Austin Project Connect — Phase 1, What Survived

What remains of Project Connect's light rail after the 2023 replan: 9.8 miles and 15 stations, running at street level from 38th Street down Guadalupe, through downtown on 3rd and Trinity, across a new Lady Bird Lake bridge, then splitting south to Oltorf on South Congress and southeast to Yellow Jacket Lane on East Riverside. That is 18% of the 54.4 miles voters approved in 2020 and 27% of the stations, at a higher total cost — $8.2 billion against $7.1 billion approved. The Gold Line, the downtown tunnel and the airport connection were all cut. Construction is targeted to begin in 2027 and open in 2033; no track has been laid. Geometry is cut from the 2020 filed alignment along the adopted corridor, so it is the surviving stretch of the original lines rather than a separately surveyed route.

  • austin
  • transit
  • light rail
  • project connect
  • capmetro
  • texas
  • phase 1

Fields

NameFilledExample
name100%Orange Line
phase100%Phase 1 (adopted 2023)
project100%Orange Line
kind90%station
miles10%10.96
route_type10%PC
in_system_plan10%true
initial_investment10%true