Robert Carrasco
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The Lone Star Rail District (LSTAR) began nearly 20 years ago when the Texas Legislature approved the creation of a rail district between Austin and San Antonio to ease congestion. With $500,000 approved by Bexar County on Sept. 1, the LSTAR made the next progression toward a 2020 completion date, making Texas A&M University-San Antonio one of the 16 proposed stops.
In addition to easing congestion, the community discussion has focused on LSTAR’s potential impact on higher education.
“Lone Star Rail will open educational opportunities to people from out of town to attend A&M-San Antonio who can’t get housing in the area as well as help faculty and staff,” said Joseph Black, rail director of LSTAR.
The LSTAR will increase tourism around South Texas with stops in Austin and downtown San Antonio. Joe Krier, City Councilman District 9, supported LSTAR for more than a decade.
“If we don’t do something soon, I-35 will become a parking lot,” he said. “Getting the LSTAR to stop at A&M-San Antonio would be a big plus for the university, as well as the area.”
“As president of Texas A&M-San Antonio I am very excited the university is listed among the proposed stations for the Lone Star Rail development,’ said Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of Texas A&M-San Antonio. “This is an exciting project and would be a great benefit to our faculty, staff, students and our community. To see this project come to fruition would go hand in hand with the university’s growth and development.”
When asked about a completion date, Black said 2020 is probably the closest prediction toward completion and it might be a year after when the LSTAR is up and running.
Plans show the rail will connect Georgetown to San Antonio with a total of 16 stops. Created out of necessity because of the consistent rapid growth in Central and South Texas, LSTAR would facilitate a decrease in traffic along I-35, one of the busiest highways in the state.
In the long run, however, LSTAR will help the student body as the rail includes several stops at different schools throughout Texas, including University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at San Antonio and the expanding campus of A&M-San Antonio.
The 2015 National Survey of Student Engagement asked how many hours per week are spent commuting to class. Of the respondents from A&M-San Antonio, 194 seniors surveyed said they spend between one to five hours commuting to class. In terms of getting students to class faster, the rail won’t contribute much, but it will give students the ability to multitask as students could work on homework, rest or recover from a night on 6th Street.
Black said that A&M-San Antonio was a “logical end point along the corridor that was already on the Union Pacific Line already.” The decision to make A&M-San Antonio a stop resulted from advisory meetings on which locations were best suited for rail stations.
