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A Brightline train approaches the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., station in September 2023. Riders in South Florida have shown they will use a service that can compete with driving in terms of transit time, price and convenience. Advocates for high-speed rail between San Antonio and Austin need to show that people here want such a service, not just that it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
Marta Lavandier\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Passengers board Amtrak\u2019s Texas Eagle train in October 2024 in San Antonio. The once-daily service is insufficient to demonstrate whether people would use high-speed passenger rail to commute between San Antonio and Austin.<\/p>\n
Christopher Lee \/ Staff Photogra<\/p>\n
Local and state leaders pushing to bring faster and more frequent passenger rail service to the San Antonio-Austin corridor need to do more than show it\u2019s feasible or estimate the cost to build it.<\/p>\n
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They need to demonstrate demand.<\/p>\n
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The advantages of high-speed rail\u00a0\u2014 or higher-speed, such as the 125-mph concept recently proposed<\/a> \u2014 are clear. At 125 mph, a person in San Antonio could get to Austin in about 40 minutes rather than roughly two hours, which is typical in morning traffic.<\/p>\n Besides getting there in a fraction of the time, and relaxing while doing so, one would not have to pay for parking, which can cost about $30 or more for a day. And even with a short taxi or Uber ride to reach one\u2019s destination, the commuter is still ahead.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, it\u2019s easy to show need, as projections for population growth in South and Central Texas portend increased congestion on Interstate 35 that planned capacity-improvement projects likely can\u2019t keep up with.<\/p>\n COMMENTARY: High-speed rail a means to bring San Antonio, Austin closer together<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But showing that high-speed rail is needed \u2014 or even that it could be desirable \u2014 comes short of showing that it\u2019s wanted.<\/p>\n To date, no surveys or studies have focused on determining whether people who drive between San Antonio and Austin would use rail.<\/p>\n Most recently, a study commissioned by Travis County<\/a> does three things:<\/p>\n It proposes a 125-mph passenger line along the Texas 130 toll road and a stretch of I-10, rather than along I-35 as prior approaches have done. Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That\u2019s good to know, but it still doesn\u2019t go the extra step of testing demand. If it did, it might get a tepid reception, considering that the proposed route\u2019s endpoints are well south of downtown San Antonio and around Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.<\/p>\n This case perhaps explains why no one has quantified the demand for San Antonio-Austin rail. No one has offered a plan with enough specificity for commuters to make an informed judgment.<\/p>\n Besides the transit time, people need to know where the stations would be and, critically, how much it would cost.<\/p>\n Generally, if rail can beat driving on either time or cost while at least being on par with the other, people will strongly consider it as long as the starting and ending points are reasonably convenient \u2014 enough that it doesn\u2019t overcome the advantage of saving on parking.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\nIt concludes that building this route is possible from an engineering perspective.
\nIt estimates the cost at up to $13.5 billion.<\/p>\n