Austin – five years ago, Austin’s voters said yes to a bond package that would fund building a light railway across the city, but Project Connect is unprecedented.
The transit of Austin’s transit leaders met this week and wanted to reassure the audience that he was happening.
Austin Tranzit, the group responsible for bringing the light railway to Austin, held a lunch this week to submit an update to its efforts.
“The Austin Transit Partnership has released an environmental influence statement, a prominent sign for us to continue the forward with Project Connect and Austin Light Rail,” said Ashika Ganguli, Executive Director Director.
“However, we are still witnessing a lot of continuous external threats to the project in Austin Light railway, specifically legislation attacking the local Austin control and our ability to build light railways here in the city, continuous lawsuits and the federal financing that is seized.”
ATP said they are hitting the prominent landmarks, and this work happens, and that they are still on the right path to start construction in 2027.
“One of the comments we get in this effort … all the time, move, but let’s put the project under construction.
Capmetro is also a major player in the future of Austin Tranzit, and works alongside ATP and the Ministry of Transport in Texas.
“Most people do not realize the amount of work that must be done between the idea and in fact love to transform dirt and tear the streets,” said Dotti Watercins, CEO of Capmetro.
“I need every one to tell us 10 people about what is going on with Project Connect and that things are progressing and continuing to move forward.”
Watskins said that the key to a lesser headache for traffic in a series of construction projects, such as I-35 Capital Express, is to explore your options.
“We will encourage many people to use the bus. We will encourage people to work from home. We will encourage people to try Vanpool, to try the railways for passengers, to try alternative methods, so there will be a lot of solutions that come out to that,” Watercins said.
ATP has also released new offers for the light railway system and how it could look.
“I have a vision of Austin in 2035 through full light railways and continuous service improvements on our buses, sharing our bike, and all other CAP Metro services, and I see that vision. I know that everyone who will be in this room today sees that vision, and we are ready to make it a reality,” said Gangulory.