Bexar County’s Peter Sakai discusses San Antonio-Austin rail with Union Pacific execs

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai appears to be keeping his promise to explore development of passenger rail service between San Antonio and Austin.

Sakai and his Travis County counterpart, Judge Andy Brown, met Monday with Union Pacific Railroad leaders to discuss partnerships to expand passenger service between the two rapidly growing metro areas. Union Pacific owns and operates the freight line connecting the cities.

“As we move forward, our priority is to continue engaging in ongoing discussions with Union Pacific and seeking solutions to address transportation challenges between Austin and San Antonio,” Sakai said in an emailed statement.

Ironically, Union Pacific is a key reason the Lone Star Rail District, an earlier project aimed at connecting the two cities via passenger rail, never came about. It died in 2016 after Union Pacific officials declared the project wasn’t feasible, Texas Public Radio reported.

Even so, there’s been renewed interest in connecting the two cities as highway traffic between them continues to worsen.

In a video message shared last December, Sakai said he and Brown were “working together so that we can get Travis County and Bexar County to get all the fans to watch the San Antonio Spurs without going through IH-35.”

That same month, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, secured $1 million in federal funding to explore the possibility of expanding rail service in South Texas.

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This article appears in Feb 7-20, 2024.