Sanford Nowlin
Advocates say a proposed bus route between San Antonio and Austin would help relieve congestion between the two fast-growing cities.
Mayor Henry Cisneros and others are pressing San Antonio's city council to approve funding for a bus line that would run 20 one-way routes daily between the Alamo City and the state's capital at $10 a pop, the Express-News reports.
The public transportation project — which would require funding from San Antonio and other municipalities — would be able to complete the route in 90 minutes, roughly the usual drive time between the two cities, according to the daily. It also would include stops in New Braunfels and San Marcos.
“We’re really being irresponsible if we don’t figure out how to relieve the congestion between these two metros,” Alamo Area Council of Governments Executive Director Diane Rath, another of the proposal's advocates, told the Express-News.
Rath told the paper the line could be up and running within two months of landing funding.
Backers of the plan envision a two-year pilot project that eventually could run on dedicated lanes allowing it to bypass automobile traffic. However, state funding would be needed to take that step, according to backers of the bus route.
The two-year pilot program would cost about $1.5 million, according to details shared with the daily. The Capital Area Rural Transportation System, which serves counties close to Austin, plans to donate two coach buses.
The $1.5 million price tag is considerably lower than anything Musk is likely to propose. A proposal now under review from the billionaire's Boring Co. for a tunnel connecting San Antonio's airport with downtown would run up to $289 million, and the firm's underwhelming 1.7-mile hyperloop in Las Vegas cost $49 million.
Even so, there's room for skepticism when it comes to public transportation projects connecting SA and Austin. Backers spent two decades stumping for a rail project between the cities, which sputtered to a stop in 2016.
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