Texas Triangle

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The Houston - Dallas link has been proposed for a very long time.  A company, Texas Central, has been attempting to move the project forward but despite purchasing a large amount of property has been unable to do so.  Now Amtrak is attempting to take the project and nobody is happy about it.

This link, despite being purely a Texas route, would be a part of National (and international) infrastructure project.  The interstate nature of the logistics plan opens the project to federal funding opportunities and slightly changes how the project is legally administrated under the FRA.

Houston to Dallas would be geared towards Maglev, with the aim to fully connect Houston to Oklahoma City and the separately proposed Redline Transcontinental.  Upon full completion, the Houston to Oklahoma City route would connect the Southern Transcontinental route to the Redline Transcontinental route in the middle of the country, becoming one of the major links in the system.

A triangle tends to be a blend of features, with a primary route (Houston to Dallas) directly connected to a primary regional route (Dallas to San Antonio). The Texas Triangle additionally has a second national leg in the form of San Antonio to Houston, which on its own would not make a compelling economic case, might be a question in terms of its use in the transcontinental scheme, but in terms of providing an integrated regional network that links 3-5 cities, it becomes a critical component.

San Antonio to Houston is a long segment, with some natural pros and cons:

Pro:

A long straight shot is ideal for Maglev alignments

There are no competing intermediate stops or major obstacles

It supports the National Network

Cons:

It is a long leg resulting in higher cost per city connection

A major intercity link may promote unwanted growth in San Antonio

The key argument is that the San Antonio to Houston leg, while not being a no-brainer to build on its own, becomes a viable project within both the regional and national scheme.  Whereas the Houston - Dallas link would have priority, and Dallas - San Antonio is a more interesting project as it coincides with a series of urban city stops, the San Antonio to Houston leg ties it all together and provides the entirety of the Triangle connections with traffic from the National route.