City to Vote Soon on Weekend Night Rail
The Red Line drops off and picks up near the convention center and East Sixth Street. Photo by KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The City of Austin and Capital Metro are getting closer to hammering out a deal on weekend Red Line rail service.
The Red Line commuter rail service that connects downtown Austin with the city’s northern suburbs runs weekdays from about 6 in the morning to about 6:30 at night. A new proposal would have it run in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays.
Today, city staff explained how it would be paid for. Assistant City Manager Robert Goode told the City Council that Capital Metro would use the quarter-cent of sales tax revenue it usually sends to the city.
“Capital Metro has a quarter-cent program that they had been funding to the city of Austin for transportation projects,” Goode said. “And that was a likely source of funding for this initiative. And that’s the major deal point we’ve agreed to at staff level.”
But the exact cost of the program has yet to be nailed down. City staff say it won’t exceed $2.2 million a year.
The City Council will vote Thursday on whether to allow staff to finalize the agreement with Cap Metro.
