Central Texas passenger rail: Is it possible?

AUSTIN, Texas - Travis County Judge Andy Brown is trying to get a passenger rail plan for Central Texas back on track. He sent a message to federal officials after a multi-million dollar grant was awarded to a high speed rail project in East Texas.

Amtrak provides passenger service through Austin from San Antonio to Dallas, but it's far from efficient. It's not uncommon, a three-hour trip by car to the metroplex can take four to six hours by train. 

The slow roll for riders is because Amtrak uses rails owned by Union Pacific, which makes delivering freight, not people, a priority. Efforts to streamline the route have not been successful. 

But to the east, things are moving for a plan to build a high-speed bullet train between Dallas and Houston. The Federal Railroad Administration awarded the project a $64 million grant, which keeps the plan alive. 

In a social media post, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg included the new east Texas route on a national map of other rail projects. That map identified Central Texas as already having passenger service. 

Travis County Judge Andy Brown responded to that post, telling the transportation secretary, Austin and San Antonio are fast-growing metro areas and would love to be included in future passenger rail plans. 

Judge Brown spoke to FOX 7 about the message he sent and the projects in the works.

"The fact that we don't have great passenger rail between us and our neighbor 70 miles to the south, Bexar County is pretty wild and pretty unique in the world," said Judge Brown.

RELATED: Passenger rail connecting Austin and San Antonio proposed

Judge Brown is working with Bexar County Judge Sakai on building a Central Texas Rail Coalition that includes Republicans and Democrats.

"To fight for increased passenger rail service in Texas, because we're realizing that even though I-35 is being rebuilt in Austin and in San Antonio, even after that, we're going to need better ways and additional ways to get around between Austin and San Antonio in particular, but really around the whole state. We're growing so fast. We need more passenger rail," said Brown.

The team up is an effort to get the current federal administration to understand that the rail service between San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas is not efficient and actually needs to be ramped up.

"I don't fault the Biden administration. I don't fault TxDOT, because there's been lots of reasons in history of why we don't have great passenger rail along this route, but we need to all come together and figure it out," said Brown. 

"I'm getting a different sense of a from people who are Republicans and Democrats about the need for this and the desire to do this," said Brown.

The rail coalition is called the "Texas Passenger Rail Advisory Committee." Brown believes the group can deliver. 

A big push is expected to come in January when state lawmakers return to Austin.

"So really, it's just up to the Texas legislature to take advantage of the money that the Biden administration is offering. My understanding is it's about an 80/20 match. So, if we come up with 20% of the funding, the feds will match 80% of that. And so, this is a great opportunity for us to move forward. And we're going to be taking this issue to the legislature this session to try to get, you know, about $300 million put into the Texas Rail Fund so that we can help match those federal funds," said Brown.

There are three options in play, according to Judge Brown:

• Teaming up with a private company out of Florida that’s considering a rail line along I-35.
• Spur off the Houston to Dallas bullet train route, looping west from College Station.
• Idea of cutting a deal with Union Pacific, adding additional track for Amtrak and or re-routing freight.