SAN ANTONIO - Highway congestion seems to be getting worse every day. That's why there's a new push to bring commuter trains to San Antonio.

We want to be clear this is not the same thing as streetcars.

"This is student parking over here," UTSA student Juan Gutierrez tells a driver in the main parking lot.

Ask any UTSA student: finding a parking spot is a master class in strategy.

"I just sit here and wait for a student to come by," Gutierrez says.

"Sometimes I'm here for an hour, waiting," UTSA student Jon Garza says. "Some of the professors call us sharks. People walking around are like fish we attack for parking."

Bexar County leaders are working on a plan that could de-congest that lot and all the others along the ever-growing stretch of I-10 on the northwest side.

"I call it rail re-use," Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff says.

He's interested in re-using a Union Pacific railroad track that runs parallel to I-10 from downtown all the way to The Rim.

"If there were going to be a rail project in Bexar County, this might be an affordable rail project that the citizens might support," Commissioner Wolff says.

Right now, the tracks are mainly used to transport limestone from the Beckmann Quarry behind The Rim. The company that manages the quarry is Martin Marietta Aggregate.

"Rail volumes from the Beckmann facility will be greatly reduced in the coming years," its regional general manager Chance Allen says.

Union Pacific tells News 4 it wants to keep the line for freight business but has also been speaking with Commissioner Wolff.

"In their mind, if they don't have a customer along that rail line then they're looking to do something with it," Commissioner Wolff says.

And that would pave the way for the county to convert the freight line into a commuter line as soon as the end of the decade. Commissioner Wolff envisions stops at the South Texas Medical Center, UTSA and The Rim.

But people would need to be shuttled from the tracks to those destinations. It's unclear how, and at what cost.

"That's really the challenge," Commissioner Wolff says.

He imagines it would take VIA's help. Leaders there tell us they're studying the plan. A recent VIA survey shows many residents support light rail or train service.

"We'd have to look and study all those things and see if it really would be a benefit to citizens, or just a nice-to-have," Commissioner Wolff says.

While county leaders explore a passenger rail, student still searching for parking say they might be on board.

"If it gets me to school and saves me gas, then yeah that would be nice," Gutierrez says.

By EMILY BAUCUM

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