Project Connect is Austin's long-term plan to build a larger, more connected public transit system.
Voters approved the proposal in November 2020 as a sweeping package that included light-rail, faster bus service with an all-electric fleet, park-and-rides, expanded commuter rail, neighborhood shuttles and $300 million for housing near future transit lines.
Nearly six years later, pieces of that plans are arriving, often behind schedule.
New rapid bus service was launched with 10-minute frequencies and park-and-rides at the end of each line. CapMetro's Red Line commuter rail has one new station and another on the way. Transit leaders are powering through the volumes of federal paperwork required to build the light-rail system.
But the biggest promise has been scaled back. The city's first modern light-rail line is smaller and no longer includes the downtown subway or connection to the airport that helped sell the original vision.
And major legal and political challenges remain that still threaten to upend much of what remains of the original Project Connect vision.
In this guide, we'll take a look at where the major pieces stand now, who's pulling the strings and where the money's coming from to pay for everything.
The new roadmap: Transit Plan 2035
A lot of Project Connect's original timelines have effectively been replaced by CapMetro's Transit Plan 2035.
The long-range plan, approved by CapMetro's board in 2025, lays out where the agency expects bus, commuter rail and the on-demand service Pickup to go over the next decade.
With the original Project Connect timelines dragging out, Transit Plan 2035 is now the clearest public roadmap for much of Project Connect outside light-rail.
But some promises are easier to track than others. For example, Transit Plan 2035 has no start date for the Gold Line Rapid bus route or Green Line commuter rail line except to say they are more than 10 years away.
How Project Connect is funded
Building public transit is harder in Texas. The state spent $18 billion on highways in 2024, according to federal data. But only 1.2% of state transportation spending over last decade was devoted to public transit.
So Project Connect is funded with local property taxes and, if all goes according to plan, billions of dollars in federal grants.
The city's property tax rate has two parts. The smaller part pays down debt. The bigger part pays for almost everything else. That's called the maintenance and operations rate, or M&O for short.
When voters approved Project Connect, the city described the increase as 8.75 cents per $100 of taxable value, saying it would cost the owner of a $500,000 home an extra $438 per year.
But the ongoing formula works differently. Project Connect receives 20.789% of the city's adjusted M&O property tax revenue each year, unless there's another voter-approved tax rate increase.
For fiscal year 2026, the Project Connect tax is expected to bring in $185.8 million. Most of that goes to an agency called the Austin Transit Partnership.
Who runs Project Connect?
The Austin Transit Partnership is a local government corporation created by the city of Austin and CapMetro to oversee, finance and build the light-rail system. The agency is overseen by a five-member board of directors who aren't directly elected. Instead, they are appointed by Austin City Council and CapMetro's board.
After ATP builds the light-rail system, it will be run by CapMetro. The regional transit agency is responsible for building and operating almost every other piece of Project Connect.
The city gives ATP and CapMetro technical support and helps with things like design reviews, utility relocation and permitting. Austin Housing leads the management of a $300 million fund to help prevent people from being displaced by rising property values caused by transit investment.
Light-rail
Light-rail is the centerpiece of Project Connect, accounting for most of the price tag. Right now, the estimated cost exceeds $8.2 billion. Construction is set to start in 2027 with the first trains on target to run in 2033.
The current plan calls for a 9.8-mile route stretching in three directions from downtown to reach 15 stations. Electric trains powered by overhead wires would arrive as frequently as every five minutes.
The original plan sold to voters was more than twice the size: 20.2 miles and 31 stations including a downtown subway system.
The downtown subway was going to have five spacious multi-level underground stations linked by a walkable underground concourse, allowing someone to walk in air conditioning from Rainey Street to Republic Square Park.
But only 18 months after voters signed off on the property tax increase, transit planners returned with bad news. The light-rail system transit officials estimated could be built for $5.8 billion was actually going to cost $10.3 billion, they said.
The subway was the biggest cost driver. A 1.56-mile tunnel plan grew to 4.19 miles because of various factors including flood risks and rules against obstructing views of the Texas State Capitol dome. That pushed the estimated subway cost from $2 billion to more than $4 billion.
In 2023, ATP scaled back plans. The first phase was reduced from 20.2 miles to 9.8.
The routes would still reach in the same directions, but not as far. That meant no more direct connection to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport or to the Crestview Red Line Station. CapMetro's board and Austin City Council signed off.
The new plan was rebranded "Austin Light-Rail Phase 1" in part to blunt criticism that Project Connect was significantly altered. Pretty much everything was still going to happen, supporters argued; the timeline was simply being revised. But no funding has been identified for future phases. And no one is promising a subway.
The changes prompted a lawsuit whose plaintiffs include several retired Democratic officials. The litigation is still ongoing.
Republican state lawmakers tried in two consecutive legislative sessions to kill Project Connect's funding mechanism. Both times, they were outmaneuvered by Democratic allies of the transit expansion.
Despite a gauntlet of challenges, ATP has been advancing light-rail through a years long paperwork phase.
The Federal Transit Administration blessed Austin's light-rail plan with environmental clearance in January 2026, a major step forward for a project that relies on the feds paying for almost half of it.
