Barack Obama and Texas’ senior U.S. senator may not agree on much. But both are aboard the concept of high-speed rail.

Obama’s federal stimulus plan includes $33 billion over five years for high-speed rail. Texas is unlikely to see much of that because it is so far behind the curve. That doesn’t mean it should concede the race.

At a recent hearing, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison pressed the head of the Federal Railroad Administration about Texas’ role in setting up high-speed rail corridors. She mentioned the Texas T-Bone, a concept connecting major Texas cities using the Interstate 35 corridor. Hutchison was probing the ways freight and high-speed rail can co-exist without acquiring new property.

High-speed rail in Texas is a long way from shovels and spikes, but it’s important to have words like “Texas T-Bone” circulating in the nation’s capital.