The Dallas City Council’s last-minute opposition to the proposed downtown high-speed rail route to Fort Worth won’t stall the critical federal environmental process that’s already underway.

That’s a big deal. It keeps the current environmental analysis on track to wrap up next March, which, once approved by the feds, will allow the North Central Texas Council of Governments (COG) to begin pursuing funding and more in-depth engineering. The COG delivered the news during a meeting of the 45-member Regional Transportation Council on Thursday afternoon. The project itself is expected to cost $6 billion and shuttle riders between Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth within 30 minutes.

The COG began producing the Environmental Impact Statement last March, which triggers a 12-month deadline. Michael Morris, the transportation director for the COG, said he expects it to cost another $1.6 million to produce 30 percent of the new alignment’s design. Planning for the environmental statement has already cost the agency $12.1 million.

The end product from this analysis generally establishes the alignment for major transportation projects, so when the Dallas City Council passed a resolution in June opposing elevated rail lines through downtown—pending an economic analysis—the COG was concerned that it could delay its planning by a year or longer. It had to design a new route through the most complicated part of the entire 30-mile line: downtown Dallas.

On Thursday, regional transportation planners said they received permission from the federal government to plan for two separate downtown alignments. Each would shuttle trains about seven stories high to the federally approved high-speed rail station in the Cedars, about a mile south of Reunion Tower. The older alignment has the tracks just east of the Hyatt Regency, splitting between the forthcoming $3 billion convention center overhaul through the heart of southwest downtown. The newer alignment misses downtown entirely, running just west of Interstate 35E along Riverfront Boulevard on its way to that Cedars station.

Morris said the alignment that misses downtown would likely result in losing a connection to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station, where Amtrak, Trinity Railway Express, and DART lines converge. But it wouldn’t require any maneuvering around skyscrapers. (Hunt Realty plans to build a $5 billion mixed use development in the corner that would house the other alignment. It contends its plans cannot coexist with the line.) Morris said the agency designed the first downtown route to include a “lobby” or a people mover that could shuttle riders to and from the Cedars station into the convention center and downtown’s Union Station.

If Dallas chooses the western alignment, the COG would no longer pay for that connection, he said. But Morris said it would still investigate ways to link the high-speed rail station with the convention center. Amtrak, which has taken over the separate Houston-to-Dallas high-speed rail project, has concerns about getting riders into downtown if Dallas picks the western alignment, said COG program director Brendon Wheeler.

“I think you’re gonna have your hands full trying to make that same connection in such an easy and graceful way that the high-speed rail system creates for you,” Morris said during Thursday’s meeting of the Regional Transportation Council.

Morris is no stranger to attaching big-dollar adjacent projects to his preferred plans. The city of Dallas has “paused” its support for the downtown alignment until an economic analysis can be completed, which is expected in October. Then it will establish its preference. But for now, the Council was nervous about sewing a high-speed rail line into its downtown.

“I believe in placemaking, and we certainly wouldn’t put a highway for cars through downtown,” said Councilman Chad West, one of the members of the Regional Transportation Council. “This is very different obviously, but it still creates some challenges when you look at that whole area … that it would cut off. There is no perfect solution, as you point out, and we still must work through that.”

While some Dallas officials have questioned the need for a high-speed rail connection to Fort Worth, the COG believes the federal government envisions this corridor of North Texas as a nexus for rail travel. A separate line from Houston to Dallas is already federally approved, and extending the line to Fort Worth would open up possibilities that could run rail to Central Texas and the western United States.

That’s all a long way away. Amtrak has taken over the Houston project, but still has land to acquire, designs to complete, and funding to secure. The federal plan for a nationwide rail network is still a draft. But the COG is getting its house in order, preparing just in case this all comes to fruition and big buckets of money come available.

Dallas’ job is now to determine whether the tradeoff of connectivity between the Cedars and downtown is worth the risk of how an elevated rail line affects development near the convention center. It made a stand, and it didn’t derail the project.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins still distinctly remembers his first NFL preseason game, almost exactly 12 years removed from flying to Buffalo as a rookie with the now-Washington Commanders.

