BEDIAS, Texas - A group of state lawmakers have filed legislation intended to derail the proposal of Texas Central Railway, who hopes to construct a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas.
This railway would make the commute from Houston to Dallas under 90 minutes but would also cut through areas of the Brazos Valley that are privately owned.
One of those lawmakers is State Representative Leighton Schubert (R- Caldwell), who is adamant on lobbying against the project as he says it would force people to give up their private property rights.
"The reason we filed legislation today was to protect private property rights, and also to protect the Texas taxpayers, who will be asked to pick up the tab if it fails. That tab is a little over $21.5 billion," said Schubert.
One of the private property owners that could be effected by the proposed high-speed train is Randa Calhoun, who says she had no clue this project was going to happen until she saw a post from a neighbor on Facebook.
"At the hearing TCR talked about how they had been working on the project for nine years, but there was no notification to the county judges that had been effected by the project or landowners at that point. So you would have thought if they had it that long they would have been in frequent communication," said Calhoun.
Randa says this land has been in her family for almost a decade and that her parents worked hard in order to be able to pass it down to her and she wants to be able to do the same for generations to come.
"This land was built for human, wildlife and livestock to be able to appreciate God's beautiful creations, not a high speed train," said Randa.
