The Orange Line is a proposed north-south light rail line that will serve the central spine of Austin from North Lamar to Stassney Lane. It is in the planning stages as a part of

CapMetro The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officially stylized as CapMetro, is a public transportation provider located in Austin, Texas. It operates bus, paratransit services and a hybrid rail system known as CapMetro Rail in Austin an ...

Project Connect Project Connect (listed as Proposition A on the General Election ballot) is a transit expansion program by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro) in Austin, Texas, U.S. The program was approved by voters on November 3, ...

. It is estimated to begin revenue service as early as 2029.

History

A contract for preliminary engineering work along the line was approved on March 20, 2019. In 2020, the planned route was truncated in length to reduce construction costs, with bus bridges providing connectivity through the rest of the corridor. Potential future phases may extend the line north to Tech Ridge and south to Slaughter as initially envisioned — those alignments are expected to be included in National Environmental Policy Act processing to allow for conversion to light rail in the future.

Route

The Orange Line is long and will run in its own dedicated transitway, including the

Downtown Transit Tunnel The Downtown Transit Tunnel is a planned light rail tunnel in Downtown Austin, Texas. It is a core feature of Project Connect, the transit expansion plan being undertaken by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The transit tunnel ...

, which will allow it to bypass the traffic that plagues the corridor it follows. The Orange Line will operate from

North Lamar Transit Center North Lamar Transit Center is a Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus station in Austin, Texas. It is located on North Lamar Boulevard on the north side of U.S. Route 183. The station features a park and ride lot and is served by sever ...

to Stassney & Congress, and will follow the current route of the

CapMetro Rapid CapMetro Rapid is a bus rapid transit service in Austin, Texas, owned and operated by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority ( CapMetro). It currently consists of two routes which run north-south served by stations designed by McKinne ...

801 or a similar alignment. It is planned to run along The Drag. Future extensions to the line would feature stations at Tech Ridge, Parmer, Braker, Rundberg, William Cannon, and Slaughter.

Stations

Stations are listed north to south.

References

External links

Map and fact sheet AFact sheet B
* Capital Metro Light rail in Texas Rail transportation in Austin, Texas Transportation in Travis County, Texas Proposed railway lines in Texas 2029 in rail transport {{Texas-transport-stub