Austin's light-rail proposal advances to project development phase

The first phase of Austin Transit Partnership’s (ATP) proposed light-rail project officially entered the project development phase under the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Capital Investment Grants New Starts program, the competitive grant program that funds transit capital investments.

Local funding will leverage federal dollars to fund the project, ATP officials said in a press release. ATP is the local government corporation responsible for implementing the Project Connect transit expansion plan in Austin, Texas, which includes a plan to build light rail.

Now that the proposed light-rail project entered the FTA's CIG program, it is eligible for future reimbursement of allowable costs incurred for the planning and design work. This project development phase is an initial step toward the execution of a final grant agreement with the FTA, ATP officials said.

“This milestone signals federal support for this voter-approved project and brings Austin light rail one step closer to delivering billions in infrastructure investments and jobs to Texas,” said ATP Executive Director Greg Canally.

Over the next two years, ATP will complete the project development phase, to include completing federal environmental-impact requirements and advancing the system's architectural and engineering design. Completing these and other activities will provide information for FTA to evaluate and rate the light rail project under the CIG criteria.