CATC Mobility Headlines

An article in the Washington Post regarding DC’s rising transit costs and likely service reduction is one of many examples where the unsustainable financial nature of transit is detrimental to all taxpayers and is degrading transit service for those who need transit and have no choice. DC at 4.3% is just behind NY (10.7%) and SF (4.8%) for urban area transit share of transportation passenger miles. NY alone has 43 % of the transit passenger miles in the US. Add Chicago, LA, Boston and Philadelphia to the previous three cities and you have more than 84% of the transit passenger miles in the US. This doesn’t leave much for the rest of us. Transit is not sustainable unless it is implemented in a cost-effective manner. The fundamental issue is the transit circle: the greater the ridership; the greater the loss and the deeper the financial hole; resulting in service cutbacks and higher fares and/or taxes; resulting in fewer riders.

The ultimate truth is that an urban area cannot afford to spend enough money to increase ridership enough to make any real mobility difference even if you assumed ridership would increase substantially with more money.  Ben Wear’s Jan 26 column in the Statesman is evidence of how aptly this applies to Austin.   Wear notes that CapMetro’s Red Line commuter rail, which opens Mar 30, will carry only 1,400 people for its entire capacity of seven morning runs, with the last car arriving downtown around 10 a.m.   Doubling capacity to 2,800 people per day by purchasing six more cars would be an additional $35 million - plus borrowing costs - and would take over two years to put into service.

The Austin City Council gave preliminary approval for zoning within half-mile radius around future CapMetro commuter rail stations within the city. Final approval is expected within a few weeks.

Volume 2, Issue 1 of the All Systems Go newsletter has been released. Fred Gilliams’ monthly update reports on the progress of CapMetro’s commuter rail line.

All Systems Go Newsletter - Vol 2, Iss. 1

The first rail station in Capital Metro’s 32-mile commuter rail route has opened in Leander. The rail line will open in 2008. The city of Leander has opened its rail stop and park & ride, which will allow commuters to park at the station before boarding the train.

Austin Business Journal: Leander opens commuter rail station

The first of Capital Metro’s six Swiss-made rail cars has finished assembly and will arrive in Austin this fall for local track testing. Capital Metro’s commuter rail service is scheduled to begin in late 2008.

Austin American-Statesman transportation columnist Ben Wear did the math, and discovers that the Leander-to-downtown commuter rail route is quite an expensive ride.

The five rail cars (at $5 million a pop) with a capacity of 200 running five routes from Leander at 30-minute intervals in the morning and evening means 1,000 commuters at a cost of $90 million - and that is full capacity. Ouch.

Ding Ding Goes the Commuter Train - Austin American-Statesman