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A passenger rail link between Austin and San Antonio is now being presented with two very different paths forward. Union Pacific says its freight railroad still doesn’t have capacity to do it — and the other option comes with a price tag exceeding $13 billion.
A new city initiative, No Wrong Door, is looking to help people trapped in cycles of homelessness, incarceration and hospitalization.
Plus: Looking for weekend plans? We have a look at arts events around town.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano The land around the drive on I-35 from Austin to San Antonio becomes more populated and developed seemingly each and every day. That’s causing major congestion on local roads and highways, driving the desire for a passenger rail link between two of the country’s biggest cities. Union Pacific says its freight railroad doesn’t have the capacity to do it. The other option comes with a price tag exceeding $13 billion. More about the studies looking into that possibility, coming up on today’s show.
Laurie Gallardo The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano And a new city initiative is looking to help people trapped in cycles of homelessness, incarceration, and hospitalization. Law enforcement is participating in the program, but not everyone agrees they should be. We’ve got that story and a whole lot more from this week right here, up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. It is Friday, August 21st. Thank you for making community-powered public radio part of your day. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Glad to have you along. We got a busy show for you, so let’s get right in. The city of Austin has announced the Lower Colorado River Authority will be lowering Lake Austin this fall for the first time since 2017. As we’ve reported here on Austin Signal, the invasive aquatic plant Hydrilla has reemerged as a problem in Lake Austin, and lowering the lake is one way to combat it. Our producer Alexandra Hart has an update on the story.
Alexandra Hart The city says the lake will be lowered about 10 feet to allow Austin Fire Department, as well as Parks and Recreation, to do what they call planned maintenance. Property owners are also encouraged to take advantage of the lowering to repair structures, remove debris and, quote, manage nuisance vegetation like hydrilla. Lower water levels can help kill hydrila by drying it out. The drawdown is scheduled to begin October 12, and refilling will begin November 24. I’m Alexandra Hart in Austin.
Jerry Quijano It’s a decades-old question, what would it take to get a passenger rail line connecting Austin to San Antonio? Two studies this summer offer some answers, either a whole lot of money, or a little less money, but cooperation from freight railroad company Union Pacific. The most recent passenger rail feasibility study was released this week by Travis County. It found that a rail line bypassing Union Pacific property could cost $13.5 billion. Dollars. QUT’s transportation reporter Nathan Bernier spoke with Morning Edition host Jennifer Staten about what the two reports say and what they really mean for the future of a potential passenger rail line connecting two of the country’s biggest cities.
Jen Stayton So Nathan, first of all, what do these studies actually tell us?
Nathan Bernier Yeah, I think it’s important, first of all, to look at them together. You have door number one and door number two, and they’re very different projects, and they come with very different price tags, and I’ll get to those price tags. But given how many times we’ve had this football yanked before, these are very high-level concepts, this is the idea stage. And Travis County Judge Andy Brown has been pushing this as one of his key issues, and he says this rail link, I mean, whether it’s door number 1 or door number 2, whether it’s SH-130 and I-10 or the I-35 corridor. He thinks it’s just we’ve been talking about it for too long and he says it’s time to pull the trigger.
Jen Stayton My question is this, if we feel as a state and as a region that we need better ways to get between San Antonio and Austin, beyond a highway, there is every argument in the world to doing this today, right now, rather than waiting another 20 years. It’s a safer way to get around. You can do other things. You can be on the phone, on your computer, while you’re taking that train. And you can live in a place where the cost of living is lower, but you can reliably work in a place where maybe the jobs are better. And we have all of that present in our region.
Nathan Bernier So to your question, what do these studies tell us? Well, the TxDOT study, let’s call it door number one, examining passenger trains along the I-35 corridor, using those Union Pacific lines. That cost about $2 billion. That’s just an estimate, $2 million. And it depends on the frequency of the trains, but the 2 billion range, the more frequent the passenger trips are, the more it costs. At the high end, it would be as many as eight round trips a day. And Union Pacific would be able to keep its freight service. But we also have to put a huge asterisk on that, because Union Pacific killed this plan back in 2016 when they pulled out of the Lone Star Rail District. They didn’t want to give up their freight lines to passenger trains. So if Union Pacific is too difficult to deal with, what about door number two, putting the rail down SH-130 and I-10? That’s what this Travis County feasibility study looked at. And so the answer to that question, can you do it? HNTB says, yeah, you could do that. Elevate two-thirds of the rail line. And it’s gonna be a lot more expensive than going on Union Pacific Rail, about seven times the cost. So you’re looking at more than $13 billion for that SH-130i10 option. There are some differences in the numbers that are important to clarify, though. The $13-billion figure includes a large, they call it contingency, basically like a cost cushion of about 45%. And it also includes rail vehicles. But it also skips all of the communities that sort of tie together the Austin and San Antonio metro areas like New Braunfels, San Marcus, Kyle Buda, those would all get bypassed.
