The City of Austin and other regional transportation groups announced Feb. 1 a plan for high-capacity transit that will connect seven cities in the next 15 years through urban and commuter rail, bus–rapid transit and express toll lanes.

"The plan is attainable. Now we have to make it happen," Mayor Lee Leffingwell said at a news conference at City Hall. "We all share in the responsibility to implement it, and not just the elected and appointed officials here today, but our business and community leaders also. We must make this a priority."

The plan, dubbed Project Connect, includes the MetroRapid bus–rapid transit system that will run along Austin's two busiest corridors: North Lamar Boulevard to South Congress Avenue and on Burnet Road to South Lamar. The system will launch in early 2014 and offer riders more frequent and faster service.

Project Connect also includes the regional rail system proposed by Lone Star Rail running from San Antonio through Austin along the Union Pacific rail line near MoPac and on to Georgetown. The vision calls for the expansion of the Red Line as well as construction of the MoPac express toll lanes scheduled to start this spring or summer.

Project Connect was created from the leadership of the Transit Working Group, which was created by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Providing options

Project Connect partners include representatives from Capital Metro, the Lone Star Rail District and CAMPO. The group was charged with creating one transit plan for the entire Central Texas region to offer more mobility choices.

Sid Covington, board chairman for the LSRD, said having car-free options is important.

"While many of our citizens need to use transit, many more are choosing to use transit, particularly the younger people, because it can free them of stressful commutes, provide them with extra time that's normally being wasted now, offer community health benefits, and, the bottom line is, it can help save them money. Public transportation is far cheaper than owning a car," he said.

John Langmore, vice chairman for the Transit Working Group and for Capital Metro's board of trustees, said Project Connect partners are now studying a plan for the North Austin corridor to improve mobility from downtown Austin to Georgetown. The TWG is also looking at how to extend Capital Metro's Red Line to connect to the Capitol, The University of Texas and other activity centers via urban rail.

"All combined, we have a multimodal vision, which is going to ensure our long-term economic viability, and I would say just as importantly, our quality of life," Langmore said. "Of course the vision was the easy part—now you've got to implement it."

Implementation

The TWG brought in a panel of national transit experts who have developed high-capacity transit systems in other metropolitan regions to do a peer review and examine the planning process for Project Connect and for the urban rail project, said Linda Watson, Capital Metro president and CEO.

"We were happy to hear that we're doing a lot of things right on this process, and we're also here to listen to the advice they're going to give us for advancing our plans in the region," she said.

Panelists Steve Salin, vice president of rail planning for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, and Michael Allegra, general manager of Utah Transit Authority in Salt Lake City, gave their feedback during the Transit Working Group's meeting held just after the Feb. 1 news conference.

In developing Project Connect and plans for urban rail, Salin said that although the plan was comprehensive and all stakeholders were committed to it, it lacked projected ridership, particularly for urban rail, which is key in moving forward.

"In conversations with CAMPO, they understand that, and they're certainly going to take the steps necessary to get the details," Salin said.

He said the peer review panel also felt that the plan did not clearly articulate the purpose of urban rail.

"Every one of you needs to come up with that 30-second elevator spiel. If you can't articulate it in about 30 seconds, you need to do a little bit more work," he said. "... Being able to condense a project that has reams of paper behind it into 30 seconds or a one-pager with a couple of bullet points is a tough thing to do, but that's what these multimillion dollar decisions are based on."

Open house events

The Project Connect partners will host three open house events to introduce the public to the vision and transit map and to receive feedback.

The first two are 5–8 p.m. Feb. 19 at Seton Medical Center Hays in Kyle and 5–8 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Williamson Conference Center in Round Rock. The date for the Austin event is still to be determined.

For more information on Project Connect and to view transit maps, visit www.connectcentraltexas.org.