Sanford Nowlin
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai gives a speech after winning the race of take the county's top elected office.
The new, 24-member Central Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee held its first meeting earlier this month. Members including former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, District 6 San Antonio Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda and Amtrak Government Affairs Director Todd Stennis reviewed a draft charter for the group.
"The fastest-growing metros must leverage this moment to build a modern transportation system to serve the economic, environmental and public safety needs of all central Texans," Brown said in a statement.
The group's next meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 3.
Sakai and Brown first teased the idea of working together to find a solution to traffic along the dreaded I-35 corridor in a December social media video. In that clip, Sakai said he and his northern counterpart 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."
The committee's inaugural meeting also comes after pro-rail advocates, including San Antonians for Rail Transit, RESTART Lone Star Rail District and the Texas Rail Advocates, have lobbied local lawmakers to re-explore the idea of connecting the two fast-growing metros.
"It's imperative that frequent and dependable rail service happen, not only in the short run between Austin and San Antonio, but along the length of the I-35 corridor from Dallas-Fort Worth to Laredo," Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody said in a statement. "With only highways for travel choices we are facing a future of delays, delays and more delays in roadway traffic in this fast-growing state, and that's not a plus for a good economy."
It remains to be seen how the Central Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee will differ from the Lone Star Rail District, an earlier committee that sought to connect SA and Austin. Despite millions in consultant fees pouring into the project, not a single piece of rail was ever laid, and the project was scrapped in 2016.
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