Bicycle Austin forum

m1ek

Member

Registered: 2008-06-02

Posts: 153

Capital Metro gutting bus service for awful commuter rail

Hey, y'all! Remember back in 2004, when I warned you that nobody would be riding the Red Line because of the shuttlebus problem?

It's 2010 now, and just for reference, boardings are down in the low 800s/day (predicted 1700-2000; good light rail starts usually north of 20,000; 2000 LRT predicted 40,000). To help pay for the massive operating cost overruns (since ridership is so low); Capital Metro is cutting bus routes left and right:

http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/a … 00660.html (express buses which are objectively superior about to get the axe)

http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/a … 00659.html (urban service to Clarksville completely cut; originally promised partial replacement service nowhere to be found)

Regards,
M1EK

timdiller

Member

Registered: 2008-09-28

Posts: 14

Re: Capital Metro gutting bus service for awful commuter rail

You can fit a lot more bikes on the train than on any of the express or regular buses. I've seen 5 in a train car, and there is room to squeeze more if needed. With the buses your SOL if the rack is full. I bike to work in the morning and then ride home on the train when the heat of the day would be too much. From a biking perspective (this is a biking forum) the trains are a huge improvement over the buses.

m1ek

Member

Registered: 2008-06-02

Posts: 153

Re: Capital Metro gutting bus service for awful commuter rail

Yes, you're right, but this train has precluded much better rail (also with room for bikes) from happening - rail which could help all of us, not just those of us who can (still) bike.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

Website

Re: Capital Metro gutting bus service for awful commuter rail

m1ek is spot on.  I would say that it didn't take a genius to see from the start that nobody would be riding this train...but then again, it seems that a lot of people still didn't get it.

The train is better than the bus for cyclists only if it goes where you're going, and the train has exactly one route, compared to dozens for the bus.

The low ridership wouldn't have been much of an issue, except that if CapMetro is actually now cutting BUS routes because the train put them in the red, then the train has really screwed us.

We really screwed our chances for real rail when we barely lost the light rail election back in 2000.  After that all the money saved for the project was moved elsewhere and then the governments (local and fed) went broke.  There's no more money to build real rail now even if we could get a plan approved.  Way to go Austin.