According to a press release, Texas Central Partners and Amtrak are exploring a partnership to work together on the proposed Dallas-Houston high-speed rail project that's been under consideration for more than a decade.

Amtrak has cooperated with Texas Central on various initiatives since 2016 and the two entities are now evaluating a potential partnership to determine the line's viability.

“If we are going to add more high-speed rail to this country, the Dallas to Houston Corridor is a compelling proposition and offers great potential,” says Amtrak senior VP of High-Speed Rail Development Programs Andy Byford. “We believe many of the country's biggest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas, like Houston and Dallas, deserve more high quality high-speed, intercity rail service, and we are proud to bring our experience to evaluate this potential project and explore opportunities with Texas Central so the state can meet its full transportation needs.”

The route being proposed would span approximately 240 miles, going at 250 mph, resulting in a trip that would take less than 90 minutes between the two cities.

Texas Central has been working towards getting a train rolling since 2013, including lining up a potential builder in 2021. But the project has had pushback from Texas politicians and landowners along the route; a lawsuit against the project was filed by six rural counties in 2021, and the Texas Legislature passed a law prohibiting the state from spending any funds on the project.

Facing a seeming dead end, Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar and its board members resigned in June 2022; Michael Bui, a consultant, has been serving as CEO since then.

Texas Central and Amtrak have submitted applications to several federal programs in connection with further study and design work, including the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety and Improvements (CRISI) grant program, the Corridor Identification and Development program, and the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (FSP-National) grant program.

Amtrak previously entered into an agreement with Texas Central to provide through-ticketing using the Amtrak reservation system and other support services for the planned high-speed rail line.

"This high-speed train, using advanced, proven Shinkansen technology, has the opportunity to revolutionize rail travel in the southern U.S., and we believe Amtrak could be the perfect partner to help us achieve that,” says Bui in a statement.

Despite its detractors, the project is forecast to provide social, environmental, employment and economic benefits including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 100,000 tons per year, saving 65 million gallons of fuel and removing 12,500 cars per day from I-45.

The release from Amtrak has statements from both Dallas Mayor Eric L. Johnson and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who calls the collaboration between Texas Central and Amtrak "an important milestone for the City of Houston and this project."

Byford joined Amtrak in April 2023 to begin developing a team focused on high-speed opportunities throughout the U.S. In his newly created role, he will develop and lead the execution of Amtrak’s long-term strategy for high-speed rail throughout the country, including the extension of the Crescent from Mississippi through Louisiana and Texas; Kansas DOT’s Heartland Flyer Extension Corridor Identification and Development (Corridor ID) connecting Wichita to Oklahoma and Texas, and TxDOT’s applications for the Texas Triangle (Houston — Dallas – Fort Worth – San Antonio) routes.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Texas falls lower on national ranking of greenest states for 2025

room to improve

Texas dropped in the rankings on WalletHub's Greenest States 2025 report.

The report, released last month, considered 28 relevant metrics—from air and water quality to the number of alternative fuel stations and green buildings per capita—to call out states doing the best (and worst) jobs of caring for the environment.

Texas came in at No. 42 out of 50, with a total score of 42.54 out of 100. Last year, the Lone Star State ranked No. 38 with a score of 50.40 based on 25 metrics.

Texas' poor ranking was driven by its last-placed ranking, coming in at No. 50, for overall environmental quality. It was tied for No. 45 for air quality and ranked No. 46 for water quality, which helped comprise the overall environmental quality score.

Other metrics fell closer toward the middle of the pack. The state ranked No. 32 for eco-friendly behaviors and No. 39 for climate-change contributions.

California also fell on the annual report. While the state claimed the top spot in 2024, it came in at No. 7 this year. Vermont, which came in second in 2024, was named the greenest state in 2025.

Hawaii, which didn't crack the top five last year, was ranked No. 2 on the 2025 report. New York, Maryland and Maine rounded out the top five this year.

