Jones sat down with the Telegram on Friday to talk about his trip and what this concept - called the Texas T-bone - means to Texas and Temple.
Telegram: Who went with you?
Jones: Our chairman, Judge Robert Eckels, he’s the former Harris County judge, and we had David Dean, who’s the president of the public policy consulting firm that we work with, Dean and Associates. We had Commissioner Maureen Dickey, a Dallas County commissioner.
Telegram: What was the purpose of the trip?
Jones: We’re really looking for how we can bring entities and experts from around the world to help us build this in the United States, more specifically Texas, because there is nobody in this country that does it. We’re asking: How did you pay for it? How did you do the engineering? What are the costs of the technology? What are the estimates? What kind of obstacles did you run into?
Telegram: Why Shanghai?
Jones: Shanghai, China, has the only commercially operational magnetic levitation train in the world. It went 280 mph at top speed. For 280 mph it was a smooth and comfortable ride, about 20 miles. It takes about seven minutes.
Telegram: Did you learn anything about how they financed it?
Jones: At most of the countries we went to, they’re publicly held companies. They’re basically state financed. They work to be as operationally profitable or self-sustaining as they can. Typically, the infrastructure is provided by the state, the nation, the country itself.
Telegram: How will the Texas T-bone be financed?
Jones: Our vision and goal is to have this built privately, through private-public partnerships. There is certainly a requirement that government is involved. There’s safety issues that the government’s going to oversee.
Telegram: What about right of way?
Jones: It takes a special track. All overpasses. There’s no place, when the train comes, the gates are going to come down. You got to have berms and barricades to keep animals from walking out there. It’s a totally isolated system. And there’s a good chance it’s going to be a totally elevated system.
Telegram: If elevated, how high?
Jones: High enough that you can drive trucks underneath it, roads can cross underneath it, cows can walk underneath it, tractors can drive underneath it. It doesn’t cut the farms (and ranches) in half. They don’t have to go way out of their way to get from one side of the county to another.
Telegram: What is your role as a vice chairman of this high-speed rail corporation?
Jones: I have no authority granted to me. Our corporation has no authority from the state of Texas, but it’s a grass roots effort. Grass roots meaning, the cities and the counties, as opposed to being pushed down from TxDOT or from the governor, or from any high level. We’re getting the word out and doing research.
Telegram: How will this affect Texans?
Jones: I think what this can be to the state of Texas, as far as an economic impact generator, is exactly what the interstate highway system has been to the United States. What would our economy be today if we did not have the interstate highway system? I think this can have that kind of impact on the economy of Texas.
Telegram: Do you have another trip planned?
Jones: No. Not right now, it’s just, let’s just work the home front.
More information on the Texas T-bone can be found at: www.thsrtc.com
