capital metro

Erica McKewen from Capital Metro let me know that one of the most recent monthly reports does, finally, have the...

(via M1EK's Bake-Sale of Bile)

Capital Metro has finally done something that has caused me to give them a few kudos. (via Snowed In)

The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority will begin asking riders to keep any tobacco use at least 15 feet away from their bus stops beginning next month.

New signage designating all 2700 of Capital Metro bus stops in Austin, including 150 at UT, as tobacco free zones will be installed after the board of directors secured funding and voted Wednesday to instate a ban, said Michael Nyren, Capital Metro risk management director.

Austin residents may see a change in the way they commute as the City Council is revisiting the potential
of the urban rail in hopes of meeting the needs of an increasingly congested city.

In a special work session Tuesday, council members and citizens heard a presentation by the Austin
Strategic Mobility Plan on a possible urban rail system.

The proposed plan would involve at least four train routes around the downtown area, with one possibly
running through the University north to the Mueller development and south to downtown.

Following up on a short twitter conversation (not really; just more of the same from the usual suspects) last night.

From folks who have been attending the JMVC school of leading questions, disappointingly. Here you go.

Sitting in a hotel room in ice-cold New Jersey on an awful business trip, and see this in a long thread of tweets:

Which of course led me to fire back in the middle of a long complaint about the other local urban rail advocates who have been content to use yours truly for arguments once in a while but, pretty much, let me sit out here like a human pinata for years now under attack by Capital Metro flacks, both employed and hangers-on.

First sample from before I saw the tweet above:

• After additional train runs during SXSW boasted ridership, Capital Metro is now considering adding more train runs on Friday and Saturday.
• 
  

Hello,

Please forgive the short notice, my team was just informed.

Please inform your neighborhoods or anyone of interest that tonight along the tracks that Capital Metro will be spraying weed killer along the tracks.

Once again please apologize for the late notice, and if you have any concerns and questions please let us know.

Regards,

Juan Wah

Community Involvement Specialist

Capital Metro Transportation Authority

I'm way too busy for this. Up from 2-6 with the knees of death; work is a nightmare. But it's been long enough.

1.

At 1300 boardings/day and overflowing on the weekend, this line would be the most failingest light rail line ever in the country.

Ever. That's of any rail line with all-day service that purports to serve an urban area (remember, Capital Metro's been trying to claim this is just light rail with diesel engines for quite a while now - especially Lyndon Henry).

This is the last monthly data we get before Big Changes make for a big discontinuity in the graphs. December is, as Capital Metro wants to make sure you know, a low ridership month.

As usual, click for larger versions. Analysis follows the pictures.

Rail first (image directly from Capital Metro):