August 8, 2016 -  The Capital Area Municipal Planning Organization board voted 17-1 to take the rail project out of its long-term plan, likely killing the rail agency.



The loss of the Union Pacific option led to the CAMPO vote, but Austin’s mayor will try to revive discussions.



Lone Star Rail had focused on using an existing Union Pacific line before the company ended talks in February.



August 8, 2016 - Ben Wear / Austin American-Statesman
Updated: 9:38 p.m. Monday, Aug. 8, 2016  |  Posted: 8:34 p.m. Monday, Aug. 8, 2016





Highlights

The CAMPO board voted 17-1 to take the rail project out of its long-term plan, likely killing the rail agency.


The loss of the Union Pacific option led to the CAMPO vote, but Austin’s mayor will try to revive discussions.

Lone Star Rail had focused on using an existing Union Pacific line before the company ended talks in February.




By Ben Wear - Austin-American Statesman - August 8, 2016




Perhaps the Lone Star Rail District never had a shot.

And, based on comments from Union Pacific on Tuesday, the day after a local planning board all but scuttled the 13-year-old Lone Star Rail, the prospects for a last-ditch effort by Austin Mayor Steve Adler to bring Union Pacific back to the table appear shaky as well.

Without the use of Union Pacific’s existing rail line for its Round Rock to San Antonio corridor, a passenger rail line in that stretch has no immediately obvious route.

“From the very beginning of the process, UP has stated to the folks at Lone Star, and anyone else we talked to, that our priority is serving our existing customers and any other future customers,” Union Pacific spokesman Jeff DeGraff told the American-Statesman. “We explained that we needed unfettered access to our customers.”

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/transportation/lone-star-rail-on-life-support-after-campo-vote/nsCRf/