Trackside Trek I: Downtown to Highland (10:40 AM start)

Long before a starry-eyed but sparse stream of commuters rode its rails, the Houston and Texas Central railroad carried a freight of “hope, prosperity and progress” into Austin. Starting in 1871, its main tracks ran along Pine Street (now Fifth), helping make the city a trading hub. Near Plaza Saltillo, the Austin & Northwestern (A&NW) branched north. Beginning northward expansion in 1881, it never came close to reaching the intended destination of Abilene and a northwestern Texas rail line. But the A&NW hauled nearly sixteen thousand carloads of pink granite for the State Capitol. In 1985, voters approved the founding of Capital Metro, which set a vision of an Austin rail line. A year later, the agency and the city bought the abandoned Southern Pacific freight tracks. A decade later, not very long in rail-planning time, the agency made concrete plans for the Red Line on the old right-of-way. Though compromised from its original vision and taking another 13 years to complete, a 32-mile commuter rail line began service in March 2010. Our 7.5 mile walk, the first of a three-part series along the tracks of Austin's Red Line train, begins downtown before passing through the East Cesar Chavez, Rosewood, Cherrywood, North Loop, and Highland neighborhoods. We’ll get a bit of shade in the early part of our walk along the Boggy Creek Greenbelt. And of course we’ll stop at the end for an optional lunch. LOGISTICS: 10:40 AM start, for the convenience of anyone taking the train to the starting point. See train schedule. The first inbound train departs from Lakeline and arrives downtown at 10:40 AM. There are paid parking garages by the pile of rubble formerly known as the Austin Convention Center You might be able to find street parking by Highland Station, but no guarantee We'll meet right by the downtown train station If you parked somewhere along the train line (there are proper parking lots up north at Leander, Lakeline, and Howard), we’ll be at the Highland stop by 1:30, in time for downtown trains (1:28, 2:05, 2:42, 3:19) or northbound trains (1:42, 2:19, 2:56, 3:33) Official walk route