Aug. 16— The Bexar County Commissioners Court is scheduled Tuesday to consider whether it will provide a crucial $102 million so VIA Metropolitan Transit can build a rapid bus route that would serve as the backbone for a new and faster mass transit system.
The funding would go toward the construction of the Silver Line, a proposed 7.3-mile route that would run east-west from Loop 410 and East Houston Street through downtown to the area around Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. The funds would serve as the local match VIA needs to access $146.7 million it is seeking from the Federal Transit Administration. VIA is expected to chip in another $42 million.
About a year ago, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg co-signed a letter to the federal Transit Administration saying they would "work together" to help fill the funding gap, VIA's president and CEO Jeffrey Arndt said.
The Silver Line would run cross-wise with another rapid bus route, the $446.3 million Green Line. VIA is working with the Federal Transit Administration to lock down a $269.2 million grant for that proposed route. The 10.4-mile Green Line would run north-south from Stone Oak through downtown to the Brooks master-planned community on the South Side.
If the county approves the $102 million match, VIA's board will vote to accept it on Aug. 27, Arndt told the Express-News on Friday before VIA's annual State of Transit luncheon downtown.
The Silver and Green lines — together known as VIA's Advanced Rapid Transit, or ART, system — would then have all the local funding they need. But VIA would still have work to do to secure the federal funds.
The Silver Line would have to go through a federal approval process requiring public input and several types of analysis looking at the project's impact on the environment, real estate and local utilities, Arndt said.
There are "a lot of moving pieces to that, that we are wrapping up right now on the Green Line toward looking at a full funding grant agreement — that's what they call 'Yes, you got it' money — by the end of the year," he said. "We'll have to run that same process on the Silver Line."
Arndt — who announced Friday that he plans to retire at the end of the year — said he expects that by 2028, the Green Line will be running and the Silver Line will be "well underway."
Nirenberg, Sakai and other local leaders are pinning their hopes on the Advanced Rapid Transit plan to give the Alamo City the kind of speedy, omnipresent mass transit system that has eluded it since VIA was established in 1977. The plan comes after at least two failed efforts to build light rail in San Antonio in past decades.
The ART system "does operate much like a light rail system," Arndt told the audience at Friday's luncheon. "I sometimes get the question, 'When is San Antonio going to get light rail?' I say, 'Well, hopefully never.' Because light rail costs twice as much and it does not operate nearly as flexibly."
Speaking at the luncheon, Nirenberg voiced support for the project.
"We have a vision that this community could finally break through the barrier of mass transit, and that's exactly what we're doing," he said. "By the time we're here next year, we will be breaking on mass transit in San Antonio for the first time in our history."
Buses on the Green and Silver lines would depart every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends, reducing wait times for riders. They would have their own designated lanes for most of the routes, and traffic lights would be programmed to keep them moving. Riders would pay their fares before getting on board, and the buses would have doors on both sides so they could get in more efficiently.
"I need you to repeat after me: frequency, frequency, frequency," Arndt said at the luncheon. "Frequency is the hallmark of service, and we never forget that."
VIA's share of the funding for both lines — it is contributing $89.3 million for the Green Line — will come from revenue it makes from local sales taxes. In 2020, San Antonio voters approved a ballot measure to rededicate a 1/8-cent share of existing sales taxes for improvements to the transit network. The agency will start receiving that revenue in 2026.
The Green Line will require the construction of 26 bus stations and the purchase of 17 low-emission buses, according to a presentation VIA made to the San Antonio City Council's transportation and infrastructure committee in October. For the Silver Line, 18 stations would be built.
The Advanced Rapid Transit routes have been in the works since 2015 or 2016, Arndt said — shortly after VIA's effort to build a streetcar system failed.
Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert said Friday that he will support the county funding for the Silver Line, which if built would pass through parts of his precinct on the East Side. He said he hopes VIA will build even more rapid-transit routes.
"It's a different way from the car culture we have here in Texas, but people enjoy it when we do it," he said of mass transit. "It's a welcome change."
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