A Reason Foundation report this month asserting that the Texas Central Railway’s (TCR) high-speed rail project isn’t feasible without huge public subsidies has put a new chill on the project as it moves into its ambitious second phase. Promoters bill the project as a purely private venture, raising expectations for White House attention on permitting issues and debt subsidies. Hopes for quick action were deflated recently, however, when the White House was reported to have decided it would defer any action on infrastructure for a year.