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Texas and Mexican officials renew push for rail project

Texas Eagle arriving in Austin en route from Los Angeles to Chicago
Lars Plougmann
/
via Wikimedia Commons
Texas Eagle arriving in Austin en route from Los Angeles to Chicago

The idea of high-speed rail connecting Texas cities is a long held dream for many – and for some, the dream extends 150 miles south of the border to Monterrey, Mexico.

Though the idea of a train that could run from Austin to Monterrey with stops in between has actually been around for decades, officials from both Texas and Mexico recently came together to show their support for making it a reality.

Cristela Jones wrote about this gathering of rail advocates for MySA.com and joined Texas Standard with the details.

This transcript has been edited for clarity:

Texas Standard: We’ve heard about the idea of commuter rail in Texas trains that would connect the state’s largest cities. But adding travel to Mexico in the mix – folks have been talking about this for a while. Where does that begin, and how’s that going?

Cristela Jones: So it’s kind of interesting because a lot of people have been talking about the benefits to passenger rail from Austin to Mexico, including alternative driving on I-35. I know a lot of people in Austin have already seen or witnessed all of the traffic that’s been going on here.

So these advocates are really trying to fight for this rail to happen so that there’s less traffic congestion on I-35 – also that people are able to get from Central Texas to Mexico, whether that be for business, travel, leisure, all that kind of thing.

So they’re trying to make that happen in a way that’s a bit easier than just, you know, getting in your car and driving and probably taking that hourlong or multiple-hourlong commute to Mexico.

Well, you wrote about several county officials in Texas who support the idea. Tell us about the event they participated and who all was there.

Bexar County Judge [Peter] Sakai and Travis County Judge Andy Brown were in attendance, and they basically rode the Texas Eagle, which is the rail that runs from San Antonio to Austin currently, to advocate for this project.

And they had a couple of really notable people on there. They had some Mexican officials from Nuevo León, including the governor and the economic development personnel.

And then they also had some advocates from Amtrak that were there to basically show their support and sign this letter of intent to try and get this rail project going in Texas and get that support from multiple state legislators in the next legislative session.

What is it about Monterrey that makes it a particularly desirable destination for rail travel to and from Texas?

Well, I think that a lot of Central Texans have a lot of family in Monterrey, especially because it’s part of a border city. And there’s a lot of people that come in and out of the area.

You know, there’s companies like H-E-B that has business in Mexico. There’s a lot of very good benefits to having people coming in and out.

And so, like having that alternative to going on the bus or having to get a ride to go to Mexico and having to wait at the border is really something that people are wanting to do and having that desire to just travel to Mexico without the hassle of trying to get there.

Do advocates of a Texas-Mexico line feel like they have a chance of success?

Well, yes. So a lot of these advocates are fighting for the ability for this to happen in Texas. Basically they’re fighting for the federal funds to get this going because the state has to provide 20% of the cost to access the funds since in 2021, there was $66 billion that was set aside for this act. And basically, the state needs to cover 20% of that in order for it to happen.

So they’re trying to gain and rally as much support as they can on both sides of the border through Mexico and then also in Texas.

There is this federal money that officials can take advantage of. But what needs to happen in order for them to get access to it?

In 2021, $66 billion was set aside under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for rail projects across the U.S. But Texas would need to put up or cover 20% of the cost to assess the funds similar to the system they already have in place for building highways and doing road improvements.

Right now they’re estimating that that 20% is going to be $300 million. And so they’re hoping that that gets approved by the Texas Legislature in the next session in February 2025.

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