May 14, 2026 - TRA Newswire -

To set the stage, over $11 million has been spent in North Texas, planning a high-speed rail extension from Fort Worth and Arlington to Dallas, where it would link up with a proposed bullet-train to Houston near the Dallas Convention Center. Two years worth of planning, changes and proposals have not gotten the high-speed rail line any closer to completion than a squiggly line on paper. 

The problem? Dallas City Council and officials can't seem to decide on an alignment. The council and city officials keep moving the goal posts. 

Go East in the Central Business District? That's a hard no. Go West of the CBD? Not sure. Go at-grade with the track?. Probably not. Go underground and hide the trains? Some want that. A faction of council members seem like they don't want high-speed rail in the city at all. 

Today, the Regional Transportation Council passed a motion to mediate with the city of Dallas and try to settle the issue once and for all time.

We already know that the Dallas City Council turned thumbs down on elevated rail lines anywhere near the Central Business District. Developers convinced the city that it would be detrimental to future projects around the Hyatt Regency and Reunion District. So the Regional Transportation Council(RTC) axed what was called the Eastern Alignment, which would have put above-ground high-speed rail along the Union Pacific right-of-way and skirting Dallas Union Station (building shown in red on map). 

That forced the RTC to focus planning on what is called the Western Alignment (shown in blue on map) for the last two years.

The alternate plan, the Western Alignment, put the tracks closer to the banks of the Trinity River. The rail line coming in from the west would make a hard right before meeting I-35 in downtown Dallas. The above-ground tracks would then snake through the jumbled interchange of I-35, I-30 and other nearby highways before the Convention Center terminal was in sight.

So far The RTC spent some $2 million planning the diversionary Western route, away from the Central Business District, to satisfy city fathers.  

In January, the Dallas City Council issued a resolution reaffirming no elevated rail lines anywhere near anything close to the Central Business District, and that could potentially include a parcel or two in the Western Alignment or city park property. That has thrown a curve to the planners at the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

That's why the RTC issued a motion today to request prompt response from the City of Dallas clarifying the intent of the January 2026 city council resolution on high-speed rail. In the meantime, work with the Federal Transit Administration on environmental clearance is on pause. 

One vocal TRC member, Dallas Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn, complained at today's RTC meeting in Arlington that she wouldn't be happy unless the train line came into the city south of I-30 and she doesn't even want the line to run at-grade. She also complained that the RTC would be picking up the tab for relocating the Dallas County Criminal Justice Center west of downtown (which is in future county plans to be moved, regardless). 

Some in Dallas want the train line to be below-ground and not visible from anywhere downtown, but that would be extremely expensive and not be feasible with the above-ground station already approved for the Dallas to Houston bullet train. 

Should no agreement be reached, there are several other options that could be considered:

• The RTC could continue the planning and design work on the elevated Western Alignment that skirts downtown and pick a future fight with the city someday in the future 
• The RTC would have to repay millions of dollars to the Federal Transit Administration if the plans are cancelled altogether
• There is one other option which would cut Dallas out of a link to the West, period. A high-speed line could run from DFW Airport and Arlington to Fort Worth and then to Austin and San Antonio. Cities along the I-35 route previously signed memorandums of understanding with the RTC and would be interested in the project. Dallas would be left out in the cold.