Report: Texas Central obtains $300 million loan for bullet train project

Texas Central Partners has secured a $300 million loan toward the development of its proposed 240-mile, Dallas-to-Houston bullet train, the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday.

The company will use the loan, which is backed by Japanese sources, to advance the permitting, design and engineering on the project, the newspaper reported.

If completed, the project would become the first privately owned high-speed train in the United States. The company has said it plans to use Japanese Shinkansen technology for the train.

"This is a loan to be paid back with interest," the company said in a prepared statement to the newspaper. "It does not change the train's majority-Texan ownership."

Much of its current equity comes from Texas investors. When the loan is added in, it will get the company to the "point at which all of the capital required to construct is fully committed" and construction is authorized, Texas Central officials said, according to the newspaper.

Company officials have said the privately funded project could cost $12 billion to $15 billion.

Currently, the project is under environmental review by the Federal Railroad Administration, which issued a draft environmental impact statement in December.