Here’s when DFW's bullet train, hyperloop, driverless cars and flying taxis are set to take off
Construction of a 200-mile-per-hour bullet train from Houston to Dallas could begin as early as next year, Officials hope that it will open in 2024. Show Full Story
Nearly 5 million passengers are expected to use the bullet train by 2026, a study in late 2016 showed. The rideship study by L.E.K. Consulting suggested that more than 90 percent of those in North Texas or Houston would save about an hour or more by taking the train.
The privately developed high-speed rail system linking Dallas and Houston - Texas' biggest metropolitan areas - could produce more than $36 billion in economic benefits over the next 25 years, according to a study.
This rendering shows the Dallas station for the proposed bullet train. The passenger terminal would connect with new parking facilities via enclosed, elevated pedestrian bridges.
TEXAS CENTRAL
A closer look at the Dallas station for the bullet train. It is proposed to be built on a largely vacant 60-acre plot south of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in the revitalized Cedars neighborhood.
TEXAS CENTRAL
The Federal Railroad Administration has determined that the bullet train between Dallas and Houston should follow the utility corridor, shown in gold.
A conceptual rendering of how the proposed bullet train would travel along new high-speed rail lines in Texas. Landowners along the proposed route have lobbied their state legislators over developer Texas Central Partners' possible use of eminent domain to acquire their property.
COURTESY TEXAS CENTRAL PARTNERS
Hyperloop claims speeds of 650 to 700 mph.
Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One, has said that the hyperloop will be ready for human passengers in 2021. Here, Branson visits Love Field in Dallas. Virgin America founder Richard Branson talks to the crowd Monday night at the party at the Rustic in Dallas to support Virgin America getting two gates at Dallas Love Field.
VIRGIN AMERICA
A map showing the proposed Hyperlook stops in Texas.
GRIEFF, CARLY (NYC-WSW)
What the Hyperloop One pod features.
HYPERLOOP ONE
Hyperloop One is being tested in Nevada.
HYPERLOOP ONE
Hyperloop One is developing a system to move freight and passengers along high-speed tube networks.
HYPERLOOP ONE
During a visit, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, crown prince and minister of defense of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unveiled the Vision 2030 Hyperloop Pod with Virgin Hyperloop One.
COURTESY OF VIRGIN HYPERLOOP ONE
A rendering shows what a Hyperloop station might look like.
COURTESYYARGODESIGN
This could be your view from an Uber in a couple of years. UberAIR plans to start demonstrating the flying taxi technology in 2020 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Dubai, and will start operating the flying taxi service commercially in the three test markets in 2023. From there, San Francisco-based Uber plans to roll out the service in large urban areas worldwide.
JAKE DEAN
Work continues across the Dallas-Fort Worth area on architectural designs for "skyport," where Uber's electric aerial taxis will board and unload passengers. This view shows the Humphreys & Partners approach to the skyport.
Uber will need a handful of skyports at first, but demand could grow to hunderds, then thousands, if the company is successful in its long-range plan to take the service to major metro areas worldwide. Dallas-based architecture firm Corgan's "Connect" concept, shown here, has the flexibility to scale up to 1,000 Uber air landings per hour. Corgan's design includes stackable modules.
CORGAN/UBER
The interior of Corgan's concept.
The Beck Group's skyport design has been dubbed "The Hive."
THE BECK GROUP/UBER
BOKA Powell's vision for skyport for the flying taxis that Uber is developing.
The design for a skyport for Uber air taxis is modeled after a beehive because the Uber aircraft around the skyport would replicate a bee's flight patterns to and from a hive.
Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth is confident the company can land a big contract with Uber to make air taxis.
Paul Brubaker, president and CEO of the Alliance for Transportation Innovation Inc., in front of the driverless shuttle in Arlington.
JAKE DEAN
The shuttle is built for "last-mile" transportation at event venues or around entertainment districts. It takes riders between their cars and Globe Life Park, AT&T Stadium and other destinations.
JAKE DEAN
The driverless Drive.ai Nissan navigating a busy Hall Park parking lot during a preview.
JAKE DEAN
The Drive.ai Nissan mini-van navigate passengers around buildings at Hall Park and the Star in Frisco.
JAKE DEAN
Driveless vehicles are operating in Frisco
This elevation shows how the proposed Hyperloop high-speed tunnel travel system could be incorporated into the skyport design.
