I don't think we've discussed this yet, but a pretty major Amtrak expansion will likely be rolling out in Texas over the next few years, and SA stands to be a fairly major beneficiary:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...o-17500197.php
https://www.texasrailadvocates.org/p...s-in-the-state
https://www.amtrakconnectsus.com/map...tonio-houston/
https://www.amtrakconnectsus.com/map...in-fort-worth/
There's multiple (potentially competing?) proposals here, both from TxDoT and Amtrak. It's unclear what's already funded from ye olde infrastructure bill, what TxDoT is asking the TX Legislature to give as matching funds to Amtrak projects, and what's unfunded pie in the sky. But here's what's on the table at least:
-On the I35 corridor, at least one new daily roundtrip to Dallas, with a new stop in New Braunfels (finally) and Arlington. The TxDOT letter asks for "new train sets" (plural) on the Sunset Limited (I10) and Texas Eagle (I35 corridor). On the Texas Eagle, based on the current schedule one train equals one daiy round trip, for reference.
-On the Sunset Limited (I10), Amtrak is envisioning 3 daily round trips, with new stops in Seguin, Flatonia and Rosenburg. As with the Texas Eagle, the TxDOT letter doesn't specify frequency, only that it wants more trains. And hopefully someone will find some pennies somewhere to throw at that embarrassing Houston station.
-Finally, TxDOT asks for a mysterious new line to the "Rio Grande Valley", neither specifying route, frequency or destination. This proposal comes only from TxDOT, so there's no details available from Amtrak, all we have to go on is what was in the TxDOT memo. Some media reports make it sound like they're counting Laredo as the RGV (which to me is definitely not the Valley but whatever), but it could be that there are both SA-Laredo and SA-Harlingen routes on the table. This route(s) is intriguing because it connects SA with populous regions that currently have no direct air service to San Antonio. So, there is potentially a market here for rail travel (there's certainly a shit load of buses currently between SA and these cities). On the other hand, it could be argued that you'd be better taking these trains and increasing frequency between the big cities (probably the correct take).
Anyway, I'm sure we all agree that none of this is anywhere near adequate rail service for such a populous and prosperous region of the world. As excited as I am about this, what we're aspiring to here is still embarrassing. The best of these routes would be roughly equivalent to the Piedmont service in North Carolina, which I've taken before and found useful. But it's not exactly super successful either, not as good as say New England's Downeaster or some of Amtrak's northern California routes. Which in turn are pitiful compared to passenger rail in basically any European country. I'm still greatly lamenting the untimely death of Lone Star Rail (and now the apparent move to hospice of Texas Central).
But with multiple trains a day on these routes, it will at least make the current system work better. And SA will be a hub of sorts for Texas passenger rail, with up to four regional rail lines plus the current long distance services to New Orleans/Los Angeles/Chicago. Maybe this will light a fire under the local authorities to finally move SA's Amtrak station to Centro Plaza. Apart from tying in better to the transit network and the old I&GN station being a much nicer waiting room, Sunset Station is too small for a network of this size. We'd be increasing from a current max of 4 daily arrivals/departures to 16ish will require more than the two current available platforms at Sunset Station. Portland OR has the same number of trains and has up to five platforms available, though I believe they only use four.