The next month, ATP awarded a $60-million contract to Austin Rail Constructors, which is a joint venture between civil infrastructure firms Stacy Witbeck and Sundt Construction.
The single biggest question facing light-rail now: Will it get federal funding? ATP doesn't expect to know until after construction starts next year.
Rapid bus
Rapid bus is the most visible Project Connect service on the streets today.
Two new CapMetro routes, Rapid 800 Pleasant Valley and Rapid 837 Expo, began operating in February 2025, two years after CapMetro initially said they would. At first, buses only came every 20 minutes, far short of the promised frequencies.
Full service didn't start till June 2026 with buses arriving as often as every 10 minutes. Two new park-and-rides opened at the end of each line.
The routes serve areas east of I-35: Rapid 800 along Pleasant Valley between Mueller and Goodnight Ranch and Rapid 837 between the Expo Center and the University of Texas/downtown.
The 2020 plan promised four new Rapid routes. The other two were the Gold Line and Burnet Line extension. The Gold Line was supposed to run from ACC Highland to downtown and eventually be converted to light-rail.
The Burnet Line would extend the existing 803 Rapid route that starts at the Domain and ends at the Westgate Transit Center under Ben White Boulevard. The extension was originally planned to branch south in two directions. One line would continue down Menchaca Road to Slaughter Lane. The other would head to Oak Hill.
But under Transit Plan 2035, the Burnet Rapid line would only continue down Menchaca to William Cannon Drive, stopping more than two miles short of the destination promised under Project Connect. The Burnet line would start operating at some point between 2030 and 2035, but only with 20-minute frequencies to start. Buses wouldn't start showing up every 10 to 15 minutes until "resources are available," the plan says.
The Gold Line remains unfunded and wouldn't begin running until some undetermined point after 2035.
Electric buses
CapMetro was planning to move to an all-electric bus fleet as part of Project Connect. Less than a year after the November 2020 vote, the transit agency's board approved spending up to $255 million to buy 197 electric buses and charging equipment
Then hopes for the technology ran into reality.
Battery buses had range problems, especially in Austin's heat. They were harder to schedule than diesel buses, which can run all day with short refueling stops. In 2023, Proterra, one of CapMetro's two electric bus suppliers, filed for bankruptcy.
CapMetro changed course in 2024, saying it wouldn't convert more than 25% of the fleet to battery-powered electric vehicles. The agency said it would buy more hybrid and diesel buses instead.
Even with only a quarter of its fleet electric, CapMetro still has one of the largest battery-powered bus fleets in the country. But fewer than half of those buses are in service.
As of May, CapMetro reported having 104 battery electric buses with about 42 in daily service. The rest are sitting in storage.
Problems integrating electric buses with the fleet led to the Federal Transit Administration issuing a warning to CapMetro in September 2025 for exceeding a 20% spare bus ratio. Transit agencies aren't supposed to have more spare buses than they need. CapMetro's spare ratio was 48%.
The FTA gave the transit agency until July 25, 2027 to come into compliance, CapMetro's chief audit executive Terry Follmer told board members at a September meeting. The agency is working on a plan to bring the agency into compliance.
Park-and-rides
The original Project Connect plan called for nine new park-and-rides and one new transit center.
Two park-and-rides opened in June 2026. One is in the Goodnight Ranch neighborhood in Southeast Austin. The other is at the Travis County Expo Center in Northeast Austin.
Those are the end-of-line facilities needed to run new rapid bus routes at full frequency. They include space for parking and charging buses.
ATP is planning to build park-and-rides at all three ends of the light-rail line.
The remaining four park-and-rides don't appear to have public construction schedules.
Commuter rail: Red Line
Project Connect has included improvements to the existing Red Line, which opened in 2010 between downtown Austin and the northwestern suburb of Leander. The biggest changes being the addition of two new stations.
In 2024, CapMetro opened McKalla Station next to Q2 Stadium, a 20,500-capacity sports facility that's home to Austin FC, the city's Major League Soccer club. The station cost $60 million and was partly funded by Project Connect money.
The second station, initially named Broadmoor and renamed North Burnet/Uptown Station, is under construction near the Domain at the 66-acre Uptown ATX development. The original price tag was estimated at $24 million. Uptown ATX developer Brandywine Realty Trust was going to cover half the price.
Then, the cost of the station climbed to almost $50 million. But Brandywine's contribution remained capped at the original $12 million. So CapMetro will pay the difference. Brandywine is managing the project and will be paid a 5% fee capped at $2.25 million.
CapMetro blamed the situation on post-pandemic cost escalation and Brandywine's changed financial picture.
CapMetro has completed other Red Line work, including a double-tracking project in Leander, which allows trains to run more frequently. A second double-tracking project spanning almost a mile through East Austin is underway and expected to be done in 2028.
Commuter rail: Green Line
Project Connect promised a new commuter rail route running on CapMetro's existing freight tracks from downtown to Colony Park, a historically underserved neighborhood of mostly Black and Latino residents in Northeast Austin.
