Austin’s Project Connect Funding Safe for 2025

Despite uncertainty about federal funding and state support, the light rail portion of Austin’s Project Connect is moving ahead, with the Austin Transit Partnership releasing its latest plan for the 9.8-mile transit line. However, as Benton Graham reports in Smart Cities Dive, “The project, which city voters approved in a referendum, faces potential funding and other challenges at the state and federal levels.” Last April, the Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the project, claiming that voters did not approve a revised design. 

The latest updates to the plan include an additional station near the state capitol downtown and a bridge over Lady Bird Lake with an elevated station. “The light rail line would have 15 stations that cut north-south through the city’s downtown and turn east after crossing Lady Bird Lake. It also lists priority extension stations further north, south and east, including to Austin Bergstrom International Airport, that it would pursue if funding were to become available.”

If it remains on track, the project could be completed by 2033. Although half of the project was to be financed by federal funding, ATP officials say federal funding freezes will not affect Project Connect’s 2025 timeline, which is funded through a $193 million budget approved in September consisting primarily of taxpayer dollars.