A beleaguered plan to build a pack of new park-and-rides across the Austin metropolitan area finally caught a break on Monday evening. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization voted overwhelmingly to formally approve an agreement with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a collaboration to plan, pay for […]
CAMPO
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is the regional planning organization for Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson Counties. Its membership is drawn from the elected officials of those municipalities, as well as various cities that fall within the region, including the City of Austin. CAMPO’s focus is on regional transportation issues.
Posted inWilliamson County
Williamson County upends park-and-ride plans
The Williamson County Commissioners Court last week refused to go along with an ambitious plan aimed at planting eight new park-and-rides along Central Texas toll roads. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority cooked up the proposal last month in partnership with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. CTRMA staff […]
Posted inTransportation
CTRMA advances park-and-ride plan
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is charting a path pocked with bureaucracy toward a set of brand new park-and-rides along its toll roads and express lanes. On Tuesday, the agency’s board of directors gave staff the green light to apply to a state agency for unused Qualified Energy Conservation bonds allocated by the federal […]
Posted inRoads
Work on MoPac to last into 2017
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is tooting its horn over the partial opening of a new toll lane on MoPac Expressway while also remaining cagey about the expected completion date of the entire project. At the agency’s monthly board meeting on Wednesday, staff gave a glowing report on the operations of the fresh stretch […]
Posted inTransit
CAMPO kills Lone Star Rail, commits to finding alternative
The kill-shot came abruptly and mercifully for the Lone Star Rail District (also known as LSTAR) on Monday night. After months of procedural dickering, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board spent less than 10 minutes discussing the matter before voting to remove from its long-range planning document the proposed passenger rail service […]
Posted inTransit
CAMPO meeting spells terminal trouble ahead for Lone Star Rail
The long-suffering effort to install passenger rail service between Austin and San Antonio could effectively be put to rest on Monday evening. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board of directors will likely vote to remove the Lone Star Rail District from its long-range plan, known as CAMPO 2040. The vote promises to be the […]
Posted inTransportation
Capacity, regional cooperation take center stage at transportation forum
Standing beside four other representatives from local and regional governments on Tuesday, Mike Heiligenstein of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority declared that Central Texas has to build its way out of congestion. “We cannot solve our problem without adding capacity in every sector of the region. Not just Austin, but the entire region,” Heiligenstein […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO votes to reduce Travis County representation on key panel
Travis County residents will have a smaller voice in regional transportation planning after a vote on Monday that County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said for her was “a dark night of the soul.” The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board approved a streamlining of the Technical Advisory Committee, reducing its membership from 33 to […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO proposal could dilute voices of Austin and Travis County
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt is pushing back against proposed reforms to a key part of regional transportation policy planning that could cost both the county and the city of Austin important seats at the table. At issue is a proposal to rewrite the bylaws of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Technical Advisory Committee. […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO vote signals the oncoming end for Lone Star Rail
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization gave the Lone Star Rail District (LSTAR) an all but fatal kick in the caboose on Monday night. Members of the CAMPO Transportation Policy Board overwhelmingly voted to begin the process that will remove LSTAR from CAMPO’s long-range plan. The resolution also includes a request to the Texas Department […]
Posted inTransportation
TxDOT clarifies MoKan dos and MoKan don’ts
The Texas Department of Transportation has closed the door on running public transit without an accessory road project on a future travel corridor that runs between Interstate 35 and State Highway 130. On Thursday, a TxDOT spokesperson told the Austin Monitor that the “MoKan corridor could not be exclusively rail,” a decision that could upend […]
Posted inTransportation
CAMPO approves long list of short-term projects
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) on Wednesday night approved a nearly $1 billion laundry list of transportation projects that are set to break ground over the next four years. The 2017-2020 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) contains a total of 69 highway projects spread out across CAMPO’s six-county domain. Also folded into the TIP […]