West Virginia was the country's least green state again this year, followed by Louisiana, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi.

The report also showed that Democrat-led states ranked around No. 12 on average, whereas Republican states fell at around No. 33.

While the WalletHub report seems bleak for Texas, others have shown more positive signs for the state. Texas was ranked slightly above average in a recent ranking of the best states for sustainable development. A recently released U.S. Energy Storage Monitor shows that Texas led all states and surpassed California in the fourth quarter of 2024 by installing 1.2 gigawatts of utility-scale energy storage for solar and wind power.

Still, WalletHub also recently ranked Houston No. 98 out of 100 of the largest cities on its Greenest Cities in America report. Read more here.

Source: WalletHub

Houston renewables developer and Google agree to second solar collaboration

power purchase

EnergyRe, a developer of large-scale renewable energy projects with headquarters in Houston and New York, has signed a renewable energy agreement that will allow Google to invest in and purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) from its projects under development in South Carolina.

Google will be able to pull from energyRe’s portfolio of more than 600 megawatts of new solar and solar storage projects in the state.

The agreement marks the second partnership between the companies. Last year, energyRe and Google signed a 12-year power purchase agreement in which Google would purchase renewable energy from a 435-megawatt solar project. EnergyRe would supply electricity and RECs generated from the solar project to Google to power the equivalent of more than 56,000 homes.

"Strengthening the grid by deploying more reliable and clean energy is crucial for supporting the digital infrastructure that businesses and individuals depend on," Amanda Peterson Corio, head of data center energy at Google, said in a news release. "Our collaboration with energyRe will help power our data centers and the broader economic growth of South Carolina."

EnergyRe's work includes developing high-voltage transmission, onshore and offshore wind, large-scale solar, distributed generation and storage assets in markets around the United States. Its national onshore utility-scale portfolio includes 1,520 megawatts of contracted solar assets and 398 megawatt-hours of contracted battery storage assets.

"This agreement is a milestone in energyRe's mission to develop innovative and impactful clean energy solutions for the future," Miguel Prado, CEO of energyRe, added in the news release."We're honored to partner with Google to help advance their ambitious sustainability and decarbonization objectives while delivering dependable, locally sourced clean energy to meet growing energy demands."

Google aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030.

Engie partners on major Texas, California battery storage portfolio

power partners

Houston’s Engie North America has partnered with New York-based CBRE Investment Management on a 2.4-gigawatt portfolio of battery storage assets in Texas and California.

The portfolio consists of 31 projects operating in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) territories. According to a company statement, the transaction represents one of Engie’s largest operating portfolio partnerships in the U.S.

“We are delighted that ENGIE and CBRE IM are partnering in this industry-leading transaction, supporting 2.4 GW of storage that will support the growing demand for power in Texas and California,” Dave Carroll, Chief Renewables Officer and SVP, ENGIE North America, said in the news release.

The deal is also one of the sector’s largest sales completed to date. Engie will retain a controlling share in the portfolio and will continue to operate and manage the assets.

“The scale of this portfolio reflects ENGIE’s commitments to meeting the energy needs of the U.S. and increasing the resilience of the ERCOT and CAISO grids,” Carroll added in the news release. “CBRE IM’s investment reflects their confidence in ENGIE’s proven track record in developing, building, operating and financing renewable assets, both in North America and globally.”

In North America, ENGIE currently has more than 11 gigawatts of renewable production and battery storage in operation or construction. Last year, Engie added 4.2 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity worldwide, bringing the total capacity to 46 gigawatts as of December 31. It also recently made a preliminary deal to supply wind power to a Cipher Mining data center in Texas.

As of March 31, 2025, CBRE IM had $149.1 billion in assets under management and operated in 20 countries.

“We are excited to partner with ENGIE on this high-quality, scaled battery storage portfolio with a strong operating track record,” Robert Shaw, managing director, private infrastructure strategies at CBRE Investment Management, said in the release.

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