{SA} Light rail proposed for San Antonio (again)

[sirkingwilliam]

I updated the 2000 LRT proposal map.

[alexjon]

This excites me!

I have plenty of drawn and mapped ideas for light rail in San Antonio, but given the realization that there are professionals who have been working on this behind the scenes for years, I'm going to keep these plans to myself.

They don't need any more fantasy maps muddling up the discussion

[SAguy]

KENS 5 reported that a study would be conducted in May to see how many passagers would use commuter rail between San Antonio and Austin. Did anyone catch the whole story?

[METALMiKE]

Here is the link to the video on MySA.http://www2.mysanantonio.com/multime...m?videos=51690

[KevinFromTexas]

^ Yes, Amtrak is looking to provide a commuter rail service between the two cities. There would be 6 trips a day. The train(s) would run on Union Pacific's line. The quote below by Jdawgboy mentions it. The link includes a letter from Amtrak and TxDot on PDF file.

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

KVUE did a story about Amtrack possibly joining in on the possible passenger train line between Austin and San Antonio.
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories....1c29a76d.html

[alexjon]

What can we, as a community, do to promote this?

[verbl]

^^^ yeah I made a comment about that earlier in a post I think we can come up with some great ways we can promote this idea. Like taking advantage of this energy crisis that is on everyones minds as well as the whole "green" mind set we are all on nowadays

[alexjon]

Community specific flyers, in english and spanish.

Things like:
"Trip to the airport:

-45 minutes in traffic
-$15 per night for parking
-15 minutes waiting for your shuttle
-A headache and a half

OR

-20 minutes by train
-$1.50 each way
-No hassle, no fuss.

Take VIA Rail today."

Another way is to equate gas with the tax cost, should it be paid by sales tax or similar. Take the average gas usage of inner-loop drivers per year, apply it to a $4 gas threshhold, and give a flat monthly pass rate in comparison.

For example, supposing $1.50 fares equating to a 35-40$ pass, you could easily say that riding rail all month is a savings over driving to work. This would easily work in the San Pedro and Broadway corridors. You could go further and compare those savings against average tax contribution under the plan.

Flyers like that passed out and delivered would work, I'm so certain. I'd even kick in money toward copies if it came to it and the design was good enough.

[KevinFromTexas]

Back in December I went with my sister and her boyfriend to San Antonio to visit the Riverwalk. And downtown was an absolute madhouse. We crawled only one block in 30 minutes. It took us an hour to find a place to park in downtown. Traffic on I-35 was slow too just north of downtown. It would have been extremely convenient if we could have just taken the train. Also if there was more regular rail service to San Antonio, I'm pretty sure I'd be going more often! I'd love it if they'd allow bicycles on the train. Oh god, that would be perfect.

[Aiphanes]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Back in December I went with my sister and her boyfriend to San Antonio to visit the Riverwalk. And downtown was an absolute madhouse. We crawled only one block in 30 minutes. It took us an hour to find a place to park in downtown. Traffic on I-35 was slow too just north of downtown. It would have been extremely convenient if we could have just taken the train. Also if there was more regular rail service to San Antonio, I'm pretty sure I'd be going more often! I'd love it if they'd allow bicycles on the train. Oh god, that would be perfect.

Actually traffic is very bad downtown during the Christmas season in SA. But outside of Christmas and Fiesta and final four...the traffic downtown is good.

The traffic is very bad on IH35 from downtown to new braunfels..heck...to austin..

1604 is also very bad...and so is 281 from 1604 northwards...

They are working on all the freeways...but not much is going to be done to IH 35.

San Antonio is actually screwed in the freeways, untill they start and finish the toll roads....and the loop 410 expansion.

[satxgreen]

Denver has a light rail cars that allow you to ride with bikes in the train cars..



http://www.rtd-denver.com/LightRail/index.html
I real think the ad campaign a good idea.
Dose any know when we are going to vote on a light rail proposal again?

[alexjon]

Originally Posted by satxgreen

Denver has a light rail cars that allow you to ride with bikes in the train cars..



http://www.rtd-denver.com/LightRail/index.html
I real think the ad campaign a good idea.
Dose any know when we are going to vote on a light rail proposal again?

May, I heard.

Most modern systems, like Portland's, have bike racks built into the train cars.

Seattle and Phoenix will have them, too.

http://trimet.org/howtoride/bikes/bikesonmax.htm

[Trae]

I think METRO in Houston, too. They were considering it, or maybe it was just a pipe dream at HAIF. I don't remember.

[alexjon]

Avanto trams usually have 4 bike racks per car, I thought-- or is that a custom thing?

[KevinFromTexas]

Austin's new commuter trains will allow bicycles. I would truly would love it for a commuter line between Austin and San Antonio to allow bikes. It would be so awesome to be able to ride the train down to San Antonio, then ride the bike around town. Whenever I'm in San Antonio I usually bring my bike to get around in downtown. I do the same just about where ever I go, even if I've gotten there by car.

[satxgreen]

we talk about LRT but dose anyone know how much its going to cost?? would it be safe to say $800 million

[alexjon]

satxgreen: I heard 1.9 billion in 2000 dollars, so probably something like 2-4 billion

[ATXboom]

alexjon... have any fantasy maps for austin light rail??

I would head to SA a lot more often if I could hop a train from Austin that was at least AS quick as the car...

[M1EK]

Initial phase





Eventual system



No need to fantasize; we had it available and could have just done it in 2004 or 2008. Now it'll never happen, nor will anything approaching true light rail (there's no major corridor in Austin other than this one which provides a good urban route plus a route out to the suburbs which will perform well enough to justify taking away street lanes on that urban route to provide reserved guideway).

[alexjon]

Yeah, I wasn't able to really visualize anything for Austin since it's fairly well hemmed in by population and geography.