Downtown Austin Plan - Urban Rail

January 20, 2009

Background

As part of the Downtown Austin Plan (DAP), the City Council asked a consultant team led by ROMA Design Group to examine options for future rail connections in central Austin. ROMA was asked specifically to study how passenger rail could connect Downtown with three destinations:

1. Mueller
2. ABIA
3. Zilker Park

Preliminary Findings

After reviewing previous studies, conducting a technical workshop (March 6-7, 2008) where various alignments and technologies were considered, the ROMA team evaluated each and developed a preliminary recommendation for a potential urban rail project with two overlapping routes comprising approximately 15.3 miles. These routes would be located along the following streets:

1. Seaholm Redevelopment to Mueller (via 4th Street, Congress Avenue, 9th and/or 10th Streets, San Jacinto, Dean Keeton, Manor Road and Berkman)
2. University of Texas to ABIA (via Dean Keeton, San Jacinto, 9th and/or 10th Streets, Congress Avenue, South Congress and Riverside Drive)

A map of the proposed alignment can be found at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/proposed_urban_rail_project.pdf

Evaluation Criteria

1. Connects destinations, jobs, housing and connects to existing and future transit lines;
2. Serves populations—especially transit-dependent—and maximizes ridership;
3. Supports transit-oriented development and creates potential value capture for financing the project; and
4. Is cost effective: uses streets/ROWs with sufficient width, preserves traffic capacity and achieves good cost/benefit value.

The proposed alignment was presented to the public on April 22, 2008 at a Town Hall meeting called by the City. About 120 people attended and provided input during an hour-long break-out session.

July 24, 2008 Downtown Urban Rail Connections Council Presentation

On July 24, 2008 city staff and ROMA presented the proposed urban rail project to the City Council. As part of the presentation staff recommended, and the City Council concurred, that the following next steps should occur:

1. Staff should seek further public input on the urban rail proposal.
2. Staff should work with Capital Metro to prepare a submittal for the CAMPO Transit Working Group (TWG) Decision Tree evaluation.
3. Staff should present the urban rail project submittal to Council for review and approval prior to submittal to the CAMPO Transit Working Group.

The July 24, 2008 Council presentation can be found at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/dap_rail_brief_072408.pdf

Pursuant to the next steps outlined above, a series of public meetings were held on the proposed urban rail project in September 2008 to gather additional public input. Two meetings were held in each of the three major segments of the proposed 15.3 mile route (Mueller/Manor Road/UT; Downtown; East Riverside) with a larger Town Hall meeting held on September 22, 2008. In addition, numerous presentations were made to interested parties upon request. All of the input received will continue to inform the proposed project as it is refined over the coming months and years.

Subsequent to these public meetings City of Austin and Capital Metro staff developed a detailed analysis of the proposed urban rail project that addressed a series of questions developed by the TWG. These questions are referred to as the CAMPO TWG Decision Tree. A copy of the CAMPO Transit Working Group Decision Tree can be found at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/twg_decision_tree_5-5-08.pdf

On November 6, 2008 the draft CAMPO TWG submittal for the proposed Austin Urban Rail Corridors was presented to the Austin City Council for their review. City staff recommended submittal of the rail proposal to the CAMPO TWG; initiation of preliminary engineering and environmental studies for the proposed rail project to refine the proposed alignment, provide more detailed cost estimates for the system, and to gather additional public input; and the development of a detailed local financing plan for Phase I of the project (Seaholm to the MetroRail line at Manor Road). The November 6, 2008 presentation to City Council can be found at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/rail_twg_submittal_council_brief_11-06-08.pdf

Based on City Council discussion at the November 6, 2008 meeting staff submitted the proposed Austin Urban Rail Corridors project to CAMPO staff for their review and assessment in early November 2008. The report describing the Austin Urban Rail Corridors project can be found at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/coa_urban_rail_report_twg_11-6-08.pdf

After CAMPO staff conducted a technical review of the document City and Capital Metro staff presented the proposed project to the CAMPO Transit Working Group on January 5, 2009. After review and discussion on January 5 and 12, 2009 the CAMPO TWG endorsed the Austin Urban Rail Corridors project and requested that additional information regarding design and financing of the project be brought back to the CAMPO TWG as it becomes available. The January 5 and January 12, 2009 CAMPO TWG presentations can be found at:

• http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/twg_submittal_briefing_to_campo_jan-5-2009.pdf
• http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/downloads/response_to_twg_questions_jan-12-2009.pdf

Next Steps