Project Connect planners are still weighing options of investing in either urban rail or bus-rapid transit in downtown Austin and how that transit would cross Lady Bird Lake.

Project Connect is a regional transit plan that includes bus and rail service to connect cities in Central Texas. It is broken into several corridors with the Central Corridor covering downtown Austin receiving the second highest priority. The planning team is considering route options between Riverside Drive and Highland Mall to connect downtown Austin, the Capitol complex and The University of Texas.

Planners released information on the cost for each transit mode during the April 11 meeting of the Central Corridor Advisory Group, led by Mayor Lee Leffingwell.

Urban rail would cost about $4 million per car while BRT costs between $800,000–$900,000 per vehicle, Urban Rail Lead Kyle Keahey said. However, urban rail cars have a lifespan of about 25 years versus 12 years for BRT. Urban rail carries twice the number of passengers than BRT, which Keahey said would affect traffic.

"The consequence of BRT is you have a lot more vehicles on the street going through your signal system, potentially getting bunched up, getting off schedule and you lose reliability," Keahey said. "Those are factors we are taking into account as we do our analysis."

Crossing the lake

The team is still considering the $175 million bridge option as well as two tunnel options to cross Lady Bird Lake. The shorter tunnel would go under the lake at Riverside Drive and come up at Cesar Chavez Street for a cost of $240 million. The longer tunnel to 17th Street has an estimated price tag of $475 million.

Keahey said the issue with the short tunnel is that the project could lose some of the Federal Transit Administration's cost-effectiveness factor, which means the ridership gained offsets the cost.

"The one that really gets my attention is the FTA cost effectiveness because we're totally dependent upon federal participation," Leffingwell said. " We absolutely can't overcome losing out with the FTA."

The longer tunnel would allow for greater speeds. Keahey said the longer tunnel would be less visible and could reduce options for placemaking. Leffingwell disagreed.

"I think this is a positive for placemaking," he said. "You don't have all the apparatus on the street level, but the placemaking is the actual presence of that mode of transportation, not the visible infrastructure."

CCAG member Pat Clubb, vice president of university operations at UT, said she would favor looking into the longer tunnel option because the shorter tunnel does not seem to have as much benefit for its cost.

Keahey cautioned the CCAG about choosing a tunnel option and seeking funding from the FTA.

"One of the areas they kind of bristle about is when you talk about tunnels," he said. " Their experience has been that tunnel projects go over budget and take much longer to implement."

Early on the planning team eliminated retrofitting existing bridges at Congress Avenue or First Street because it would negatively affect traffic, Keahey said. He said the team did not conduct a traffic impact study.

"The bigger impact is we take away two lanes of capacity that are sorely needed everyday, and that was unacceptable to us," he said.

The team also released a preliminary operation plan indicating that the transit would operate daily between 6 a.m.–11 p.m. weekdays and 6 a.m.–2 a.m. weekends. Transit frequency would be 10 minutes during the three-hour peak periods in the morning and afternoon and 15 minutes in off-peak hours.

The team is still considering options to maneuver through the Hancock area and tunneling under Capital Metro's MetroRail line.

Should the Project Connect plan receive federal funding from the FTA, Keahey said the transit could be up and running by 2021.

The planning team will make its final locally preferred alternative recommendation for the route and mode to the CCAG on May 2. CCAG will vote on the recommendation June 13, and the Capital Metro board and City Council are scheduled to adopt the LPA at their June 23 and June 26 meetings, respectively.