FRA grants rulemaking petition for Texas Central's bullet train

The proposed project to build a bullet train between Dallas and Houston took a major step forward last week when the Federal Railroad Administration granted the Texas Central's petition for a rule of particular applicability (RPA), company officials announced.

The RPA is a comprehensive set of custom rules that will be applicable specifically to Texas Central and used to govern the railroad's system and operations. Texas Central, the private company that wants to build the high-speed rail system, filed its petition for an RPA in April 2016.

“The FRA’s action on the RPA marks a major milestone in our quest to bring a transformative mobility solution, while minimizing impact on the environment and land use, as opposed to other options,” said Texas Central Chief Executive Officer Carlos Aguilar in a press release. "We will meet or exceed all requirements the FRA mandates, to ensure we have the safest high-speed rail system in the world.”

The Texas train will be based on Central Japan Railway's Railway’s Tokaido Shinkansen technology, considered one of the world's safest transportation system. Texas Central intends to bring the latest generation of this technology to the United States, the N700S, which will be introduced into revenue service in Japan, in the coming months.