9.5-mile urban rail route from Highland Mall to Riverside Drive (Austin: school, costs)

[SFOtoAustin]

in 2020?

[10scoachrick]

Is that in dog years? You mean THIS 2020?

[SFOtoAustin]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Is that in dog years? You mean THIS 2020?

As per,

Urban rail route from Highland to Riverside would cost $1.38 billion - Community Impact Newspaper

[10scoachrick]

Huh...I have a feeling they will still be TALKING about it in 2020...just sayin'.

[ppp38]

I doubt it passes in November

[ScoPro]

Just triple or quadruple the costs & add 10 years onto the completion date if they really want to be honest about it.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by ppp38

I doubt it passes in November

I agree, it won't pass with the current routing. And definitely not in a big November election, when turnout will be higher. I'm pretty sure they know that, too, which makes it extra strange. Perhaps they are just throwing it out there as a longshot attempt before 10-1, since they know it there is no chance after that.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Just triple or quadruple the costs & add 10 years onto the completion date if they really want to be honest about it.

Please name a light rail line in the US that has cost _600 Million_ per mile to construct.

[gpurcell]

Originally Posted by atxcio

I agree, it won't pass with the current routing. And definitely not in a big November election, when turnout will be higher. I'm pretty sure they know that, too, which makes it extra strange. Perhaps they are just throwing it out there as a longshot attempt before 10-1, since they know it there is no chance after that.

I think its just a bunch of inertia.

A fairly small group of people are benefiting from--and pushing--this ridiculous routing: UT Austin (Med School, Football, and--wait for it--the new arena that will anchor south Town Lake development at the current Statesman site), whoever is the money behind Hancock, ACC (part of their plan to close Riverside and Rio Grande), AISD (Sell/Lease Rio Grande campus for big bucks), Leffingwell (Mueller), and the Downtown Alliance (new bridge over lake, train to take visitors up and down Waller Creek and other points of interest). It's clearly not designed to solve transportation issues for residents of this town.

Problem: the routing is so bad it fractured the mass transit advocacy folks they were counting on to support anything on iron.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by gpurcell

Problem: the routing is so bad it fractured the mass transit advocacy folks they were counting on to support anything on iron.

Absolutely. Large contributor to why it will fail.

Always wondered why this route? Seems the dirty little secret is that the politician drum bangers for the (Riley, Spelman, Mayor) have sent messages that a Lavaca/Guadalupe alignment is politically dead. Why? The traffic lane removal on those well used streets would be a bigger issue than on Trinity and the rest of the proposed route. So we have a route chosen not by optimal planning, but by politics.

Seems like the Red Line operating subsidy would teach a lesson about what happens when you ignore the best transit planners in the book in a mad rush to do "something".