Originally Posted by TXlifeguard
Howdy all. Seems I'm a bit late to the party. Glad to see the downtown thread didn't slow down a bit over the holidays. Now, on to business....
Slow down a bit there Nostradamus. I'd also suggest you downsize your Venti cup of conspiracy to a Grande or a Tall.
Wolff, Hardberger, Castro, Cibrian, you, me, or anyone else for that matter wont have a say on the alignment. It was decided about 100 years ago when the existing tracks were put down. The plan calls for using the trackage UP will be abandoning in/near 2011. As it stands, that's the only way the plan makes any economic sense as the city/county won't have to make deal-breaking right-of-way land purchases (save for stations and other minor infrastructure projects). It was UP's pending abandonment of the line that brought LRT back from the dead.
I'm sure minor adjustments to small segments of the existing track would be made at points (chiefly, the northern terminus into/at/around The Rim development/Camp Bullis and the southern/eastern terminus into Ft. Sam.)
A true 'downtown' stop/path (say Commerce at Alamo or Main) was never in the works. Only way that happens is if:
1. a white knight rolls up with a fistfull of cash to pay for downtown property acquisitions to allow the tracks to be laid (likely using more land for trains requiring large turning radii as these wont be the expensive, nimble trains capable of 1/2 block turns- this whole deal will be done on the cheap, or it won't happen at all) and station construction, and;
2. a political leader comes on scene who has charisma and endless supplies of xanax to: A) calm angry San Antonio drivers who are just about fed up with grand-scale road construction projects, even for the greater good, and B) calm the fears of downtown business owners who are still fuming over the tri-party construction nightmare of 20 years ago.
Quite simply, a 'core' downtown station wont happen as long as there is a single, old, crusty, complaining, jim's-loving, retiree, geezer alive in this town. If the plan comes to fruition, the 'Westside Multi-modal Transit Center' (by UTSA downtown) is where the downtown stop would be located as the existing tracks pass right through there. And for the purposes of self-disclosure, I'm no fan of the Castro brothers. I think they're both tools. But to be fair, a multi-modal transit center has been planned (in some form) for the near west-side since those boys were in diapers.
Don't misunderstand, I'm 100% for a stop in downtown 'proper' and beyond- I want a full system (none of this starter line nonsense), and I want it yesterday. But alas, most San Antonians are notoriously cheap and would be happy if their local government did nothing but provide fire and police services. With documented obesity on the rise in San Antonio, I don't see a thing wrong with hoofing it 10 to 15 blocks to catch the train. It would do us all a world of good.
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