Imagine a rail system that would allow you to catch a train in Austin and could get you to Dallas, Houston or San Antonio in minutes instead of hours. That's the vision the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation presented in San Marcos Thursday.

"Depending upon the technology that you use, this train is designed to go either 200 to 400 miles an hour," Sen. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio said.

Robert Eckels is the chairman for THSRTC. He said the rail line would be independent from tracks already in place around the state.

"We would hope to be running as close to possible within current corridors, and be largely elevated along the whole system," he said.

The exact location of the new tracks is still up in the air. The THSRTC’s current plan is called the "Texas T-Bone." According to the plan, lines would connect San Antonio, Dallas, Killeen and Houston, with Austin in the middle. Other stops would also be possible along the way.

"If there's any place that it could be made to work on an economic model that makes sense, with the market forces coming to bare, it ought to be Texas," Eckel said.

The system will be expensive. No firm price was given, but construction could cost $20 million to $50 million per mile. The complete project would add up to several billion dollars.

While the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation is made up of cities and counties, the corporation plans to use private money to build the system.

"People that have experienced this sort of thing in Germany, France, Japan,” Wentworth said. “The people use it all the time, they love it. It works well and it will here in Texas once we get it going."

The high-speed rail is not the same as the proposed Lone Star Rail, a commuter train that would run from Georgetown to San Antonio.

The two systems would use different tracks, but would complement each other.