One thing you haven’t mentioned is whether city planning in Austin is using the LRT as a reason to allow/encourage/rezone for higher density near LRT stops. Part of the success of San Diego and Portland, I understand, is that development in the areas near the transit stops was encouraged - and with it, ridership grew. Transit and land use planning can’t operate in isolation - they need a symbiotic relationship.
I know it is hard to understand how a large modern city could waste so much money building such a boondoggle as this rail line, but I was in Austin a couple of weeks ago so I went downtown to see it. As I stated above, there are maybe three main destinations for public transit, the University of Texas, the hospital district and the Capitol. This thing serves none of them. Downtown it comes in on fourth street but stops three blocks short of the main drag that serves the Capitol which is Congress. It stops in front of the convention center. To get to the Capitol just seven blocks away takes two transfers to two different bus routes as the rail stop is only served by the 21 bus. Amazing short sightedness. To get to UT from there requires the same and it’s only 9 or 10 blocks away(which is why UT students get off at MLK and transfer - but even then they probably have to do two transfers taking the 18 bus to UT and then a UT circulator bus to their destination). It doesn’t get anywhere near the Amtrak depot which is on the other side of town. It doesn’t serve the airport which is southeast of downtown and It doesn’t serve the Long Center or other entertainment centers or Town Lake or anything anyone would want to come downtown for. Had they just extended it a few more blocks into town it would at least have accomplished that. It’s just amazing that they just stopped it three or four blocks too soon. What were they thinking? Had they spent just a little more and left the freight rail line north of town near the Crestview stop and continued in the street down Lamar, Guadalupe and Congress streets they could have served all three of the most important destinations easily. As I see it they have two choices. Shut it down and sell off the equipment or spend even more millions to do it right. If you want to see this boondoggle go to the capmetro.org web site and look at the map.
Maybe what you suggest will be the next route.
For the life of me I cant understand why the folks in Austin are still complaining about the MetroRail ! Folks,I dont know what you were exspecting from this one line but,if you give it time more people will ride it,and the fares may come down,but if I lived in Leander or anywhere in between and worked anywhere in between there and Austin I would ride it every day both ways ! Its cheaper than buying gas which is going up everyday and paying for parking downtown,you can put that to a pencil and see what you get…!
BUILD MORE TRACKS,NOT ROADS !
Well Danny perhaps they were expecting a system that went ‘somewhere’ rather than a joy ride around Austin that dumps you off many blocks short of any reasonable destination. To get anywhere important requires at least and sometimes two bus transfers. They spent a lot of taxpayers money on something that is basically useless. It’s a toy train for rail buffs.
As an advocate I see the round-about routing as a big waste. Any type of service needs to be generally a straight line. Some examples of a fairly straight line systems are:
Portland Oregon
Seattle
Salt lake City
Atlanta
Charlotte
Tri-Rail
St. Louis
VRE
olarmy49,
Are you saying that the voters didnt know the proposed route when they voted for it,did CapitalMetro pull the wool over the voters eyes? From everything thats been said on this forum since day one has had the underlying messesge that once it was build everyone was surprised it didnt go anywhere…If thats the case why did they vote for it in the first place,surely CM had to have route maps and the like available to the public for input on which route they wanted and which route would be built…
Danny, not being from the Austin area I really can’t say what happenned. I know Austin debated putting in a rail system for many years. The first proposal was to use the old T&NO tracks out east toward Manor where the new airport was going to be built. But then Austin got the option to buy Bergstrom AFB and turn it into their new airport so that was scrapped. So then someone dreamed up this scheme that was finally built. I know Austin Metro had some avid rail people(fans?) that clamored for this line that worked for Metro. Basically they just wanted a rail line somewhere. I guess they just sweet talked the voters into approving it. It’s really a shame as it will go down as a negative for rail transit and eventually hurt the industry as every anti-rail nut will zero in on this project while ignoring all the ones that are a success. This project was a disaster from the getgo as it was delayed for over two years I believe while they argued about mixing these trains with freight trains and trying to fix signalling problems and other fiascos. Hey, Austin is the Capitol and full of politics, politicians and other do nothings, so what can you expect.