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If you don’t think of North Texas as being on the cutting edge of transportation, consider this:
HIGH-SPEED RAIL
The 200 mph Texas Bullet Train between Dallas and Houston is set to be the first project of its type in the nation.
The project inched closer to the goal of becoming a reality in September by securing of a loan of up to $300 million.
Texas Central, the company implementing the high-speed train between Houston and North Texas, announced last month that it has secured the loan from the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corp. for Transport & Urban Development, or JOIN, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Texas Central will use the funds to move ahead on permitting, design and engineering, as well as other preliminary work needed to launch construction during 2019.
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The interest-bearing loan along with the equity provided to date – mostly coming from Texas entrepreneurs – will provide enough funding for all activities required for the project to reach financial close, Texas Central said.
The Texas financial backers include developer Jack Matthews and former Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr., among others.
The Texas project will inject an estimated $36 billion in economic benefits statewide over the next 25 years, including creating 10,000 direct jobs per year during construction and 1,500 permanent jobs when operational, the developer’s release said.
Bullet train backers continue to chip away at financing, environmental concerns, property acquisition and other challenges that must be overcome for the project to happen.
The high-speed train from Dallas to Houston, if it becomes reality, will cut what is now a four-plus hour drive to 90 minutes for its projected 5 million annual riders. Officials hope that it will open as soon as 2024.
The project will cost $12-$15 billion by Texas Central’s estimate. Others say it could cost $20 billion.
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FLYING TAXIS
Dallas-Fort Worth is one of three places on the planet where Uber's flying urban taxis will launch.
Uber’s urban air taxis are set to debut on a demonstration basis in three test markets — DFW, Los Angeles and Dubai — in 2020, Uber spokesman Travis Considine told the Dallas Business Journal in an earlier interview.
Commercial flights are targeted to start in the test markets in 2023, he said. From there, Uber plans to roll out the service in large urban areas worldwide.
The San Francisco-based company, through its program called “uberAir,” is working with aircraft, infrastructure and real estate companies to create and operate the taxis that will fly people on fixed routes between city hubs. The service will work through a new option in the Uber app.
The car-for-hire company is planning a network of electric-powered aircraft and skyports that will provide transportation and delivery services in large cities worldwide. Initially, the aircraft would have pilots at the controls, but eventually they would operate autonomously, or without a human pilot, Uber says.
The aircraft will be a cross between helicopters and airplanes. They would operate at an altitude below helicopters and commercial planes, but above that of drones.
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Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopters is one of a handful of aircraft manufacturers working with Uber to develop and build the flying taxis.
Uber is also teaming with Fort Worth-based Hillwood Properties to develop skyports, called vertiports, with plans to create two to five ports in NorthTexas within the year. The first vertiports will be located at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and in Frisco, Hillwood said last year. Other vertiports could eventually be built at Victory Park in Dallas, near AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Park in Arlington, and on the Trinity River in downtown Fort Worth.
HYPERLOOP
DFW sits at the apex of the Texas Triangle, which is a finalist to be an inaugural route for Virgin Hyperloop One’s 650 mph tube travel system that would make the trip between Austin and Dallas in 20 minutes or less.
High-speed capsule travel, the Hyperloop is the brainchild of Tesla and PayPal founder Elon Musk, which would zoom folks long distances in vacuum tubes at 700 mph.
The Texas Triangle route is a 640-mile system that will, if it becomes a reality, connect Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, with a leg down to Laredo. The route was chosen as one of the top 10 proposals worldwide by Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One. There were more than 1,000 initial submissions representing six continents worldwide.
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The pressurized tube system would whisk passengers along a magnetically levitated track from Dallas to Houston in 46 minutes or Dallas to Austin in 19 minutes. From Austin, add 8 minutes to get to San Antonio or 16 minutes to Laredo.
Having a hard time envisioning it? Think of the pneumatic tubes now used in bank and pharmacy drive-throughs. Now imagine yourself as the debit card or medication bottle inside.
The cost of taking the Hyperloop would be roughly comparable to prices of daily transportation options like a metro, train or bus, according to a statement Hyperloop One. "It needs to be a form of transportation that consumers can afford to take every day," the company has said.
DRIVERLESS VEHICLES
Autonomous vehicles are now being tested in Frisco by California-based Drive.ai. Driverless shuttles — the first autonomous transit vehicles — were tested in Arlington more than a year ago.
But when do we enter this world of high-speed rail, flying Ubers, warp-speed tube travel and cars that drive themselves? What barricades stand in the way of these projects becoming reality?
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