http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/Vot...pid_buses.html
This wasn't ever discussed here that I know of... VIA board voted to study light rail and potential tie-ins to that before going further with BRT. Could be very good news, indeed...
Of course, gas prices have fallen below $2 again so who knows how fickle San Antonio would feel about LRT now...
the article from 10/30/08:
VIA Metropolitan Transit's planned route of fast and flashy buses on Fredericksburg Road has hit a road block after a rare split vote by the board.
The board voted 6-4 late Tuesday to stall the $100 million project for three months, giving a blue-ribbon task force time to rethink how bus rapid transit would conflict or complement a newer idea to put passenger trains on an old freight line a couple of miles to the east.
“It's not a matter of this versus that,” said board member James Lifshutz, who led the effort to slow the rapid buses down. “It's a matter of doing the right thing and figuring out what maximizes value.”
Other board members worry that the rapid-bus plan, promised to voters in a 2004 sales-tax election, could get banished to a shelf and its money cannibalized for the rail initiative.
“Are we going to reduce, eliminate, forget about BRT?” Linda Chavez-Thompson asked. “I'm 1,000 percent there for light rail. It's how we get there and what's going to fund it that I'm concerned about.”
VIA opted to build an eight-mile rapid-bus route from downtown to the Medical Center as a cheap way to offer some of the glitz and speed of light rail. Scheduled to start in 2012, the service would include longer buses, a dedicated lane part of the way and traffic-signal controls to speed up travel.
But last month, County Judge Nelson Wolff proposed starting a passenger rail on an 18-mile line from Southtown to The Rim that Union Pacific says will be vacated in a few years. He and others believe shuttle buses or track extensions could link to busy centers along Fredericksburg Road.
The VIA board agreed unanimously Tuesday to do a $164,122 study to look at track conditions, types of trains to run, potential stations and connections to Fredericksburg Road.
Due in December, the study will also consider the differing roles of rail and rapid buses.
“Are they mutually exclusive? I don't think so, but maybe they are,” Lifshutz said. “If not mutually exclusive, how does one add value to the other and vice versa?”
The blue-ribbon committee, appointed last summer by Wolff and Mayor Phil Hardberger, will use the VIA report to help forge the city's transportation vision, and will suggest ways to pay for projects. Lifshutz and Chavez-Thompson are among the dozen members.