Art: Austin Rapid Transit

In my previous life as an Austin-American, I used to daydream about the perfect mass transit system. After a fair bit of research, I settled on monorail as the best option and began reviewing proposed alignment maps from a number of organizations, including the now defunct Austin Monorail Project. I even came up with the perfect branding for the various transit corridors: the BLUEBONNET LINE, the BURNT ORANGE LINE, the GREEN BELT LINE, the RED RIVER LINE, and the YELLOW ROSE LINE. Alas, Capital Metro chose light rail as the preferred transit method (I blame the powerful Light Rail Lobby for this injustice). Despite my initial misgivings, after my daily traffic battle on I-35, I soon warmed to the idea of any form of mass transit. I probably would have voted for a sky-based mass transit system using a series of hydrogen-filled dirigibles - I was that desperate (Oh, the humanity!).

The vote in 2000 was pretty close, but in the end, people of sad, dreamless ambition won the day. Having since moved to San Antonio, I haven’t followed Capital Metro’s new commuter rail initiative that closely, especially since I’m not all that concerned with Leanderites’ ability to enjoy Austin’s charms while failing to pay Austin’s taxes. More recently, I’ve dreamt about high-speed rail service between Texas’ major population centers. I considered stealing the branding from Austin’s downtown bus circuit and christening this rail service the ‘DILLO, in honor of the official state mammal of Texas. However, given the sophomoric humor of graffiti taggers, and the relative ease with which they can convert ‘L’s to ‘D’s, I’ve since reconsidered this branding. Of course, with the death of Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor, it doesn’t appear that high-speed rail is in our immediate future anyway. Turns out it was more of a Shelbyville idea…