Cousins, a fourth-round rookie brought in to be first-round pick Robert Griffin III’s backup, had his parents in the stands, prompting the realization of how far he had come from his childhood playing days in Barrington, Illinois.

A similar thought crossed his mind when he saw linebacker Shawne Merriman, then entering his final season, line up across the ball.

And regardless of how the rest of his career unfolded, Cousins knew he’d always be able to claim taking the field in an NFL uniform.

“I remember thinking, ‘Well, if they cut me, I got to wear an NFL helmet for one game, and it was a dream just to be out there,’” Cousins said after Wednesday’s joint practice with the Miami Dolphins.

His first action came late in the first half — a two-minute drill with Washington leading 7-3. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, now the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, radioed into Cousins’s helmet once he entered the huddle, but didn’t start by giving the play call.

“How do you feel?” Shanahan asked. “First drive, two-minute drill, here we go.”

Cousins hit his first two throws, but his next two fell incomplete. His fifth pass was intercepted, ending the drive. Washington didn’t score with Cousins under center but hung onto a 7-6 win. Then just 23 years old, Cousins went 9-of-22 for 74 yards with one interception.

“It was not a productive game,” Cousins said. “But we moved the ball, and I had fun and got a lot of things covered. It was a good memory.”

But for Cousins, playing in preseason games has quickly become a distant memory — his last appearance came in 2021 with the Minnesota Vikings.

His two-year absence is expected to reach three over the next several weeks, starting at 7 p.m. Friday when the Falcons take on the Dolphins inside Hard Rock Stadium.

“Kirk won’t get nearly as much work in those type of situations, if any,” Morris said before Wednesday’s practice

Earlier in training camp, Cousins disclosed he and Morris had a brief, informal conversation in June about the preseason during which Morris essentially shut down any ideas of playing his nine-figure, 35-year-old quarterback.

Cousins, however, claimed he wants to play, citing the value in seeing live bullets. This is particularly relevant for Cousins, who is nine months removed from surgery on his ruptured right Achilles and has been knocked to the ground just once — an accidental hit from a Falcons defensive lineman in the open practice Aug. 2 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Further, Cousins still sees things happen each day that tell him the Falcons need to get up to speed. He wants the offense to look like it has worked together for 10 years even though the core first united less than five months ago. Atlanta grows closer to that goal each day, Cousins believes, but an in-game test may hasten the development.

Yet Cousins also grasps the argument for not playing and is ultimately at peace with Morris and the staff’s decision.

“I think it’s a calculated deal,” Cousins said Wednesday. “If you could promise me I’m coming out feeling no worse for the wear, absolutely. I’d love to play all four quarters, but the reality is that you can’t promise me that. You have to be calculated and say, risk versus reward.

“Let’s get all we can in these two days, and then we’ll protect you is really the thought process.”

Cousins noted the precautionary measure has long been commonplace in the NFL, and he understands where his responsibilities shift during the exhibition affairs — while not playing physically, he’s still mentally engaged.

The four-time Pro Bowler said he’ll be standing on the sideline with an earpiece in, listening to the play calls while looking at the coverages and deciphering where he’d go with the ball and how he’d work through progressions.

“You’re kind of playing the game from the sideline as you’re watching,” Cousins said.

When Atlanta’s offense hits the field Friday night, it won’t be reinventing the wheel in terms of schematic looks. Plays will be straightforward, with offensive coordinator Zac Robinson not wanting to give anything away.

Still, it’s an opportunity for Cousins to simulate — mentally, not physically — the new offense he’s in. On the field, however, several players get the chance to taste the same sense of accomplishment Cousins did 12 years to the day.

“I remember saying to (my parents) after the game, ‘I had a lot of fun because you’re just able to play football,’” Cousins said. “There’s not as much riding on a regular season game or a college game that you’re starting.

“So, you really just get to play the game that you love, and I think that’s a real positive to these preseason games.”

But on Friday night, Cousins appears unlikely to get that chance — and while he won’t fear his job security as he did when he ran through Buffalo’s tunnel in 2012, his mind may be set on another worry: Week 1 readiness.