The Train The Train

Bullet train from Dallas to Houston takes big step with design hire

4 Texas Central Rail high-speed bullet train rail

The high-speed train will get from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes.

Photo of the N700 courtesy of © JR Central

The Texas Bullet Train moves one giant step forward with the hiring of a firm to work on the project's design and engineering. Texas Central, developer of the high-speed train project, has forged an agreement with Fluor Enterprises Inc., based in Irving.

Fluor Enterprises is the primary operating subsidiary of Fluor Corporation and The Lane Construction Corporation. Fluor and Lane would be the preferred design-builder of the North Texas-to-Houston line after development phase and financial close.

Texas Central, Fluor, and Lane will work together on refining and updating the project's construction planning and sequencing, scheduling and cost estimates, procurement, and other design and engineering activities related to the civil infrastructure.

The train is a 240-mile line that will connect North Texas and Houston in 90 minutes, with a midway stop in the Brazos Valley.

According to Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar, that Texas Bullet Train has received attention from world-class firms wanting to be part of the project.

"We are excited to partner with firms that have deep Texas roots," Aguilar says in a release. "This is the latest in a long list of Texas-based companies helping build the train, including Freese & Nichols, Contract Land Staff, and Survey And Mapping."

The project is investor-led and will not be taking federal or state grants for its construction or operations.

Fluor has expertise designing and constructing high-speed train infrastructure, along with a record of accomplishment on large, complex civil construction projects for more than 100 years. Lane has more than 125 years of experience in leading heavy civil construction projects, specializing in highways, bridges, rail, metro and mass transit, airport systems, and power and energy projects.

Texas Central said Fluor and Lane have no equity or ownership stake in the project and will not be involved in land acquisition.

Lane has been involved in extensive mass transit works in the U.S., performing all aspects of work, including design, permitting, quality control, environmental requirements, construction, system integration and system safety certification.

Lane has worked in Texas since the early 1980s. Its Texas projects include a $300 million design-build joint venture to construct managed lanes on SH 360 from Interstate 20 to US 287 south of Arlington; extending runways and taxiways at Fort Worth Alliance Airport; and reconstructing segments of Interstate 35 in North Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, and San Antonio. The signature Brazos River Bridges on I-35 in Waco won the 2014 Engineering Excellence Award. Lane is also a joint venture partner on the $1 billion I-35 Express project from Dallas to Denton.

Lane's parent company, Salini Impregilo, has experience in high-speed trains in Italy with the Bologna-Firenze, Milano Torino, and current Milano-Genova lines, as well as in other countries. They are currently active in the construction of metro systems and railway lines such as the Red Line in Doha (Qatar), one of the largest infrastructure developments in the Middle East; Line 3 of Riyadh’s new metro (Saudi Arabia); and Cityringen, Copenhagen’s new metro (Denmark).

The latest progress on the Texas high-speed train includes preparing environmental assessments, engineering, and other areas. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) continues to work on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which will help determine the project timeline and final route.

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Sprawling Celina

This booming Dallas suburb is the No. 1 fastest-growing city in U.S.

Facebook/City of Celina

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Small cities in big Texas metro areas were the fastest growing municipalities in the United States last year, and the Dallas suburb of Celina ranked No. 1 in the country, followed closely by other DFW cities.

Celina, Princeton, Melissa, and Anna — all part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex — were the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of 20,000 residents or more from mid-2024 to mid-2025, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In general, smaller communities in the South, such as these, outpaced the rest of the nation, which has experienced a population slowdown since the start of the immigration crackdown last year, according to figures released Thursday, May 14.

Fulshear, in metro Houston, was the second-fastest growing U.S. city. The five Texas cities' year-over-year growth rates ranged from almost 15% to almost 25%.

In pure numbers, Celina, with only 64,000 people, grew by more residents — 12,700 — than Seattle and Houston, cities that are 12 times and 37 times larger respectively.

Small- to medium-sized cities hit a sweet spot between the largest U.S. cities, which were most impacted by the loss of immigrants from the crackdown started last year during the second Trump administration, and anemic growth in small towns, according to Matt Erickson, a Census Bureau statistician.

Texas cities dominate
Nine out of 10 of the largest population gainers in pure numbers were cities in the South because of a healthy job market and its comparative affordability. The biggest numeric gainers were Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and Celina.

Fort Worth leaped over Jacksonville last year as the 10th most populous U.S. city, putting four Texas cities in the nation's top 10 most populous, with the other cities being Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

Austin skipped over San Jose for the 12th most populous spot, as Texas’ capital city surpassed 1 million residents for the first time. It is now one of a dozen U.S. cities with 1 million residents or more.

Seattle was the only non-Southern city to crack the top 10 in numeric population gains last year, at the No. 5 spot.

What's driving population losses
The two cities with the greatest rates of population loss last year — Twentynine Palms, California, by Joshua Tree National Park and Key West at the southern tip of Florida — were in places with tight housing markets. Their losses ranged from -2.4% to -2.9%.

In Twentynine Palms, a large chunk of the housing stock has been converted into short-term rentals for tourists heading to the national park. Just under 40% of its housing is occupied by its owners, compared with the national average of 65%, according to Census Bureau figures.

Hemmed in on all sides by water, the limited housing stock in Key West, as well as some of the highest home insurance rates in the U.S., have driven up housing costs for the Conch Republic. The median price for a home in Key West was $1.3 million at the start of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Other cities that had some of the biggest rates of population loss last year were hit by natural disasters.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida’s Gulf Coast within weeks of each other in late 2024. Remnants of Helene blew through western North Carolina, leaving behind damaging tornadoes and flooding. Among the cities with the greatest rates of loss were Asheville, North Carolina, and several cities on Florida’s Gulf Coast, including Pinellas Park, Dunedin, Largo and Clearwater.

celina growth population growth census suburbs celina