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Former Dallas Mayor Kirk advocates for new high-speed train in Texas at industrial conference in Dallas. (Photo: Markku Björkman)

Prominent backing for new Texas high-speed train

Published: Wed, 2015-03-04 11:41

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New railway by late 2016

New railway by late 2016. Ron Kirk, the former U.S. trade ambassador, member of Obamas cabinet and Dallas mayor, announced he joined as a senior advisor the Texas Central Railway, a private firm, seeking to start a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston.

Kirk said he "enthusiastically accepted the invitation" to join the Texas Central Railway (TCR) as both an investor and partner. He said that the demographics of Houston and Dallas, the geography of the flat lands in between them, and the funding structure TCR has established, create the best circumstances in the nation for a high-speed train.

The project is a privately funded enterprise and includes the investment, consultation and technology of Central Japan Railway Company (JRC), a company that operates 323 high-speed passenger trains each day on the line between Tokyo and Osaka.

Kirk will continue to serve as senior counsel in the Washington, D.C., and Dallas offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Asked if his previous ties with the Obama administration will help TCR, Kirk stressed that as a former member of the president's cabinet he is "very constrained in what I can do in terms of influence."

- The administration has made no secret of its strong support for bringing high-speed railroads to this county, Kirk said.

He expects TCR to break ground for construction of the new railway by late 2016.

Kirk left Obama's cabinet in 2012 to join Gibson Dunn. Before his cabinet post, he served as a partner in the Dallas offices of Vinson & Elkins from 2005 to 2009 and in the Dallas offices of Gardere Wynne Sewell (then Gardere & Wynne) from 1995 to 2005, during which time he also served as Dallas mayor. Kirk made an unsuccessful bid as the Texas Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002.

Source: Texas Central Railway Project

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