Train Ride

High-speed train from Houston to Dallas in 90 minutes 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/Fort Worth 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.

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.

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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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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