Austin, Texas, light rail project advances amid political uncertainty

Dive Transient:

• Austin Transit Partnership revealed updated plans for Challenge Join, the town’s $7 billion gentle rail undertaking, together with a brand new station close to downtown and a bridge that might lengthen over Girl Chook Lake, as a part of its draft environmental impression assertion launched Jan. 11. 

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

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

Dive Perception:

The newest replace to the plan features a new station at Wooldridge Sq., close to the Texas Capitol, due partially to group suggestions asking for extra stations within the downtown space, mentioned Lindsay Wooden, govt vp of engineering and development with ATP, the native company overseeing the undertaking. It additionally provides a bridge over Girl Chook Lake, the physique of water that divides north and south Austin, with an elevated station on the bridge’s south facet. 

“You could have a narrower footprint if you’re elevated as a result of on a bridge, the one [things] on the floor stage are the columns versus the complete width of the system,” Wooden mentioned. 

The sunshine rail line would have 15 stations that lower north-south by means of the town’s downtown and switch east after crossing Girl Chook Lake. It additionally lists precedence extension stations additional north, south and east, together with to Austin Bergstrom Worldwide Airport, that it will pursue if funding have been to develop into accessible. In keeping with 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 undertaking. The draft environmental impression 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 Decide 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 mentioned it doesn’t anticipate the short-term funding freeze affecting the sunshine rail plan. 

“The undertaking doesn’t require federal funding in 2025,” mentioned Jennifer Pyne, ATP govt vp for planning, group and federal applications. 

The undertaking beforehand confronted opposition on the state stage. An effort to bar the native funding mechanism for Challenge Join failed through the legislative session in 2023. The brand new Texas legislative session started Jan. 14, however, as of March 4, no invoice concentrating on the undertaking has been filed.