Jerrod KingeryA new update on Austin’s light rail project features a more detailed look at the plan designed to transform the capital city’s transit system.
On Jan. 10, Austin Transit Partnership submitted the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the project to the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) in order to secure federal funding.
The DEIS is meant to illustrate the impact the light rail project will have on the current environment as well as identify opportunities for those impacts to be mitigated.
RELATED: City of Austin considering pedestrian-focused reimagining of Congress Avenue
The plan adds 9.8 miles of new light rail along with 15 new stations across Austin. The north section runs along Guadalupe from 38th Street to MLK Blvd and serves the University of Texas at Austin campus and medical facilities.
The downtown section also runs along Guadalupe from MLK to Lady Bird Lake, serving government facilities, the convention center and hike and bike trails. A new station would be added at Wooldridge Square at Guadalupe and 10th Street in order to improve access to light rail downtown.
The south section runs from Lady Bird Lake south to Oltorf Street and from South Congress east to Interstate 35. Once crossing a new bridge over the lake, the line would connect to East Riverside Drive.
Electric trains powered by overhead wires would run approximately every five minutes through peak hours during the day and 7.5 minutes during off peak hours. Pedestrian and bike paths would be installed alongside the tracks.
Austin voters approved a $7.1 billion bond in 2020 that included the light rail plan. The project design has undergone modifications since originally being introduced to voters and was scaled back in 2023.
A public comment period is now open through March 11. To view the entire DEIS, click here.
Photo courtesy CarmenEsparzaAmoux, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