Jen Stayton So, Nathan, either one of these plans, where would the money come from for this?
Nathan Bernier That’s like the big, the biggest question. It’s the $13 billion question or the $2 billion question, depending on which way you go. So Judge Brown believes the federal government could pay for a big chunk of either route. That is, you know, that’s a question of whether they would or not. They just took a bunch of money away from California’s high-speed rail plant, but they’ve been allocating that elsewhere. And then there’s also, you now, Brown says the county’s along the way, whether Travis, Bayer, Hayes, or Kamal, or Caldwell County, depending on which way they go. They could pitch in perhaps, maybe the CTRMA would figure out a way to help pay for it. Because that’s the other thing though, there’s the operating costs, right? The estimated cost of just running the line. Once it’s built, all that aside, 13 billion aside, then every year you have another 140 million to 190 million dollars for the SH-130 route. And that’s what all of these numbers are before any inflation. These are 20, $26. So, if there’s 3% inflation, Next year, add 3%. Of course, it depends on the specific inflation related to building rail, but you get my point. Andy Brown visited with people who run the bullet train in Tokyo, and they told them that 90% of their revenue actually comes from ticket sales. And they also get money from the businesses that are along the way, like hotels and retail, and maybe some private equity, some investment money would wanna have a stake in this as well. But yeah, that’s the big question. Where’s the money gonna come from?
Jen Stayton So, Nathan, it sounds like the bottom line is we’re probably not, even despite these studies, we’re not very close to having passenger train service between Austin and San Antonio.
Nathan Bernier Yeah, to put it mildly. Now, I say, Judge Brown does believe that if construction, when it were to begin, it could probably be completed in about three years, and he’s looking at a bright line in Florida as a comparison. But that’s if they have the funding, if Union Pacific agrees, or if TxDOT agrees, if they had federal support, if, if if if, if all of these things happen and they don’t have any of them. And so the question is how long to get all of those ifs lined up and then once you have them lined up tack on three years for construction according to that estimate so what we have now is we just have two studies that are interesting and worth looking at and your tax dollars paid for them and they they do address a lot of the obstacles in the way of getting this done but it’s just that there are a lot
Jerry Quijano That was KUT’s transportation reporter Nathan Bernier speaking with Jennifer Staten today on Morning Edition. Every year, the city of Austin spends millions of dollars trying to help certain individuals trapped in the cycle of homelessness or incarceration or hospitalization. Now a new initiative aims to break that cycle. It’s called No Wrong Door, and the goal is to better coordinate emergency and social services for the city’s most vulnerable populations. Sam Stark wrote about this program for Austin Current where he covers local government. Sam, thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, Jerry. So your story focuses on the No Wrong Door program. What is that and what are some of the gaps that the program is trying to address?
Sam Stark Yeah, so essentially this was born out of city officials realizing that there were some people in Austin who are experiencing homelessness who just seem to not be getting better and are remaining on the street. So they started looking at our system as a whole, seeing that we do have a lot of homelessness resources, but we’re not necessarily coordinating those resources. And we’re not really trying to target these individuals who have seemingly fell through the cracks, so that’s what the program is trying to do, build this better system to address homelessness as a whole, and also try to better target these individual who are really struggling.
Jerry Quijano Your story mentions that some of the homelessness response can be done at times in silos, and this seems to be an effort to bring all of these agencies together. What are some of these participating agencies?
Sam Stark Yeah, so it’s agencies like the ones that are explicitly for homelessness, but also the Austin Police Department, medical departments within the city of Austin. And a big part of it, as you said, is them working together. So they recently executed an agreement for them to share data so they can better sort of talk to each other about who these people are and treat these people as individuals, which they think can better help. You know help these people so as part of the program so far. They’ve realized that there’s around 950 people in Austin who repeatedly cycle through arrests emergency rooms psychiatric crises and homelessness And those these people end up costing the system quite a bit of money They said that those interactions can cost an estimated 137 million dollars a year often addressing often, sorry, without addressing the underlying problems for these individuals.
Jerry Quijano Okay, yeah, you mentioned about 950 participants, individuals, your story follows one person in that program Marcus Martin. What’s his story and how did this program impact him?
