Quote:
Originally Posted by JACKinBeantown
I can definitely see your point about BRT. But if there's a rail it could eventually connect to the overall rail network without the need for passengers to get on and off the bus. Trains can carry far more passengers than buses and the SA/Austin metro-grande will hit 5 million in the not too distant future. If designed properly, a BRT lane could be converted to rail at some future date. In any case, a dedicated lane in each direction for rail or BRT would be nice. There would, of course, be people (and oil companies) who would argue against it.
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Easy there Jack...
With the $1 billion+ price tag on this, we could have invested in a couple other viable options before adding on extra lanes, which I think are a vicious cycle.
Amtrak on the other hand has outgrown its home at Sunset, and they're looking to move over to the new Westside MM Transit Station. It has done so while mostly serving as long-haul. A trip to Austin costs anywhere from 20-30 bucks, one-way.
Megabus offers the 7-10 dollar trip one-way and does so at least 6 times a day. The schedule shows it to be a 90 minute trip. Amtrak can take up to 150 minutes, but of course they don't have dedicated line. If rail up to Austin could get closer in time to the bus, have a couple of stops in NB and San Marcos, then I think that it would be a good option to add if a lane was dedicated to rail.
However, if these are lanes for cars only, all it will do is add more traffic, add more sprawl and you can forget all of this talk about ever getting rid of 37, having Austin-San Antonio rail pushed back "another" 10 years more (at least) and SA not meeeting some of its 2020 goals for DT.
The city should tell the TxDOT "no" on this one.