Trackside Trek I: Downtown to Highland (10:40 AM start)
About the event
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”](https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167371) into Austin. Starting in 1871, its main tracks ran along [Pine Street](https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/AUS) (now Fifth), helping make the city a trading hub. Near Plaza Saltillo, the Austin & Northwestern (A&NW) [branched north. Beginning northward expansion in 1881](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_and_Northwestern_Railroad), 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](https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-LL9) 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](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25256/chapter/26)[ freight tracks](https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25256/chapter/26). 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](https://austinchronicle.com/news/1997-02-28/527499). Though [compromised from its original vision](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2010-04-16/1016848/) and taking another 13 years to complete, a 32-mile commuter rail line began service in March 2010.
Our [7.5 mile walk](https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/trackside-trek-part-i-387cbd6?u=i&sh=7owkib), 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](https://www.capmetro.org/docs/default-source/scheduled-routes/550.pdf). The first inbound train departs from Lakeline and arrives downtown at 10:40 AM. • There are [paid parking garages](https://www.austinconventioncenter.com/directions-parking) by the pile of rubble formerly known as the Austin Convention Center • You *might* be able to find [street parking by Highland Station](https://www.spotangels.com/map?spLng=-97.7436995&spLat=30.2711286&spAddress=Austin%20Travis%20County,%20Texas,%20USA&lng=-97.71462960114849&lat=30.327286324199818&zoom=14.759718879841715), but no guarantee • We'll meet right by the [downtown train station](https://maps.app.goo.gl/c9yG7pxQruT25mrQ7) • 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](https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/trackside-trek-part-i-387cbd6?u=i&sh=7owkib)
