Austin’s transit plan just put even more emphasis on trains to move people around an ever-growing city, with a potential rail line running through Dell Medical School.
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO and President Randy Clarke and Austin Assistant City Manager Gian Fiandaca wrote in a recent memo to Austin City Council that they’ve made more tweaks to Project Connect, Capital Metro’s long-term transit infrastructure plan.
In early March, planners for Project Connect embraced light rail for the Blue Line from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport through downtown up to North Austin and the Orange Line connecting transit centers at North Lamar and South Congress through the University of Texas campus and downtown.
At the time, they recommended bus rapid transit — vehicles in transit-only lanes separate from street traffic — for a so-called “Gold Line” from Austin Community College’s Highland campus through downtown to the Austin Convention Center and Republic Square.
But new demographic modeling data supports the need for increased ridership capacity on the Gold Line, Clarke and Fiandaca wrote.
Light rail service on the proposed Gold Line would begin at the Red Line Highland station in North Austin. It would run south with stops at Hancock, St. David’s Medical Center, the eastern end of the main University of Texas campus, Dell Med School, east of the Texas Capitol and Trinity Street.
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Third train line proposed in Project Connect mass transit plan for Austin
Capital Metro transit plan embraces trains, including to UT and airport