Transportation. 89th TX Legislative Session, 2025
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- May 30
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Latest Update: 28 May, 2025
Summary: Journal of blogs, articles, and sources about TRANSPORTATION ISSUES in the 89th Texas Legislature, 2025. • Willow Park Civics reads widely, deeply, and daily, and then provides an INDEX of the activities of the 89th Texas Legislature, whose regular session is scheduled to meet from January 14, 2025, to June 2, 2025.
Latest update: 28 May, 2025
Transportation. 89th TX Legislative Session, 2025
• Journal of Willow Park Civics Blogs, other articles, and sources about TRANSPORTATION ISSUES in the 89th Texas Legislature, 2025.
➜ Index, Transportation Development in and around Willow Park. Willow Park Civics Blog
Journal
• Landowners Praise Bill Requiring Transparency of High-Speed Rail Project, The Texan, 20 May 2025
House Bill (HB) 2003 passed both houses of the Texas Legislature.
The bill would require the project, which is part of the Texas Rail Plan, to submit an annual disclosure to the Texas Department of Transportation about the following:
• Proposed method of financing and its availability;
• Recent balance sheet;
• Estimated full cost of the project;
• Costs for each year of construction;
• Proposed completion timeline;
• Ridership projections;
• Proposed route;
• Organization chart; and
• Any foreign investment.
• Texas high-speed rail ‘not moving anywhere anytime soon’ amid lawmaker opposition, Fort Worth Report, 12 May 2025
Texas legislation to support high-speed rail has apparently stopped in its tracks.
House Transportation Chairman Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican, said high-speed rail is a tough sell in the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature, particularly among lawmakers in East and Southeast Texas who have become increasingly combative after years of acrimony over the long-proposed Dallas to Houston line.
• Texas Legislature Advances Bill That Would Slash DART Funding, Dallas Express, 07 May 2025
A Texas legislative proposal threatens to significantly reduce the funding for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).
Texas House Bill 3187, authored by Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano), proposes a 25% reduction in DART’s one-cent sales tax collection from its member cities. The funds would be placed into a new general program that cities can use for other transit-related projects.
• Trinity Railway Express commuter train service could be cut if lawmakers reduce funding, Fort Worth Report, 06 March 2025
The Trinity Railway Express — the popular commuter rail line that connects Fort Worth and Dallas — could be eliminated if legislation to decrease transit funding is approved by Texas lawmakers.
The railway is threatened by two bills — House Bill 3187 and Senate Bill 1557 — that are targeting Dallas Area Rapid Transit funding. The nearly identical bills would reduce contributions from member cities by 25%.
• Bills targeting Dallas transit could have ‘unintended consequences’ for Fort Worth, leader says, Fort Worth Report, 26 April 2025
A Trinity Metro transit official waded into discussions about a proposed transportation funding bill that could eliminate the Trinity Railway Express train between Fort Worth and Dallas.
The Trinity Railway Express — the popular commuter rail line launched in 1996 links downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas — could be stopped if legislation to decrease transit funding is approved by Texas lawmakers. The railway is threatened by two bills — House Bill 3187and Senate Bill 1557 — that are targeting Dallas Area Rapid Transit funding. The nearly identical bills would reduce contributions from member cities by 25%.
• Texas Central Says Dallas-to-Houston High-Speed Rail Project is Still Alive, The Texan, 18 April 2025
• Lawmaker Files Bill Targeting Tax Maneuver Behind and Changes to Austin’s 'Project Connect' [light rail plan] The Texan, 06 March 2025
The Texas Legislature will take another stab at putting the final nail in Project Connect’s coffin, Austin’s $11 billion and rising light rail plan, and particularly the tax maneuver deployed to pay for it.
State Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway) filed House Bill (HB) 3879 that would prohibit the use of property taxes collected under the Maintenance & Operations (M&O) rate to pay off debt incurred for capital expenditures by a local government corporation.
In 2020, Austin voters overwhelmingly approved a 20 percent property tax hike to the city’s rate to partially pay for a then-$7.1 billion light rail project. But where debt issued for capital projects usually falls on the Interest & Sinking (I&S) side of the tax rate, Austin’s city council devised a unique maneuver, instead raising the M&O side of the equation — revenues that would then be transferred to the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP), a local government corporation — to pay for the project.
Since then the cost of the project has ballooned for inflationary and logistical reasons...
Opponents argue that the project as it stands now is markedly different from that which voters approved five years ago, a contention that is central to Troxclair’s bill and surrounding lawsuits against the project.
• State Rep. Seeks To Reduce Transit Authority Funding, Dallas Express, 01 March 2025
A state representative has introduced a bill in the Texas House that would limit the amount of taxes that regional transit authorities could collect from participating cities. This measure could significantly impact the local Dallas Area Rapid Transit program.
HB 3187, filed by Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano), seeks to limit the sales and use tax imposed by regional transit authorities to three-quarters of a percent, 25% less than the one cent per dollar that the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) currently collects from member cities.
• High-Speed Rail Bills Proposed for 89th Legislative Session, The Texan, 20 December 2024
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