Dive Brief:
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Austin Transit Partnership revealed updated plans for Project Connect, the city’s $7 billion light rail project, including a new station near downtown and a bridge that would extend over Lady Bird Lake, as part of its draft environmental impact statement released Jan. 11.
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The 9.8-mile light rail project is taking public comment until March 11 and plans to finalize its environmental impact statement in late 2025.
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The project, which city voters approved in a referendum, faces potential funding and other challenges at the state and federal levels.
Dive Insight:
The latest update to the plan includes a new station at Wooldridge Square, near the Texas Capitol, due in part to community feedback asking for more stations in the downtown area, said Lindsay Wood, executive vice president of engineering and construction with ATP, the local agency overseeing the project. It also adds a bridge over Lady Bird Lake, the body of water that divides north and south Austin, with an elevated station on the bridge’s south side.
“You have a narrower footprint when you're elevated because on a bridge, the only [things] at the ground level are the columns versus the full width of the system,” Wood said.
The light rail line would have 15 stations that cut north-south through the city’s downtown and turn east after crossing Lady Bird Lake. It also lists priority extension stations further north, south and east, including to Austin Bergstrom International Airport, that it would pursue if funding were to become available. According to ATP’s website, the light rail line expects to be open for service in 2033.
ATP plans to use federal funding to finance half of the project. The draft environmental impact statement release came out shortly before the Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal funding on Jan. 27. On Feb. 25, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan granted a preliminary injunction ordering the administration to resume the disbursement of funds, but it’s unclear whether all funding streams have resumed. ATP said it does not anticipate the temporary funding freeze affecting the light rail plan.
“The project does not require federal funding in 2025,” said Jennifer Pyne, ATP executive vice president for planning, community and federal programs.
The project previously faced opposition at the state level. An effort to bar the local funding mechanism for Project Connect failed during the legislative session in 2023. The new Texas legislative session began Jan. 14, but, as of March 4, no bill targeting the project has been filed.
