Austin-San Antonio Commuter Rail Plan Chugging Along

The Austin-San Antonio rail line "could take commuters all the way from Georgetown to downtown San Antonio on a Union Pacific freight corridor with 15 stops. Such a rail line...does not require a vote of the people and could be funded entirely as a public-private partnership between the rail district and developers around the rail stations. The estimated cost of the venture is...$615 million to both secure the line and provide initial operating expenditures."

"If local jurisdictions agree, tax-increment finance districts around each station could capture incremental increases in value to fund the creation and operation of the rail line. Or the rail district could, as board member Fred Harless pointed out, buy up undeveloped land around the various stations and hammer out agreements with developers to share the cost of the rail line in exchange for access to station land."