Sam Stark Yeah, that’s right. So I got to spend the afternoon with four police officers who are assigned to this new No Wrong Door unit, and their entire job now is helping these individuals with what they need, essentially kind of like social workers. So that day they were meeting with this man, Marcus Martin, he was serving a sentence within the Travis County Jail, so they met him as he was getting out of Travis County jail. And he essentially just said that, you know, bad life events, he said bad choices and a bad breakup led him to becoming homeless for several years, and that drug use kept him on the street and away from his family. He told me his situation was kind of like a quote rabbit hole, which led to frequent interactions with local law enforcement, a jail sentence, and then eventually being identified with this No Wrong Door program. He said that he has. Extremely appreciated the relationship with one of these officers and that he’s being looked at as a person rather than being looked down upon. So when we left Travis County Jail a couple of weeks ago, he was going into an integral care clinic to, you know, just further get the behavioral health treatment that he needed.
Jerry Quijano You report that there’s been some concern among advocates about law enforcement’s participation in this program. What has been their pushback?
Sam Stark Yeah, so I think that there are some in the community that wonder if police officers should be the one going out and helping these individuals. Homelessness advocates worry about the power dynamic potentially between officers and vulnerable people. I talked to somebody from Volkl, Texas who said, when a cop is asking you to do something, it’s not the same as when a social worker was talking to you about doing it. But she did say that it sounds like there are good intentions in this program. So we’ll see.
Jerry Quijano And did the city officials have any response to that criticism
Sam Stark They didn’t, they feel confident that these four individuals are the right people to help them. They’re also working with, again, those 17 partner agencies, and so I think eventually they will have social workers on this team. Also the police officers assigned to this unit, they have experience with homelessness and substance abuse disorders. They also express interest in this sort of type of work. So, you know, whether they’re qualified, police department certainly thinks so.
Jerry Quijano So yeah, the no wrong door program you write is still in its early months. What comes next for this program?
Sam Stark Yeah, so the police unit and this agreement between the agencies to share data has essentially been their biggest progress so far. But they have some legislative priorities as well, which includes advocating for another mental health facility within the county. So right now, all that we have for like a public mental health facility is the Austin State Hospital, which is consistently at capacity. So they’re hoping to get another mental health facility where these individuals might be able to go to get the treatment that they need. And then additionally, they would like to down the track, see a step-down facility for the Austin state hospital. So those who are getting better receiving the treatment they need within Austin State hospital. Might be able to get out of the Austin State Hospital and go into this step-down facility to make more room for beds at the Austin state hospital.
Jerry Quijano All right, that is Sam Stark. He is a local government reporter for Austin Current. Always great to talk with you, Sam. Thanks so much, Jerry. And checking in on a few of today’s headlines, the Texas Appeals Court slashed the amount of damages owed by Alex Jones to families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. A Travis County judge ordered in 2023 that the Austin-based conspiracy theorist pay families $50 million. Texas law caps civil lawsuit settlements at $750,000 for damages. Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting a hoax on his Infowars platform and his supporters harassed families. The ruling does not affect a Connecticut ruling, ordering Jones to pay $1.4 billion in damages. And due to the heat that we’re going through, Austin FC is pushing back their kickoff time tomorrow night, their match at Q2 Stadium against Philadelphia Union will start at 8 p.m. This is Austin Signal, we’ve got more for you after this break. Howdy podcast listeners, we can’t include our segment this week in Texas Music History in this podcast because of music streaming rights, but if you want to keep up with Texas Music History, and we know you do, not to worry, just head on over to KUTX.org. And we are now pivoting to today’s Where the Art is segment, and joining us to do That is KUT’s Art Beat Editor, Stephanie Federico. Stephanie, hi.
Stephanie Federico Hi Jerry.
Jerry Quijano All right, let’s jump right in. It’s gonna be a busy weekend and it’s gonna start this weekend with pride. Tell us the details.
Stephanie Federico Yeah, as you know, Pride is celebrated in June in most other places, but Austin has to be special. We’ve got our Pride festival and parade in August and it is this Saturday. And oh my God, it’s going to be so hot.
Jerry Quijano It’s gonna be very, very hot. We are already under that heat advisory.
Stephanie Federico Yeah, but it’s an all-day citywide celebration. The festival begins over at Fiesta Gardens, and then there’s a parade down Congress Avenue. And this year’s theme is Viva la Resistencia.
Jerry Quijano Well, yes, it is going to continue to be dangerously hot through the weekend, the heat advisory in effect until Sunday. So if you are planning to go out tomorrow, it’s probably a good idea to start hydrating and start preparing for the endeavors, whatever’s going to take place tomorrow. So be safe out there. Let’s talk about the next thing on your list. Sounds a little heavy. It’s about a pop-up grief museum. Tell us more.
