(FORTUNE Magazine) – Sleek and sophisticated, the 186-mile-per-hour Train a Grande Vitesse opened its newest route from Paris to Le Mans in September. Can Texas or Florida be far behind? Morrison Knudsen, the Boise, Idaho, construction and engineering company, and GEC Alsthom, the British/French outfit that makes the world's fastest train now in commercial use, announced plans to connect Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston in less than two hours by 1998. (For more about Dallas, see The Economy.) Florida also has a fast train system in the works. Concerned that more highways would damage the fragile ecology, the state has cleared the tracks ( for a Miami-Orlando-Tampa system, with one leg -- either Orlando-Tampa or Orlando-West Palm Beach -- to be built by 1995. To entice private bidders to the project, Florida will provide the right of way, streamline real estate development rights, and issue tax-exempt bonds. The competitors: a group led by GEC Alsthom and another led by Asea Brown Boveri, which makes some of Europe's high-speed trains. The best U.S. route for rapid rail is the New York-Washington corridor now served by Amtrak's Metroliner (top operating speed: 125 mph). Amtrak, which the government has been trying to privatize for years, says it is interested in a high-speed train. The $1 billion cost is another matter.