As Travis County Choose Andy Brown runs for reelection, one in all his high marketing campaign priorities is constructing a prepare between Austin and San Antonio.
“You need trains; I need to give ‘em to you,” Brown wrote in a Threads publish on Monday.
The decide continued: “A high precedence for my workplace is constructing a passenger railway between Austin and San Antonio to unlock transit on I-35, assist hundreds of between-county commuters and alter the best way we journey for the higher.”
Even so, might not need to get their hopes up.
The Austin-San Antonio prepare concept has been round for many years, and it’s appeared to choose up steam lately. Final yr, the Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee, launched by Brown and Bexar County Choose Peter Sakai, started holding month-to-month conferences.
Nonetheless, it stays to be seen how the brand new committee differs from the Lone Star Rail District, an earlier committee that sought to attach San Antonio and Austin. Regardless of paying out hundreds of thousands in marketing consultant charges, the District by no means laid down a single foot of rail monitor.
And the first impediment that killed the Lone Star Rail District nonetheless stays.
Union Pacific nonetheless owns the first rail line between San Antonio and Austin, and the corporate is probably going nonetheless unwilling to increase passenger rail service on present tracks except a brand new freight bypass is constructed, because the Present has reported.
What’s extra, it’s unclear whether or not the notoriously fiscally conservative Texas Legislature has any urge for food for funding a high-speed rail venture.
Sakai, who’s additionally working for reelection and faces a Democratic major problem from former Mayor Ron Nirenberg, has notably left a doable rail line to Austin out of his marketing campaign platform.
Subscribe to SA Present newsletters.
Comply with us: Apple Information | Google Information | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Fb | Twitter | Or join our RSS Feed
Associated Tales
The prepare derailed round midday, sending vehicles capturing off the tracks and shaking close by buildings.
Mexican authorities officers attended the Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee’s assembly on Monday.
Officers might have a tough time convincing Union Pacific to surrender its present rail line for commuter service.
