A proposal to provide a weekday public bus service between Austin and San Antonio would be a first step toward linking the two rapidly growing metros, but demand for it hasn’t been studied and the plan raises questions about whether light rail should be prioritized.
The inter-urban bus system would have two buses running Monday through Friday with stops in San Marcos and New Braunfels, said Diane Rath, executive director of the Alamo Area Council of Governments in San Antonio, told a City Council committee Monday.
Service would start at 6:45 a.m. and end at 9:45 p.m. with 90-minute travel times between VIA Metropolitan Transit’s Randolph Park & Ride and the Austin Convention Center. Bus fare for the pilot program will be $10.
Rath said her organization has been working with Austin’s Capital Area Rural Transit System (CARTS) and VIA Metropolitan Transit to develop a pilot program for the bus service in order to establish reliable, safe transportation along Interstate 35.
Rath acknowledged that bus transit is not the high-speed rail system that has been proposed in the past, but called it the best option now.
“We know it’s a very elementary one, a very rudimentary one, but it is a start,” Rath said. In less than 20 years, the population in the four counties from Austin to San Antonio will number 7 million. “And yet we have no public transportation connecting these two thriving metropolises.”
Rath cited several studies that have demonstrated the need for a transit system that would relieve congestion on I-35, including those by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization — the 2019 Capital-Alamo Connections Study and the 2021 New Braunfels Transit Study.
I-35 as bus route
Based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data as the fifth most dangerous highway in the United States, the I-35 corridor links three of the most populous cities in the state — San Antonio, Austin and Dallas — and is the route for almost half of all U.S.-Mexico trade.
“We’re really being irresponsible if we don’t figure out how to relieve the congestion between these two metros,” said Henry Cisneros, former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
“And this is not the end of it,” said Cisneros, who is chairman and co-founder of infrastructure investment firm American Triple I. “There will have to be other routes and there will have to be rail eventually. But we have to start somewhere.”
The bus proposal calls for a two-year pilot that is estimated to cost $1.5 million, or slightly more depending on gas prices. The four counties — Bexar, Comal, Hays and Travis — and the City of San Antonio would share a portion of the cost based on population size, but that has not been finalized.
Federal grant money might be available to cover the cost, Rath said, which includes two 40-foot coach buses that CARTS will contribute from its existing fleet. Both CARTS and VIA have committed to handling bus fares and assisting with marketing.
Randolph Park & Ride
Though sites at UTSA and U.S. Highway 281 were considered for the local point on the route, the Randolph Park & Ride located in Northeast San Antonio was chosen due to the number of VIA connections from there into other parts of San Antonio, Rath said.
But committee members, including Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6), who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, and Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) said they would like to see the route extended to the areas they represent, including the South and West sides.
VIA’s planned east-west and north-south routes provide an “excellent opportunity” to connect with the San Antonio-Austin bus route, Rath said.
The most important consideration was the route length. The route from Austin to Randolph is a 90-minute trip with a minimal number of stops; anything beyond that would add significant time to the ride.
Castillo also asked how the public bus would compare to bus service already provided by private carriers. Private bus companies Megabus, RedCoach and FlixBus already service the route, along with Greyhound.
Amtrak is not convenient for most passengers, Rath said, because the service does not exclusive use of the rail lines, which are owned by Union Pacific, causing significant delays.
The plan did not compare the public option to private ones, like Megabus, she said, because the focus of the proposal is on providing transit service versus travel by privately owned vehicle.
Cheaper than rail
But to Councilman Clayton Perry (D10), the real question was why not light rail instead.
One reason is the high price tag. “Even though we’ve been talking about rail forever — using that freight line and using the Lone Star Rail — those are likely not to happen,” Cisneros said. There’s also a significant cost to establish light rail and a lack of voter support for it.
“But using this new vehicle of bus rapid transit, the connected buses on dedicated lane moving very efficiently, feeling almost like rail in the sense of how you enter them [and] how you pay, that was a really good option,” Cisneros said.
The bus service, “imperfect though it may be,” Rath said, is a solution that can start now while rail is a long-term goal. “I’m a huge fan of Amtrak as it exists in the Northeast but as it exists here is a different story.”
Councilwoman Ana Sandoval (D7) pointed out that a dedicated lane along I-35 for the bus route would make it more reliable and successful.
TxDOT has not committed to that for the pilot, according to Rath. Proposed legislation to allow emergency vehicles and public transit to use the highway shoulder has previously been vetoed.
Economic links
Cisneros touted the proposed bus service as a matter of economic development that could be supported through federal funding.
“One of my principal reasons for being involved in this is that it would be good for San Antonio,” he said.
“Austin is the fastest growing city in America economically,” Cisneros added. “We’re going to be left behind if we don’t figure out a way to relate to all of those positive attributes that are Austin’s economy.”
While San Antonio has its own economic attributes in Port San Antonio, Toyota and cybersecurity, he said, there’s a lot to be done to make the region an economic powerhouse.
“And we don’t have the transportation linkages right now,” he said.
It is unknown when the proposal will be briefed for full City Council consideration.
