Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and Travis County Judge Andy Brown have joined forces to organize a committee filled with state transportation experts to speed up conversations for a mega-metro rail service. This effort has been a long time coming for the two cities as the project has faced several expansion hurdles in the past that have prolonged the concept.
“The fastest-growing metros must leverage this moment to build a modern transportation system to serve the economic, environmental, and public safety needs of all central Texans,” Judge Brown said to the media in a release.
Both Sakai and Brown met in February to discuss the future of the rail line after a grassroots organization garnered support for the project from community members and local elected officials. The judge’s new committee is the first of its kind to be established in the region, and includes Amtrak experts, TxDOT, former and current elected officials, transit agency heads, municipal planning agencies, rail transportation experts, advocates, county judges and the committee director of the Texas House Transportation Committee, according to the release.
In the early 2010s, a rail line connecting Austin to San Antonio was in the works, but ultimately failed in 2016 due to both cities running out of money and Union Pacific, the owner of the track, pulling out of the deal.
“It’s imperative that frequent and dependable rail service happen, not only in the short run between Austin and San Antonio, but along the length of the I-35 corridor from Dallas-Fort Worth to Laredo,” Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody said in a release. “With only highways for travel choices we are facing a future of delays, delays and more delays in roadway traffic in this fast-growing state, and that’s not a plus for a good economy.”
The group will meet the first Monday of every month to determine the best way to establish the passenger rail along the I-35 travel corridor between San Antonio and Austin. At its first May meeting, the committee was presented with a letter stating intentions to advance passenger rail service and asking for broad support.
The letter will be signed by participating parties and forwarded to lawmakers at the capitol in Austin. Brown told KXAN that the passenger rail could run up to “five to 10 trips per day” as the committee continues to work with Union Pacific.
The committee is also looking at more options to connect San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and Houston.
Besides Central Texas judges Brown and Sakai, other committee members include:
Henry Cisneros, former United States secretary of Housing and Urban Development and mayor of San Antonio
Melissa Cabello Havrda, San Antonio Council Member, District 6, and chair of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Dottie Watkins, president and CEO for Capital Metro
Jeff Davis, rail division director for Texas Department of Transportation
Todd Stennis, government affairs director for Amtrak
Amy Rister, committee director, Texas House Transportation Committee
Joe Black, senior vice president for WSP Transit and Rail Operations & Service Planning
Ross Milloy, president of the Greater Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council
Clay Anderson, dxecutive director of Restart Lone Star Rail District
A.J. Bingham, founder and CEO of the Bingham Group
Jay Crossley, executive director of Farm & City
Veronica Davis, director of Cities Program at AtkinsRealis
Gavin Martin, director of Rail & Transit at AtkinsRealis
Karen Kennard, co-managing shareholder for Greenberg Traurig
Peter LeCody, president of Texas Rail Advocates
Bill McCamley, executive director of Transit Forward
Sandy Guzman, CEO, Austin Area Research Organization
Meg Merritt, principal for Movitas Mobility
Jerry Smiley, vice president and senior program manager for AECOM
John Kleinheinz, CEO of Kleinheinz Capital Partners and board member of Texas Central Partners
Andy Jent, private equity and special situations for Kleinheinz Capital Partners
Husein Cumber, chief strategy officer of Florida East Coast Strategies
Javier Dominguez, executive analyst of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council
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