Austin’s newest light-rail vision – a $5 billion map set to redefine 10 miles of streets – is traveling two parallel tracks this week. On one track, city decision-makers are flashing the go-ahead signal, setting the stage for the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) to morph blueprints into steel and concrete.
On the parallel track, a bill in the Texas Legislature could obliterate the financial framework of the voter-approved transit expansion known as Project Connect. But only a few days remain for the bill to pass before the legislative session grinds to an end over Memorial Day weekend.
On Wednesday, the ATP Board of Directors stamped their seal of approval on the light-rail plan – leaving just City Council and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors to give a final green light.
The rail, recommended collectively by staff from ATP, Capital Metro and the city, is entirely at street level and travels less than half the 20.2-mile vision approved by voters in 2020.
Despite the truncated route, the plan carries a budget-friendly price tag under $5 billion and extends its reach in three directions from downtown – north, south, and east – laying the foundation for potential expansions.
Austin Transit Partnership. An infographic explaining the recommended light-rail plan: 9.8 miles of line with 15 stations serving an estimated 28,500 riders per day.
The light-rail plan “is going to be complex and it’s going to come with a lot of challenges, but I do think that it embodies so much of the aspirations of this community,” ATP Board Chair Veronica Castro de Barrera said before the unanimous vote. “It really is a visionary plan.”
But the ATP lost a passenger along the way. Tony Elkins, a transportation finance expert, resigned from the board in April. Now, he’s confounded by ATP’s choice to back a map that has 25 percent lower estimated ridership than a rival path: North Lamar Boulevard to Pleasant Valley Road.
“Makes no sense to me,” Elkins said. “Project Connect should be about mobility and moving the most amount of people.”
Austin Transit Partnership. The North Lamar to Pleasant Valley route would serve an estimated 39,000 riders per day by 2040. The chosen map would have fewer than 30,000 estimated riders daily, but would reach a more diverse ridership and include a section down Congress Avenue.
Elkins – a vice president at Meridiam, a Paris-based firm that finances long-term public infrastructure projects – said ATP should explore high-frequency bus service with exclusive, safeguarded lanes. He insists it could cover twice the distance for the same cost while reserving street space for a light-rail system in the future.
“We’re talking rubber wheels vs. steel wheels,” Elkins said. “The beauty of that is for the same amount of money, instead of getting 10 miles of mobility, you could get 20 miles of mobility.”
However, those favoring the light-rail system argue that two and a half years after the Project Connect vote, the moment has arrived to make a decision.
“There’s a time and place when those of us who believe in this vision, who want to see light rail become a reality in this community, have to rally together and fight,” João Paulo Connolly, a community organizer with the Austin Justice Coalition, told the ATP board. “Today is that day.”
Nathan Bernier/KUT. The recommended light-rail plan would travel down Third Street directly in front of the parking lot at ATP’s two-story headquarters on Colorado Street.
That fight is already taking shape under the Texas Capitol dome. A weekend deadline looms to pass House Bill 3899 – legislation conceived by Republican state Rep. Ellen Troxclair, a former Austin City Council member.
The bill initially proposed a requirement that ATP hold elections before borrowing the $1.75 billion in bonds and federal loans required for a public infrastructure project of this magnitude. The voter-approved tax hike, currently generating around $160 million annually, would repay this debt over a 35-year period.
As part of a political strategy, Mayor Kirk Watson – a former Democratic state senator – championed amendments to HB 3899 that he believed would make it possible for ATP to hold a “fair” bond election in November and move forward with building light rail.
Watson persuaded Democratic lawmakers to back the bill, securing the landslide margins needed for the law to take effect immediately and allow Austin to schedule an election for the fall. Without a two-thirds majority support, HB 3899 wouldn’t take effect until September – after the Aug. 21 deadline to call a general election for November.
But now that plan may have inadvertently played into the hands of Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a property tax hawk from Houston.
Michael Minasi/KUT. Monday is the last day of the Texas legislative session. By that point, all bills must have passed. Only corrections can be considered in the House and Senate.
As the bill was on the verge of final Senate approval, Bettencourt on Monday changed HB 3899 to align with his interpretation of a legal opinion from the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
Among Bettencourt’s revisions was a ban on any local government corporation like ATP issuing bonds that would be repaid with city property taxes raised through an election – exactly the structure created to pay for Project Connect.
In 2020, Austin voters authorized a 20.789 percent increase in the city’s maintenance and operations tax rate so the money could be transferred to ATP for financing and building light rail.
The modified HB 3899 requires the House’s blessing, creating an opening to kill it. Supporters and detractors are now scurrying to lobby the 150 members of the Texas House.
“This bill is much, much bigger than Austin now,” Mayor Watson said in a statement. “This fight is far from over.”
This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.
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Capital Metro: The city’s urban transportation system.
Project Connect: This project brought together a series of Central Texas transportation agencies looking to build high-capacity transit options in the region in the wake of CAMPO's 2035 regional transportation plan. The City of Austin's much-discussed 2014 Urban Rail plan was part of Project Connect's efforts.
Texas Legislature: The state’s legislative governing body composed of the House and Senate.