Stephanie Federico Yeah, it sounds like, yeah, as you said, very heavy, but I love this stuff. So there’s this author, local author, John Jeff Hutter, whose father died by suicide about a decade ago. And he wrote a book about his journey with grief called, Gutsy Grief. And then he did a call out for artwork created through grief. We’re talking about poetry and paintings, photography, music, as well as like artifacts or objects that remind people of someone they loved who may have passed. Like a shoe or like a hair clip or something like that. And he put this collection together. It will be on display at Tomo Mags on Brazos downtown, opening night of the museum. Like you said, it’s a pop-up museum. So it’s tonight and tomorrow. It’s called the Museum of All the Things They’ve Loved, which already makes me wanna cry. So bring the tissues. This is free, but they’re taking donations. And all the money will go toward the Christie Center, which is a nonprofit that provides grief support in central Texas. So bring some money for that, bring your tissues.
Jerry Quijano I love that, it’s a great reminder that interacting with the arts isn’t always something that puts a big smile on your face or makes you just feel the most joy in the world, feeling all of the emotions as part of the artistic experience. So I really like that. And then speaking of that, of the spectrum of experience, let’s talk about the great Austin Shacoff. Tell us more about that. What is it?
Stephanie Federico Yeah, that sounds like it’s going to be really fun on Saturday at the Scottish right theater, um, for all you Shakespeare heads out there, it’s a competition between Austin’s three prominent Shakespeare troops and one actor from each company will perform a speech of their choice. There’s going be three rounds followed by the quintessential Shakespeare Hamlets to be or not to be. Got it. Gotta have it. The audience will vote for the winner, and this is a fundraiser for these companies. So come on out, celebrate the love of the Bard, see this great talent that we have in Austin. Yeah, our health care reporter is going to switch things up, Olivia Aldridge. She’s going to cover it. So look out for her, or listen out for a story next week on this. So it should be fun.
Jerry Quijano Very cool. Yeah, that sounds exciting. And you mentioned that it’s a fundraiser. There is also happening this week in a fundraise for our stations, our listener-supported public radio stations. What is that?
Stephanie Federico Yeah, what are you going to do? Can you go to both? You should go to both.
Jerry Quijano I think you can, it sounds like a great Austin mix to be able to go first to the shake off and then to go to the…
Stephanie Federico Wet Hot Dance Party, you know, fundraiser for KUTX, which is also for us, essentially. So that’s at 29th Street Ballroom, tickets are $15. Folks are encouraged to wear their end of summer camp attire because this is our like finale, grand finale of the Wet Hot Summer. So come out, dance, raise some money for the station. We’ll have DJ sets from Alex Marrero, DJ Shawnee, Sound Founder, Paul Karuba, Confucius Jones. Should be a fun time.
Jerry Quijano Luckily, the end of Camp Attire is perfect for the weather that we’re experiencing, so you won’t be, you won’t t seem out of place at all. For sure. Okay, this next event really caught the eye of our producer, Alexandra Hart. What is it?
Stephanie Federico She’s not the only mushroom head in the office. Apparently a lot of people are into mushrooms. So I’ve heard. Yeah. It’s the fourth annual realms of fungi event. And we’re going with fungi. That’s the proper pronunciation, right? People might argue with us.
Jerry Quijano Argue with us. We’re going with Fungi because it’s…
Stephanie Federico We’re going with FUNKY because it’s a fun thing, right? This event is on Saturday. There’s a soft opening from three to six. And then there’s a party from seven to 10 at the Arboretum. It’s a celebration of all things mushroom. There will be artwork from more than 40 artists, each showing their own interpretation of mushrooms. But what caught my eye the most is that there’s gonna be a costume contest. So really curious to see how people turn out for this one. There’ll also be some talks from members of the Central Texas Mycological Society. So it should be really cool if you’re into mushrooms, check it out.
Jerry Quijano That is just a taste of what’s happening this weekend here in Austin, and we did that with the help of the KUT Artbeat editor, Stephanie Federico. Stephanie, great to see you again.
Stephanie Federico Great to see you, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano And thank you out there for spending the Friday with us, spending all week long right here with us. That is it for us today on Austin Signal. And it has been a very busy week from the start of classes at Austin ISD to protest against construction in the Big Bend border region. You can keep up on all the work we’ve done at kut.org slash signal. Jake Perlman is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer, and Jimmy Moss is our showrunner. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Have a great weekend. We’ll talk to you on Monday.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