The Green Line would have stations at Plaza Saltillo, Pleasant Valley, Springdale Road, U.S. 183 and Loyola Lane with a possible future extension to Manor and Elgin.
The Green Line was always going to come later. Under the original plan, final design and construction wouldn't start until the light-rail lines were nearly finished.
Today, the project is essentially dormant. There is no funding set aside for construction, no environmental review and no current timeline. In 2019, the route was estimated to cost about $486 million by the time it was supposed to be half-way constructed in 2025.
Colony Park did get something in June 2026. The Expo Center Park and Ride and rerouted buses, plus the Rapid 837 line nearby. But the train residents were shown on the 2020 map has no delivery date.
Commuter bus
CapMetro Express and Flyer are commuter buses linking outer Austin and suburbs with employment centers like UT Austin and downtown. Project Connect pledged to add three new express routes.
None of them have launched. In fact, service has shrunk.
Commuter ridership never fully recovered from the pandemic, and CapMetro decided to shift spending elsewhere.
Flyer service in particular had the lowest ridership of any fixed-route bus. Six Flyer routes are operating now, providing express bus connections to downtown from neighborhoods such as Tanglewood, Circle C, Oak Hill and McNeil. But those routes are all on the chopping block under Transit Plan 2035.
CapMetro has said it will keep its existing five Express routes as outlined in Transit Plan 2035.
Pickup
Pickup offers on-demand shuttle rides within specific zones. The service works like a shared ride-hailing service with buses showing up to your destination within 15-30 minutes.
In most Pickup zones, the neighborhood circulators only operate weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A few zones offer Saturday service from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The Project Connect plan called for adding 15 new Pickup zones.
CapMetro runs 12 Pickup zones today, but only five have launched since the 2020 vote: Dessau, South Menchaca and North Oak Hill in 2021, Dove Springs in 2024 and Decker in 2025.
The Leander Pickup zone was expanded in 2024. The Manor and Lago Vista zones were enlarged in late 2025.
Two more zones, in the Lake Creek and Georgian Acres neighborhoods, aren't expected until after 2030. Pickup's footprint may keep growing for another reason: Transit Plan 2035 folds some low-ridership bus routes into on-demand zones. Route 233 was shortened in June. Route 237 was approved for removal.
Bikeshare
This is one of the Project Connect promises that arrived roughly as advertised: an all-electric bike fleet integrated with the transit system.
Unfortunately, a suspected battery fire has shut service citywide since Memorial Day weekend while forensic investigators hired by CapMetro try to figure out exactly what happened.
In 2023, CapMetro took over Bikeshare operations from the city of Austin.
The next year, it relaunched the program with a fleet of 100% electric-assist bikes and upgraded docking stations. An $11.3 million federal grant doled out by TxDOT helped pay for the overhaul.
Before the fire in May, CapMetro had almost 500 bikes spread across at least 76 docking stations around UT Austin, downtown, East Austin and neighborhoods south of downtown.
Transit Plan 2035 calls for expanding Bikeshare to about 360 stations over the next decade. But right now, CapMetro only has enough funding secured to grow the program to 234 stations by 2029.
A $300 million housing fund
One of the most unique promises of Project Connect had nothing to do with buses or trains. A $300 million "anti-displacement" fund was created as part of the multibillion-dollar voter-approved package to help people stay in their neighborhoods as transit investment pushes up land values nearby.
The money flows on a 13-year schedule managed by the city's housing department: $65 million in the first two years, $75 million over the next three, and $20 million a year through 2033. A community advisory committee working group helps steer where it goes.
The money has gone in three main directions: buying land and apartment buildings near transit lines before prices climb, helping nonprofits build affordable housing and awarding grants to community organizations for programs like rent assistance and home repair, an effort branded "Community Initiated Solutions."
According to a city dashboard, the city acquired four properties so far, totaled at $42.7 million: City View at the Park at 2000 Woodward St., a property at 2908 South Congress Ave., Midtown Flats at 615 W. St. Johns Ave., and a nearly 125-acre site at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Grove Boulevard.
The Grove-Riverside site is next to a planned light-rail stop. The 2908 South Congress Ave. property is half-a-mile from a planned light-rail stop at Oltorf Street and Congress Avenue.
City View at the Park is 0.8 mile walk to the Pleasant Valley MetroRapid line. Midtown Flats is less than a mile from the Crestview Red Line Station, the planned terminus of one of two still unfunded "priority extensions" for light-rail.
The anti-displacement fund has awarded $32.9 million in grants to a number of affordable housing projects. Another $29 million has been granted to community groups serving low income households such as Communities In Schools of Central Texas and the Austin Tenants Council Project.
The spending hasn't escaped scrutiny. Critics have questioned how recipients are chosen. The city's own displacement prevention officer has acknowledged $300 million won't be enough to prevent people from being priced out of their homes.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that Flyer routes haven't yet been canceled, but are recommended to be removed under Transit Plan 2035. The same plan called for routes 233 and 237 to be folded into Pickup zones, but route 233 will be shortened instead. The 803 Rapid line starts at the Domain, not the Arboretum.
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