Here's the story:

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/tran...r-station-site

So it looks like this thing is going to happen sooner rather than later. The folks behind it have way too much money and influence and the state is fully on board (pun intended).

So my question is this: how would a bullet train linking Dallas and Houston affect the two oldest bases in our system?

Amateur prognosticators are encouraged to contribute ...

Meh...no big deal. During the early portion of the Wright Amendment, this would have been a big problem for SWA. These days, SWA can absorb a small decrease in DAL-Houston and not even see it on the balance sheet.

Why would people take a train that is twice as slow? Boeing gets me there in 47 minutes...the train, what, 2+20?

SWA can reduce the fare and people will still fly.

The Fed Guv will still require TSA screening to board the train...it just makes more sense to fly.

They're saying 90 minutes, Dallas to Houston, with one stop in the Brazos Valley (read: Waco).

I will believe it when I see the tickets being sold. Light rail and high speed rail are the great white whales of state budgets. They sound great, but when the dollars meet the balance sheet, it is generally not worth it. It is a drain on the state for as long as it exists. It will never sell enough tickets to even come close to paying for itself.
California has been threatening the same thing for decades. They already have a high speed rail that connects all the cities in CA, it’s called Southwest Airlines.
As far as it’s impact on SWA, they will just deploy a few flights worth of capacity elsewhere. I doubt they would even feel it. They end up canceling 1-2 flights a day as it is to get aircraft they need for disruptions.

I love Bullet trains and road them in Germany and Italy. My Garmin GPS shows 243 mph when we took it on the Italian Bullet Train. But Europe's culture is to take the train. 'Merica's is to hop a flight.

90 mins is still twice as long as a SWA flight.

These guys will need a lot of Fed money, and all that Trump Infrastructure spending is more likely going to rebuild outdated stuff, not new stuff.

More power to them, but ask Kalifornia how their HS rail project is coming.
SWA will put up a small fight, but in the big picture, they could prolly care less.

Forty five minute flight plus an hour check in is 105 minutes versus 90 and say a 15 minute check in and it's a wash. And when you get there you grab your stuff and you are downtown versus waiting 15 minutes for your bags and 20 minutes into downtown. So for some folks it will work.

TSA killed the short haul market with their long lines and admonitions to arrive at the airport 2 hours(!) prior to departure. Security theater has made flying seem so burdensome that a lot of people will decide if the price and hassle is worth the flight.


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For short distances it makes a lot of sense. I still don't know why there is not a bullet train between D.C., NY and Boston. There should have been one long time ago.

Acela is a high speed train, but they were constrained by the old track system. So they could never achieve the speeds on par with European and Asian high speed trains. They would need to lay new track designed for that purpose. Big infrastructure $$$

That said, the wife and I took Acela from NYC to BOS a few years ago and I felt as though the product was far superior to any of the airline shuttle products - and we were able to travel city center to city center in not much more time than flying would have taken if you add in travel to/from the airport, TSA, etc. Seats were huge, plenty of legroom, free WiFi, dining car, no TSA hassles. It was great!


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The other reason business travelers like flying shuttle routes is the ability to go every 30 min to an hour. It’s a lot easier to do that with airplanes than trains.
Look at the standby list for any DAL-HOU during peak times. It is full of business travelers that wrapped up early and have the luxury of going home on an earlier flight.
I agree with Zap that the TSA has done a lot of damage to shuttle routes, but most business travelers are packing light and able to use pre-check. They bypass the counter and head straight to the gate and get in line. On a normal travel day that takes about 15-20 minutes at either of those airports.