Brownsville, TX
Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: McAllen, TX (49.9 mi).
About Brownsville
Brownsville is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Cameron County, located on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The city covers 145.2 sq mi (376.066 km2), and had a population of 186,738 at the 2020 census.
Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.
Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)
| Item | Basis | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal construction | Mid-size terminal — 200K–1M catchment ($1–2B range) | $1.5B |
| Land acquisition | Regional factor 1.2× on $200M base | $240M |
| Track: Brownsville → McAllen | 49.9 mi × $500M/mi | $24.9B |
| Annual operations (share) | Staffing, power, maintenance | $30M/yr |
| Stop total (excl. annual ops) | $26.7B |
Best terminal location (proposed)
the downtown Brownsville transit center (La Plaza at Brownsville). The existing multimodal hub is already served by Valley Metro and sits near the border crossing. UT Rio Grande Valley's Brownsville campus feeds student demand. The terminal captures the lower Valley plus cross-border trips from Matamoros.
Before / after
Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.
- San Benito — Cameron County city on the US-77 corridor.
- Harlingen — the Valley's medical and retail hub.
- Weslaco — Mid-Valley city at the McAllen approach.