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Austin’s MetroRail to expand capacity for commuter trains
The way the information is presented, it sounds like shaving “up to 4 minutes” off the trip is the main goal. That is at a cost of nearly $3M per minute. The addition of another train is also mentioned, and should be the focus of the project since it would justify the additional cost.
MU couplers it looks like single car platforms. It must be for emergency purposes or it would cost more to build the cars withou it
MU couplers cost upwards of $40K each. It might have been possible to build the railcars prewired but not equipped. It appears Capitol Transit always anticipated 2+ car trains, even though their initial buy did not include sufficient numbers to allow them to operate on the existing trackage and platforms. That system has always been a “bootstrap” operation. Denton County operates similar equipment and the FRA requires DCTA to operate 2-car trains due to questions about shunting capability of the railcars for the signal system. Hopefully that issue will be resolved and DCTA can cut back to single car trains during off-peak hours.
It would have been very short-sighted if CapTrans had not bought their cars with MU capability, not withstanding initial demand and platform build compromises.