Project Connect eyes 2027 start to light rail construction

Kelsey Thompson
·3 min read

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Project Connect leaders are gearing up for a 2027 construction start for Phase 1 of light rail in Austin, officials said in an interview Monday. Based on current timelines, trains are expected to be running in Austin come 2033.

The news comes amid the Austin Transit Partnership’s work with the Federal Transit Administration on its grant process. Officials anticipate up to 50% of costs for the first phase of light rail will be supplied via federal dollars.

“We’ve initiated that grant program process that would lead to ultimately, hopefully, billions of dollars coming back here to Texas and back here to Austin to invest in Austin light rail,” said Greg Canally, ATP’s executive director.

The FTA’s federal grant process is a roughly two-year process to secure national funding for the light rail’s construction. Officials confirmed Monday that Phase 1 of light rail — the 9.8-mile track running from 38th Street to Oltorf Street down south and Yellow Jacket Lane in the southeast — is on track and expected to cost about $4.8 billion in current years’ dollars.

The Austin Transit Partnership is recommending the 38th Street to Oltorf Street to Yellow Jacket Lane is the first phase of light rail services to be built under Project Connect. (Courtesy: Austin Transit Partnership)
The Austin Transit Partnership recommended the 38th Street to Oltorf Street to Yellow Jacket Lane be the first phase of light rail services to be built under Project Connect. (Courtesy: Austin Transit Partnership)

Canally added planned financial escalations are in the works to reflect the anticipated inflation in the coming years. He said the future costs of expenditures for Phase 1’s buildout will amount to roughly $7.1 billion in 2033 dollars, following those anticipated escalations.

Of that $7.1 billion amount, it’s divvied up in the following ways:

  • $3.19 billion: Light rail construction and engineering costs

  • $1.86 billion: Professional services

  • $1.11 billion: Maintenance facility and vehicles

  • $937 million: Real estate

ATP_Planning Schedule and Budget FinalDownload

“Everyone knows that the cost of buying a home in four or five years will be different,” Canally said. “Well we’re reflecting that and planning on that escalation and that inflation. So that future cost in 2033 time is about $7.1 billion. But again, we’re on budget and Austin light rail is moving forward.”

Concurrently with the FTA grant process, ATP is also working toward the release of its draft environmental impact statement to the public later this year. That document is required by the National Environmental Policy Act to reflect the total impacts of construction on the environment and communities living around the light rail.

So far this year, ATP has hosted a series of community workshops to solicit feedback on light rail station locations and design work. With the Phase 1’s light rail alignment and route solidified, now’s the time ATP is fine-tuning those design details, Canally said.

“It’s now almost thinking about it block by block — what it’s going to look like so we can engineer,” he said. “We want to do a lot of that planning and engineering work now, before we do construction, because when we hit construction we want to hit go.”

Amid that development has been movement in ATP’s effort to verify its funding model for Project Connect. The Travis County District Court will host a trial May 28-30, following ATP’s filing of a bond validation petition in February. ATP officials filed the petition in hopes of having its bond program affirmed as a legitimate funding source, amid an ongoing suit filed against the transportation organization by a group of plaintiffs in November. Some of the issues raised by plaintiffs in that suit centered around the legality of Project Connect’s payment structure.

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