Dallas City Wire

Landowners in central Texas are fighting Texas Central Partners’ efforts to build a high-speed railway between Dallas and Houston. 

In Jewett and other communities, landowners such as Jim and Barbara Miles don’t want to sell their property for the project. The company  has rights to buy just 30 percent of what they need in order to build the high-speed rail line. The Miles’ rejected an offer for $367,914 in 2016, for a 29-acre strip of land that bisects their ranch.

But the landowners are only part of Central Texas Partners’ problems. Other issues include questions of eminent domain authority, the length of the regulatory process, and finding investors for the $20 billion project.  

Also, the company laid off all 28 of its employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If high-speed rail is adopted between Dallas and Houston, it could make alternate transportation throughout the U.S. more popular but that argument is not swaying the landowners.

For Karma Sullivan, who found out the company’s preferred route cuts right through their property, the project affects her family's ability to grow a variety of crops, including corn, cotton, sunflowers and soybeans.

“We have a heritage here,” Sullivan said. “We don’t just farm. It’s our lives.”

The Sullivan family also does not see how Ellis County residents would benefit. They say between driving to the train station and staying on the train for the full 90-minute ride, it would take as much time to drive between Ellis County and Houston. The Sullivans do not plan to sell.

“They have used the excuse of being a private company to hide a lot of their data [from the public],” Karma Sullivan said. “But they want the privilege of eminent domain.”

But not all of the affected landowners are against the project. Leon County resident Nancy Beddingfield has been supportive from the start.

“I’ve come into some pretty good flak and criticism. That has not changed my mind. It’s a free country,” Beddingfield said. “I cannot wait until they bring in the equipment and start digging. I’m going to ride the first one from Houston to Dallas.”