The idea of connecting Dallas and Fort Worth with a high-speed train was part of the briefing for the Dallas City Council on Wednesday.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments(NCTCOG) Director of Transportation Michael Morris along with Amtrak and others showed the plans that have been in the works for several years.
“We can extend from the current high-speed rail station west of the Hyatt Regency as well as east of the Hyatt Regency,” Morris said.
But it's the idea of crossing to the east of the hotel and Reunion Tower that is concerning to some city council members.
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“We’ve heard different thoughts about the impact on reunion,” Dallas City Council member Jaynie Schultz said. “For me, there’s some givens on reunion. I find, like I do about this building, that it’s an iconic Dallas building and it could be threatened with this alignment.”
“I always thought it would be in my mind as described to me cut off a little bit of the sort of grassy area close to the trinity and not actually go right through in front of the hotel,” Dallas City Council member Chad West said. “So that brings me some concerns on the current design.”
Morris said going to the west of the Hyatt doesn't provide the best options for future transportation connections at the Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station.
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“You probably wouldn’t be making all those intermodal connections because the route is nowhere close to Union Station,” Morris said.
Hunt Realty Investments, which owns the Reunion Tower and hotel, put out a statement that says in part the route to the east would “… put at serious risk the economic viability of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Reunion Tower.”
The briefing brought up a lot of issues and questions still to be answered.
“I want it all,” West said. “I think all of us on here like the concept. What I didn’t get into, what bothers me about the current design, is how it cuts off part of downtown. I don’t like that.”
