Austin, Texas, light rail project advances amid political uncertainty

Dive Temporary:

• Austin Transit Partnership revealed updated plans for Venture Join, town’s $7 billion gentle rail mission, together with a brand new station close to downtown and a bridge that may prolong over Girl Hen Lake, as a part of its draft environmental affect assertion launched Jan. 11. 

• The 9.8-mile gentle rail mission is taking public comment till March 11 and plans to finalize its environmental affect assertion in late 2025. 

• The mission, which metropolis voters accredited in a referendum, faces potential funding and different challenges on the state and federal ranges.  

Dive Perception:

The most recent replace to the plan features a new station at Wooldridge Sq., close to the Texas Capitol, due partially to neighborhood suggestions asking for extra stations within the downtown space, stated Lindsay Wooden, government vp of engineering and development with ATP, the native company overseeing the mission. It additionally provides a bridge over Girl Hen Lake, the physique of water that divides north and south Austin, with an elevated station on the bridge’s south aspect. 

“You will have a narrower footprint while you’re elevated as a result of on a bridge, the one [things] on the floor degree are the columns versus the complete width of the system,” Wooden stated. 

The sunshine rail line would have 15 stations that lower north-south by town’s downtown and switch east after crossing Girl Hen Lake. It additionally lists precedence extension stations additional north, south and east, together with to Austin Bergstrom Worldwide Airport, that it might pursue if funding had been to turn into obtainable. In response to ATP’s website, the sunshine rail line expects to be open for service in 2033.

ATP plans to make use of federal funding to finance half of the mission. The draft environmental affect assertion launch got here out shortly earlier than the Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal funding on Jan. 27. On Feb. 25, U.S. District Choose Loren AliKhan granted a preliminary injunction ordering the administration to resume the disbursement of funds, but it surely’s unclear whether or not all funding streams have resumed. ATP stated it doesn’t anticipate the non permanent funding freeze affecting the sunshine rail plan. 

“The mission doesn’t require federal funding in 2025,” stated Jennifer Pyne, ATP government vp for planning, neighborhood and federal applications. 

The mission beforehand confronted opposition on the state degree. An effort to bar the native funding mechanism for Venture Join failed throughout the legislative session in 2023. The brand new Texas legislative session started Jan. 14, however, as of March 4, no invoice focusing on the mission has been filed.