kaitoku wrote:Just talk?- Federal funding for Austin-San Antonio HSR
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/06/ ... peed-rail/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The most important paragraph in that news article:
"The funding would go toward the Lone Star Rail District, a long-standing partnership between area public agencies to eventually build a passenger rail system between the Austin area and San Antonio on a Union Pacific freight corridor that parallels Interstate 35."
What is the Lone Star Rail District plans?
To summarize in a simplify list form:
(A) Purchase the UP rail corridor between Round Rock and southwest San Antonio from UP.
(B) UP builds a new rail corridor with the money from the sale.
(C) Operate commuter rail trains at maximum speeds of 79 mph on the now Lone Star rail corridor while allowing UP to run local and service existing freight customers.
It was not high speed rail, or even higher speed rail. Lone Star wants the Federal funds to buy the existing UP owed rail corridor - much like Michigan buying significant sections of a rail corridor to Detroit within Michigan. I suppose if Federal funds were to become available, LSRD will promise higher speed rail to be implemented eventually at some future time. But that certainly wasn't their plans the last 10 years. The project or more akin to moving most of the freight to the outskirts of Austin.