Austin Transit Partnership to host open house to discuss Project Connect's core light rail plans

AUSTIN, Texas —Austin residents will have a chance to have their voices heard about Project Connect's core light rail plans during an open house Tuesday night. 

The Austin Transit Partnership is implementing Project Connect and will be hosting the open house from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Austin Central Library on West Cesar Chavez Street.

At the open house, the group will show five plan options and open them up to feedback from the community.

When voters approved Project Connect in 2020, the plan included a Blue light rail line that stretched from downtown to Austin's airport; an Orange rail line running north and south, connecting through Republic Square; a Green line going from downtown east to Colony Park neighborhood; and a Gold line, which is a new rapid bus route and three new MetroRapid bus routes. 

Recently though, new proposals showed scaled-back versions of the voter-approved plans, with shorter routes. 

The overall price for the project has also gone up since it was voted on in 2020. At that time, it was set to cost just over $7 billion – but more recent estimates put the cost at more than $10 billion. 

Now the Austin Transit Partnership is kicking off public input with Tuesday's open house. The group will gather input for the next six weeks, then send the recommendations off to policymakers, who will come up with the final plan by June. 

"We want to get everyone's opinion as we move forward on finalizing a recommendation in the upcoming months so we can move ahead on implementing Austin light rail and fulfilling the will of the voters from November 2020. Austin Transit Partnership is committed," said Greg Canally, executive director of the Austin Transit Partnership.

"We've been working hard with our experts internally and in our partners to deliver options that the community can weigh in on and give us their feedback and their thoughts. And that's why it's really critical for them to come out and see these final options, weigh in on it," Canally added. "Let us know how they feel about them [the options] so that we can take that information and make informed decision with our experts." 

If you are unable to attend Tuesday's open house, you can review the plans online and submit your feedback that way.