Quote:
Originally Posted by KeepSanAntonioLame
Commuter rail won't happen until both SA and Austin have their own light rail.
|
This is exactly how false information gets put out there. Rick Reader comes on here, reads that, and next thing ya know a bunch of people think that its some law that we have to have light rail before we can explore commuter rail. I realize you were just posting your opinion- wrong that it is- but its confusing to those who dont know whats going on.
Since I have clients in Austin, and am up there 3-4 times a month, I've been jonesing for this to happen for some time. So I've been following it pretty closely. Here's where it stands.
1. The planned route would be from the Port of SA (to be used as a maintenance base) and run through DT on existing UP tracks up through New Braunfels, San Marcos, Austin, Round Rock and ending in Georgetown. I believe its 149 miles or so.
2. The Austin San Antonio Intermunicipal Rail Corridor has been formed as the agency to manage the project. All municipalities along the way have joined as members. They have completed their feasibility study and have put in requests for funding at the federal level.
3. The original plans called for using the existing UP trackage, and having UP build a new track parallel outside the cities in rural areas. The stalemate has been that it's gonna cost UP something between $500 million to $2 billion to do so. UP is down for it if the state, feds or cities will pay for it. No one is rushing to the front of that line.
4. The track relocation has been necessary to the project due to the amount of freight traffic on the existing trackage. The rail plan (as envisioned when the feasability study was completed noted commuter surveys that indicated people would only use it if the trip by rail was as fast or shorter than the same ride by car- but its important to note that this is when gas was $1.65 a gallon, not the nearly $4.00 it is now). UP obviously wants its freight to get to it's destination as quick as possible, and cant be forced to share its tracks, and delay its trains to allow a scheduled commuter service go through. So track relocation seemed the best option (except for the huge cash outlay that no one wanted to front). So the ASA sat by and looked for funding to get relocation going. Meanwhile, earlier this year, no one expected....
5. Amtrak sent the ASA a letter of interest in possibly operating the system. This was huge. If Amtrak operated the system for ASA, UP is responsible for the maintenance issues on the track; and most importantly, scheduled Amtrak service has priority over freight traffic, even on UP's own trackage as a part of the 1970 federal Rail Passenger Service Act.
So there we are. Amtrak is reviewing the feasibility study. If they are on-board (pun intended) then it could be a matter of 12-18 months before it gets off the ground, and would be significantly cheaper to the local governments to participate in. Personally, I couldn't imagine the interest not being there with gas what it is now. I drive a F-150 and it now costs me about 65 bucks to make the round trip from my apartment to north Round Rock. I'd gladly cut that by two-thirds and take the train.