Train Ride

High-speed train from Dallas to Houston gets new boss and chunk of cash

Central Rail high-speed bullet train rail

The Texas Central Railway high-speed train will connect DFW and Houston.

Photo courtesy of JR Central

The high-speed passenger railway between Dallas and Houston has a new boss and an infusion of funding.

The Board of Directors of Texas Central Partners (Texas Central) has appointed Tim Keith of Dallas as the new CEO for the organization, effective immediately.

Texas Central also announced the closing of a round of development funding that brings $75 million dollars in new capital, all from Texas-based investors into the company. The offering was oversubscribed and the funds will be used to support ongoing development activities.

Texas Central is the private, Texas-based and Texas-led development company that will construct and operate Texas’ first high-speed passenger railway between North Texas and Houston as well as the terminal stations and surrounding development.

As CEO, Keith will be responsible for leading all aspects of the system’s finance, development, construction and eventual operations. He will also develop and implement Texas Central’s vision for high-speed rail in Texas and serve as the primary interface between internal operations and external stakeholders.

Keith was selected from a number of potential candidates because of his nearly 25 years of financial and operational experience in large real estate and infrastructure projects.

He was formerly the Global Chief Executive Officer of RREEF/Deutsche Bank Infrastructure Investments, where he managed the worldwide operations of the firm’s infrastructure funds management businesses. He had a 10-year career with RREEF/Deutsche Bank, a New York-based global alternative asset management firm, where he held various senior executive positions and served on the firm’s Global Executive Committee.

Keith previously co-founded HKS Capital Advisors where he served as its chief investment officer. He was also an executive at Hunt Realty Investments where he helped found, grow and sell Meridian Industrial Trust.

The Texas Central board is comprised of chairman Richard Lawless, Robert Eckels, John Kleinheinz, Jack Matthews and Melvin Richmond.

In a statement, Lawless described Keith as the ideal person for the job.

"Over the last five years we have focused on selecting the city pairs, building the team of advisors, and starting the regulatory review," he said. "Tim is the perfect person to lead the project into the next phase. Under his leadership, we are confident Texans will soon be traveling from Houston to Dallas in less than 90 minutes on a privately-developed transportation solution."

Texas Central Railway (TCR) is the independent company formed in 2010 to promote the adoption of high-speed rail in Texas. It will continue its efforts related to the regulatory process — including the ongoing Environmental Impact Statement — in close coordination with Texas Central.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings noted that "investors from our own Texas communities have determined that private high-speed rail is not only needed, but it’s worthy of their financial investment."

Houston Mayor Annise Parker called it "an exciting project" for Houston, Dallas and Texas. "After riding the train in Japan and witnessing its success there, it is great to see confidence in the project from Texas investors," she said.

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who needs a raise?

Here's the income it takes to be in the top 1 percent in Texas in 2026

Hundred dollar bills, top 1 percent earners, income study

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

The income needed to be ranked among the top 1 percent of earners in Texas has snowballed past $800,000.

In a state where local billionaires are wealthier than they've ever been, high-earning Texans need to make $73,000 more than they did a year ago if they want to be among the top 1 percent of earners, a new report has revealed.

SmartAsset's latest study analyzed income thresholds for the top 1, 5, and 10 percent of earners in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using 2022 IRS data for individual tax return filers (the most recent year available), adjusted to 2026 dollars.

Texas has the 11th highest income threshold, with residents needing to make a minimum of $817,158 to be considered among the top 1 percent of earners statewide. In 2025, Texans needed to make about $744,000 to be among the top 1 percent.

For comparison, residents living in the nation's capital must make at least $1.16 million to qualify as top 1 percent earners. The District of Columbia led the nation with the highest income threshold to be a top earner.

To be considered among the top 5 percent of earners in Texas, a resident would need to make $312,671. The income threshold to be considered among the top 10 percent is $210,609.

SmartAsset additionally found that 128,130 Texas residents qualified as top 1 percent earners in 2022. Nationally, the report estimated that fewer than 2 million households earn enough to be considered among the top 1 percent of earners nationwide, but 23 million households rank among the top 10 percent.

"In some places, households can enter the top 1 percent at income levels that fall well below the threshold elsewhere, reflecting an uneven landscape of wages and wealth," the report said.

A separate SmartAsset study that tracked the upper and lower thresholds for middle class households found Dallas residents need to make anywhere from $49,549 to $148,646 to maintain their middle class status. But in other North Texas cities, residents can make up to $291,000 — a figure that would place them between the top 5 and 10 percent of earners — and still be labeled "middle class."

The top 10 states with the highest thresholds to be considered in the top 1 percent of earners in the U.S. are:

No. 1 – District of Columbia ($1,156,664)
No. 2 – Connecticut ($1,147,898)
No. 3 – Massachusetts ($1,006,921)
No. 4 – California ($987,325)
No. 5– New Jersey ($969,976)
No. 6 – New York ($959,562)
No. 7 – Florida ($956,449)
No. 8 – Washington ($903,303)
No. 9 – Colorado ($828,772)
No. 10 – Wyoming ($819,014)

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