July 3, 2023 - TRA Newswire -

A local case study released recently, points out there are problems and pitfalls but there are also strong possibilities and a pathway to establishing regional passenger rail service in the heavily travelled I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin.

The in-depth 77-page report, "Getting On Track: Optimizing Rail for the Austin-San Antonio Megaregion", was prepared by students in the Community and Regional Planning master’s program within the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. 

The local case study on the Austin-San Antonio rail corridor, looked at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat analysis. The UT students developed a series of recommendations for developing the corridor for passenger rail and positioning it for success. 

According to the report, past efforts to connect Austin and San Antonio, such as the Lone Star Rail District, failed because they treated the endeavor as one project to create reliable passenger rail service between these cities. Instead, the report proposes two projects to optimize freight and passenger rail between Austin and San Antonio. One is called the Bluebonnet Bypass and the other project is called the Bluebonnet Express. 

"The report serves as a starting point for local and regional stakeholders as well as those of communities with similar needs. The Bluebonnet Bypass and the Bluebonnet Express will improve Central Texans’ quality of life, facilitate more sustainable growth in the region, and help support the emergence of the Austin-San Antonio metroplex," as the report states.

"Texans are serious about wanting more than to just be locked in a car on I-35 in traffic between these two major population centers in Central Texas," according to Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody. "This comprehensive report, along with another graduate thesis on establishing dependable rail service that we recently published on June 26th, should not be overlooked. Local, regional and state leaders have got to realize that the cost of doing nothing else but build more, wider highways is a slap in the face to future generations that want safe and dependable travel options."

The Getting On Track report recommends advancing both freight and passenger rail options in Central Texas and "suggest ways to overcome challenges faced in previous efforts to implement high performance passenger rail in Texas. These include political, systemic, land use and financial barriers."

"It's not like traffic on I-35 is going to get lighter or go away in the future", according to LeCody. "Look at the numbers. The report shows that for each 1% increase in population, there is a 3-4% increase in traffic on I-35 • I-35 is the most congested road in Texas for trucks causing major delays • Annual congestion costs between Austin and San Antonio are $500M."

A Power Point overview of the report can be found here: https://soa.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/documents/ut-austin-crp-rail-practicum-2023-austin-san-antonio-freight-and-passenger-rail-program-proposal-final-presentation.pdf

Photo credit: CBS Austin