Watson Wire: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to testimony or public comment both in the Texas Senate and my different stints as Austin Mayor. Yesterday, I was the one sitting on the other side of the dais giving the testimony.

I was one of the invited speakers at a Congressional hearing on intercity passenger rail. The hearing was in front of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which some call the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, appropriated a bunch of money — call it $66 billion — to Amtrak?for improving intercity passenger rail.? I would argue that the lowest hanging fruit in the country for such improvement is the Texas Triangle that runs from Dallas/Ft. Worth through Austin to San Antonio over to Houston and back up to DFW. This Triangle is home to 21 million people or 70% of the Texas population and is responsible for 74% of our economic activity. It’s continuing to grow.

In addition, we know that, in other parts of the country and world, the sweet spot for intercity passenger rail service is a trip of less than 500 miles. In the Texas Triangle, each of the three legs is less than 310 rail miles long. That’s really short for an expensive plane ride with the inconvenience of added time at the airports for security and what not. On the other hand, it’s too long for a congested (and getting more congested) car trip.

I’ve met with the CEO of Amtrak to help make the case. And I’ve convened local officials in the Austin/San Antonio corridor to build support.

I’m optimistic and excited about the possibilities and the response we’re getting to the efforts.?

But Wait, There’s More

I also visited Washington, D.C., the week before Thanksgiving to talk to key federal officials about a variety of our big infrastructure projects, including the airport expansion, Project Connect, roadwork, including I-35 and the capping potential. Federal dollars are an essential component of our overall funding plan for a lot of what we’re needing to do, particularly with light rail, and we’re working hard to ensure that Austin will be a strong contender for the federal grants. For example, the land-use policy changes currently in the works at Council are meant to foster density, which will improve our standing for the federal funds.

My visits included talking to the White House Infrastructure Czar, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu; the Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, Nuria Fernandez; the Undersecretary at the US Dept. of Transportation, Carlos Munje; and key folks in Congress and on Congressional staffs. We highlighted the challenge of building multimodal transportation projects when federal funding is still siloed by mode. We have a unique opportunity in Austin because we’ll be expanding the airport at the same time that we’ll be building light rail. Under the current plan, light rail doesn’t connect to the airport but is a priority extension. While we can't afford the additional extension on our own right now, we pressed for the Biden administration to help us go big and extend the light rail to the airport.

My other objective for that D.C. trip was to visit the city’s highly touted Infrastructure Academy to get some good ideas for the work we’re doing locally with Workforce Solutions Capital Area. As I’ve written before , we’re building up the career pipeline for Austinites to take advantage of the jobs created by the $25 billion in mobility infrastructure coming our way through airport expansion, Project Connect, I-35 and more. I was able to meet with Mayor Muriel Bowser at a groundbreaking for the Infrastructure Academy, and we spent a considerable amount of time talking with and learning from the Academy’s leadership, including Dr. Unique N. Morris-Hughes. She’s the District’s Director of Employment Services.

Congressman Rick Larsen, the Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, came to Austin earlier this year and liked what we’re doing to weave our infrastructure investments with workforce development efforts. I appreciate that he gave me an opportunity to highlight this work to the whole committee.