Crews have begun tearing down the old Northwest Mall in Houston, and the company behind a proposed Dallas-to-Houston high-speed rail line says the work is a foundational step toward getting the project built.
The 45-acre site near U.S. 290 and Loop 610 has been eyed as the future Houston terminus for the project for years.
Contractors working for Cadiz Development Houston, LLC, a partnership under the common control of Texas High-Speed Rail Holdings, LLC, recently broke ground on demolition, which is expected to take roughly 12 months to complete.
A company spokesman said the work is “important early enabling and foundation work that will allow the project to proceed as soon as we get the green light,” adding that plans for a mixed-use development to complement the station are also being evaluated.
The mall opened in 1968 and served the Houston area for nearly five decades before closing in March 2017. It has sat largely vacant ever since, though the site’s connection to the rail project has been rumored for years.
Texas High-Speed Rail Holdings, previously known as Texas Central, is proposing a roughly 240-mile route between the two cities using technology based on Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train system, capable of speeds exceeding 200 mph. The line would include a single intermediate stop in Grimes County, roughly equidistant between College Station and Huntsville.
Developers project the system could carry around 6 million passengers annually by 2039 and more than 13 million by 2050. Ticket prices, according to the project’s website, are expected to range from roughly comparable to driving on the low end to similar to flying on the high end.
The project has had a rocky road. A nearly $64 million federal planning grant that Texas Scorecard reported on in September 2024, awarded to Amtrak by the Biden administration to move the project forward, was pulled by the Trump administration last year, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calling it a risky venture for taxpayers. Amtrak subsequently ended its involvement, returning the project to private hands.
Texas Central’s representative told a state House committee earlier this year that Texas investor John Kleinheinz had bought out the Japanese investors in January, though the company had acquired only about a quarter of the roughly 2,000 land parcels needed for the right-of-way.
Opposition in the Texas Legislature has remained consistent. State Rep. Cody Harris filed House Bill 1402 to extend an existing ban on state funding for private high-speed rail projects and bar local governments from using public money to alter roadways tied to rail construction, while State Rep. Brian Harrison filed House Bill 663 to strip the company of its eminent domain authority.
Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, who also serves as president of Texans Against High-Speed Rail, was blunt about the demolition activity. “If they’re telling people that this project is moving forward, they’re lying to people and lying to their faces,” Duhon told ABC13.
For now, there is no confirmed timeline for when construction on the rail line would begin. Demolition of the mall site is the most visible sign of activity on the project in years.
