San Antonio’s transportation network: Tunnels, trains, advanced rapid transit

San Antonio’s transportation network: Tunnels, trains, advanced rapid transit

2022-10-14T12:54:10-04:00October 14th, 2022|Infrastructure, San Antonio, Transportation|

Writer: Joshua Andino

2 min read  October 2022 As San Antonio continues to see its population grow and new businesses relocate to the area, the city’s transit network has come to the forefront as new and innovative ways to get around the region have become increasingly necessary. 

Currently, city officials remain in contact with Elon Musk’s The Boring Company, although talks have been slow to progress, reports the San Antonio Business Journal. The company has pursued a number of tunnels around the region, even as other stakeholders, most notably the TxDOT, have considered additional transportation options for the San Antonio region and state. 

For the most part, Boring Company projects have been primarily around its base near suburban Pflugerville, Austin, and Corpus Christi, including a tunnel under the Aransas channel, a route from Tesla’s Gigafactory to downtown Austin, a connection between US Highway 290 and Texas State Highway Loop 1 and a pedestrian tunnel for Pflugerville Highschool to the local football stadium, reports Bloomberg. For San Antonio, the proposed tunnel would link San Antonio International Airport to downtown.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who has highlighted transportation as a key priority of his administration, seems unconvinced, saying earlier this year that, “We have a lot of transportation priorities. We need multimodal connectivity. I don’t see where a tunnel project fits into that. I don’t know what it accomplishes.” 

In his own conversation with Invest: at the end of 2021, the Mayor highlighted the efforts underway to bring multimodal transportation to the city. “I’m very happy to see that investment in transportation infrastructure and transportation alternatives is one of the main focus areas of our recovery, whether that’s our street network, mass transit or alternative modes, such as bicycle networks,” he stated. 

Part of that multimodal solution may be old-fashioned railroads, which have seen unprecedented amounts of funding thanks to the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, as it’s more commonly referred to, includes a total of $106 billion for rail and rail-related infrastructure improvements. TxDOT has taken note, having earlier last week requested funding from the Federal Railroad Administration to expand service between the state’s largest cities. 

If approved, the funding would go towards additional trains and a few route expansions for inter-city service. Additional train sets would be procured for the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited Amtrak routes between San Antonio and and Houston, as well as Dallas’ Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station. While the request is primarily focused on inter-city travel and does not include funding for local metro-transit options, that hasn’t stopped San Antonio’s VIA from preparing its first Advanced Rapid Transit route, a 12-mile, North-South corridor from SAT to Mission Concepción thanks to federal funding. Announced in April, the transit agency is set to receive $158 million from the federal government, covering about half of the $320 million project that could be operational as soon as 2027. 

Speaking with Invest:, Jeffrey Arndt, CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit, explained ART, saying, “We have proposed a system that we call Advanced Rapid Transit (ART), which is closest to bus rapid transit. It is designed with ART-specific pathways—dedicated lanes that move people outside of regular traffic in high-frequency vehicles—and a system designed to provide off-board fare collection and communicate with traffic signals.” While the project is still years away, he emphasized, “I want to reinforce the fact that our mission is all about serving people and providing regional multimodal transportation options that connect our community to opportunity, support economic vitality and enhance quality of life throughout our region.” 

For more information, visit: 

https://www.sanantonio.gov/ 

https://www.txdot.gov/ 

https://www.viainfo.net/ 

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