Are we going to discuss this $7.1 Billion dollar issue or nah?

I listened to Commissioner Daugherty talk about this project. He mentioned the current transit system is utilized by 3% of the Austin population.

Think "big dig" type of grifting and palm greasing and change order cost increases. Yeah, 7.1 Billion to start. It'll be near triple that to finish. And obsolete before the first shovel hits dirt. The whole purpose will be to make certain real estate holdings be perceived as more valuable, and bragging rights to other urban political elites.

Is this another issue where a "No" vote is actually voting for the project to happen? If you don't want to spent this money, you have to vote "Yes"?

You could buy everyone in the Austin area a new car for several years for this kind of money.

There's a Cap metro bus route from manor to Austin that had two recurring passengers in 2018.

Cost of operating the route was $195k. Could have bought those two folks a Camry each and has ans maintenance for 5 years and still had enough left over to kick back the Adler and Casar familias $50k each.

This one isn't purely political so it can stay on the Austin board. I agree with most of you, this one is a loser.

What does Project Connect get right?

• Blue line to airport (Big add for tourism given how crappy our cabs and ubers are)
• Orange line would be nice for me, especially if the redeveloped some of the state hospital property as a mixed use station
• With this map, you could get anywhere you wanted to go in Austin proper relatively easily

What doe Project Connect get wrong?

• THE PRICE - 3G a year for the average Austin property owner
• Whorn U should be picking up part of the tab, since ridership will have a large component of UT students, like the bus does now
• What Whorn U doesn't pick up should be covered by the hotels and airlines (tough sell right now) they will benefit the most
• They don't account for future losses this thing will have, they will never cover ridership with fees
• WFH works, a good portion of people are never going back into an office, so traffic is going to go down either way, add in self driving cars and ride sharing and the train is a loser

Now the Texas Central project put me on board with that and bring a leg from the Brazos Valley Station over to Austin and drop it to Laredo and I am in. Bullet train travel puts airplane travel to shame and can be priced to pay for itself. Many would pay more to take the bullet train from Dallas to Houston than to fly. Add to that that it is much less publicly funded.

To be fair, a single directional line that goes from Leander to downtown doesn't help many people. Especially when it stops over a mile away from any "hot spot" (this one is directed at the domain).

I will be voting against this regardless. I think the price tag is insane. They should develop it in some manner, but not to the tune of this. Try to see if it'll even work first. Going all in at once sounds stupid.

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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WFH works, a good portion of people are never going back into an office, so traffic is going to go down either way

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This is a very good point. I wonder if this thing is DOA, considering the amount of people not driving now.

There is no consultant that would certify ridership during this panemic. It should be DOA as a result, just like many toll projects. Can't certify toll transactions right now.

This whole thing is a massive money sink. The original one should have gone to the airport. That's where folks without ground transportation need it to be.

Thinking Joe Blow in Leander wants to ride the rail to downtown and then walk 30 mins in rain or 110 degree heat, is so far from intelligent. But then again, consider the source.....

They do anything they can think of, no matter the cost, to keep from adding a few lanes to major thoroughfares like Mopac and 183. Same old idiots, different day.

As someone who use to commute south to north, the added toll lane only helped the person who was going to pay 9 dollars for 5 miles of road

tailgatetimer10 said:

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As someone who use to commute south to north, the added toll lane only helped the person who was going to pay 9 dollars for 5 miles of road

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Nothing in my reply indicated I was in favor of adding TOLLED lanes to any thoroughfare. People have been asking for more lanes on Mopac for 20 years now, if you have been paying any attention. These morons would rather sink more and more money into this damn empty train!!!

I agree. Was piggie backing the insanity.

Sorry...missed that you were in agreement....

Astrobo said:

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Is this another issue where a "No" vote is actually voting for the project to happen? If you don't want to spent this money, you have to vote "Yes"?

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Unlike some of their prior propositions, on this one "no" really does mean "no". I'm definitely not voting for A, but I'm considering voting for B.

People say that spending on highway expansion is not the future, but the entire impact retro fit with tunnel I think was $300m. This project connect is $7b.
Oh and by the way, every rail system in America requires operation at a loss, and the ones that lose the least are in the most dense cities, NY, Boston, SF.

Austin is 50th in density...

I need to look up the ballot..

evan_aggie said:

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People say that spending on highway expansion is not the future, but the entire impact retro fit with tunnel I think was $300m. This project connect is $7b.
Oh and by the way, every rail system in America requires operation at a loss, and the ones that lose the least are in the most dense cities, NY, Boston, SF.

Austin is 50th in density...

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I cannot remember how many times CapMetro was originally denied. They originally tried to ramrod stuff like this in the May election and the legislator slapped them so that they had to hold these items in the Presidential/Governor elections.

I already voted them out of Cedar Park, so I have not vote. If I did, vote no until it is reasonable and you see what the outcome of folks leaving Austin/Travis County is.

Looking forward to voting no to this POS

I live "next" to one of the metro rail stops. The only place i'd entertain the thought of going to now is downtown and would be only interested in using during the evenings and weekend and in that case it'd be worthless. If I want to use the rail to go downtown during the weekday it's a 20 minute walk to the station and another 45 minute ride to downtown. I can do the trip in my car from my house in 25 minutes on my own schedule.

This thing is stupid.

And despite the increased DWI's and city council complaints on Uber, they shut the rail down at 11:30PM.

so, since I no longer live in the Austin city limits but still registered there, should i vote for Project Connect out of self interest.

Furlock Bones said:

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so, since I no longer live in the Austin city limits but still registered there, should i vote for Project Connect out of self interest.

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You should go read r/Austin, where people INSIST that since they are renters, that this cost will not be passed down to them. I kid you not.

tailgatetimer10 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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so, since I no longer live in the Austin city limits but still registered there, should i vote for Project Connect out of self interest.

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You should go read r/Austin, where people INSIST that since they are renters, that this cost will not be passed down to them. I kid you not.

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haha, i saw it. those people are incredible morons. there's no way i'd vote for this pile of trash.

Considering the city council is pushing for it, its going to get voted in by landslide. Fully expecting a 65% pass rate. Sucks. I've been looking for a home, and there is no doubt I am looking outside of Austin city limits.

tailgatetimer10 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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so, since I no longer live in the Austin city limits but still registered there, should i vote for Project Connect out of self interest.

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You should go read r/Austin, where people INSIST that since they are renters, that this cost will not be passed down to them. I kid you not.

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Holy crap. Just stumbled up that crap. Morons.

Furlock Bones said:

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tailgatetimer10 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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so, since I no longer live in the Austin city limits but still registered there, should i vote for Project Connect out of self interest.

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You should go read r/Austin, where people INSIST that since they are renters, that this cost will not be passed down to them. I kid you not.

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haha, i saw it. those people are incredible morons. there's no way i'd vote for this pile of trash.

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Read it as well. Unbelievable how many upvotes some comments have...

It is a flaming hot pile of you know what on rails with the spillage being hauled by more buses. This thing doesn't serve half the city. I'll be voting no for it though out of spite for the current city council first, second comes the affordability.

Jaw said:

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This thing doesn't serve half the city.

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According to wiki the rail had a daily ridership of 2,900 in 2014. It's 2020 now so lets say we double that figure....hell, triple....ah for f***k sake let's quadruple that number. We're doing all this for about 12,000 people and spending how much?

This will be the number 1 thing I'll be voting on today. That and voting Flannigan out.