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

[sirkingwilliam]

More will be known after Friday's transportation forum.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story...a-d49321384e1d

[MaxPower]

good

[sirkingwilliam]

Yes, very good.

I've known about this for awhile, I posted that the city and county were thinking of going back to the table with light rail a while back, but I didn't think they'd get to an announcing point this soon. I am quite happy.

[JAM]

Great to hear. Hopefully progress in SA will light a fire under some AUS officials arsh.

Can they build light rail over a 90 mile distance? It is my understanding that light rail is electrified and used primarily in urbanized areas. Seems like commuter rail would be the answer between SA and AUS. I would love either. I would love to get down to SA more often, but really don't want to drive.

[sirkingwilliam]

Don't read too much into what KSAT.com wrote in that regard. I know one of the web editors and will see if he can correct that.

[sirkingwilliam]

I'm hoping whatever is proposed won't be as ambitious as the last proposal, though that really wasn't way it was voted down from what I've learned. I'm hearing the city/county wants VIA to amend their Downtown to Medical Center BRT line plan into LRT. As well as all their future lines.

[verbl]

I'm for it and maybe we can get the word out to the communities so they would see the benefits rather than crying about taxes and what not...... We could also cash in on the whole "GREEN" trend to jump start interest in any future LRT talks .

[sirkingwilliam]

It's quite exciting to see the city and county do so many things within just the last two years that will adversely improve the quality of living in San Antonio.

Without question this is undoubtedly due to both Phil Hardberger (and his good working relation with the county) and City Manager Sheryl Sculley.

[verbl]

I agree and and I feel that our city will indeed see that passing up on this in 2000 ma have been a mistake.

[jaga185]

Thank God for this, I surely hope that it will not be turned down. 2000's vote was a shame, but now with more residential downtown, and smarter people in power. Things will hopefully change.

[oldmanshirt]

So other than Bandera Rd. and Fred Rd., where would be some other smart places to do starter lines? Maybe start in Southtown and run along S Alamo up to Broadway, where it could connect with the River North trolley? What about a line running along Military that connects Lackland and South Park Mall with Brooks City-Base?

[sirkingwilliam]

I think there needs to be lines that connect large business areas or medical areas with downtown.

Red line: Downtown to the Medical Center (maybe up to La Cantera/The Rim)
Green line: Downtown to Westover Hills
Purple line: Downtown to the airport (then maybe to Stone Oak)
Silver line: Downtown to arena district
Orange line: Downtown to Brooks City Base
Blue line: Downtown to Port San Antonio and ending at Toyota or A&M-SA

6 lines that would virtually connect downtown with all the major suburban areas.

Also, a long shot here, but:

Plum line: downtown to New Braunfels (while connecting with Windcrest/Rackspace and Schertz/Cibolo).

downtown with Toyota with Port San Antonio and downtown

[oldmanshirt]

Well of course, that's what it would eventually become, I'm just thinking more along the lines of starter stuff that hits the right demographics (in other words, people who already don't own cars or who will soon be seriously looking at other alternatives).

From what I've read, it was the complexity of the 2000 proposal that was at least partially responsible for causing people to reject it. To many I'm sure it seemed way too ambitious, and since the funding battles over the new Spurs arena were fresh on people's minds, likely the thought that first popped into their heads was "we just dodged a bullet with the arena being funded with hotel taxes, and now they're trying to get us on light rail!" I dunno, maybe I have my timelines screwed up, but given that the price of gas was a lot cheaper back then, it's not surprising that people would reject the original plan as too ambitious and an unnecessary expense. And since we all know it sometimes takes SAians a little longer to catch on to these things (as evidenced by some of the reader comments in that article about monorails), that's why I was thinking merely in terms of starter stuff that could serve southsiders as well as Blue Star and areas that might be more inclined to take LRT everyday.

[coddat]

My problem with any proposal, that is not a starter line one, is that the NE side is always neglected. The NE side was not included in the 2000 proposal, and if it's not included in this one, if it is promoted as a full system, then I can't with conscience approve a light rail for San Antonio.

[sirkingwilliam]

There's no doubt that the northeast side will be considered now, it'd have to. You have Rackspace moving into Windsor Park and the Windcrest Village development just south of that. Also, Schertz/Cibolo was only 20,000-21,000 in 2000. Today it's an area of 60,000-65,000 people. Cibolo is growing by over 2,000 people a year.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by oldmanshirt

Well of course, that's what it would eventually become, I'm just thinking more along the lines of starter stuff that hits the right demographics (in other words, people who already don't own cars or who will soon be seriously looking at other alternatives).

Oh no, you misunderstood my post. Everything I have posted is the "build out" of light rail in SA for the foreseeable future. I agree, start small and grow from there. It was my fault for not elaborating more on what I had thought out.

[Paul in S.A TX]

Here is the 1999 proposal map. I think this time around it will pass. Once it passes and is built San Antonio will be even larger with even more commuting problems. So I think it is a must. San Antonio will probably have around 3 million plus people in 15 years.

[Trae]

That's a good plan.

[M1EK]

Originally Posted by JAM

Great to hear. Hopefully progress in SA will light a fire under some AUS officials arsh.

As I keep saying, it's too late; commuter rail precludes anything like this from ever happening in Austin (takes up the right-of-way the primary line in from the burbs needed and is incompatible with LRT trains).

Can they build light rail over a 90 mile distance? It is my understanding that light rail is electrified and used primarily in urbanized areas. Seems like commuter rail would be the answer between SA and AUS. I would love either. I would love to get down to SA more often, but really don't want to drive.

LRT can get up to 55-65 pretty easily - so, yes, you can use it for interurban service. Doesn't matter - the ASA rail service will have to be DMU or even worse, FRA-compliant, because there's nobody with a few billion dollars handy to build UP a new freight corridor and convince them to move to it.

[JAM]

Originally Posted by M1EK

As I keep saying, it's too late; commuter rail precludes anything like this from ever happening in Austin (takes up the right-of-way the primary line in from the burbs needed and is incompatible with LRT trains).

As an engineer by training, I don't believe in the words never ever