The ROW should be purchased from the UP anyways, whether they decide to use it for light rail, commuter rail, or bus rapid transit.
Quote:
VIA Metropolitan Transit could end up shelling out about $450 million to get rail cars rolling every 20 to 45 minutes on a line from south of downtown to the Rim in about seven years. The service might grab more than 17,000 boardings a day at a dozen stations.
But San Antonio's sprawled development and lower incomes would hinder ridership, which, per mile, would be just half as much as lines in comparable cities, Taylor said. Also, the estimated 43-minute ride would take twice as long as a car trip.
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20 minute headways can be acheived with a single track line with passing sidings. Leave room to add the second track later, if and when density and riders increase. That alone should reduce the total capital costs by a third. You could save more using new articulated streetcars or light DMU trains vs light rail trains. It's 13 miles along the ROW to SH 1604, with 12 stations, they have a station located about every mile or so.
Skipping an occasional station or so, stretching station spacing up to 2 miles further out from downtown, would decrease the 43 minutes travel time to ~30 minutes, and the standard desired average into the ~30 mph range. Skipping a few stations would also save some more bucks. They could build it in two or more phases. They also need to study if extending the line southwest towards the Air Force bases increases ridership. That ROW parallels I-10 for a significant distance. It also parallels, offset by just one block, the main UP line that might be used for commuter or high speed rail towards Austin in the future. A station between the two ROWs could be used to service both.
A further study should be done, looking at all the options I have mentioned, before promising to build anything. I would go ahead and buy the ROW now! It's not often RR Corporations are willing to sell ROW cheap. While deciding what is the best transit use for the ROW, they could temporary build a bike way the full 13 miles, which should cost much less than $20 million for a permanent 10 feet wide concrete bikeway. With all the riiverwalks in San Antonio, this would make a great addition.