CapMetro Announces March 22 Opening for MetroRail

If only... (0.00 / 0)

If only this were progress; it's actually likely the end of rail transit in our city for a generation or more.

Existing express buses (and even in one case the local bus) are demonstrably faster than the Red Line will be, because essentially everybody will need to take a shuttle-bus (to get to UT, the Capitol, and most of the office buildings downtown).

Capital Metro chose to do commuter rail instead of light rail because it was easier - never mind the fact that essentially nobody works within walking distance of any of the stations for this thing.

Same mistake Tri-Rail made in South Florida in the late 1980s.

Same thing I've been warning about since 2004.

We're about to learn whether suburbanites can read their watches (I'm betting they can); whether people who won't ride the bus today will ride the bus if you call it a shuttle (I'm betting they won't); and whether voters will give you another chance with urban rail after fence-sitters look at this POS and declare "rail doesn't work".

One would think after six years on this, a mention or even a link might have been nice.

http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.c...

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by: m1ek @ Fri Mar 05, 2010 at 21:05:15 PM UTC

metro (0.00 / 0)

It would be nice if it went to where the most people are:

UT and the State Govt. complexes....

Since it doesn/t, it would be nice if there was an easy, frequent bus connection from it to those places..But, no they cancelled the Dillo, didn't they.

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by: WUSRPH @ Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 04:12:07 AM UTC

Train to nowhere (0.00 / 0)

I noticed that myself when I looked at the rail line. As m1ek pointed out CapMetro pulled the "existing rail line" trick and avoided dealing with a lot of issues that face transit systems  wanting to do rail lines today. The cost and disruption of a rail system is so great you can't afford to do the right thing.

San Antonio is exploring a rail system, albeit a street car system. For the 2 miles planned, it is expected to cost $90 million. What's worse is that the street car system won't really serve anyone. I live in the downtown area and commute to the Medical Center area like over 50% of the downtown residents. Will this serve us? No, it serves people along Broadway to King William and doesn't even come close to any major business hub (BTW, for those who think downtown San Antonio is a major business hub come visit us again).

I'm beginning to think the days of good city planning are gone.

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by: RBearSAT @ Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 17:01:48 PM UTC

Houston's rail has problems too (0.00 / 0)

Someone recently pointed out that if Houston's Metro Rail was a ride at Six Flags, it would have been closed down long ago due to the high incidence of train-car crashes.  It is often, but not always, the auto driver's fault.  The problem is that the rail is at grade level - cheaper that way - and weaves in and out of the streets like a drunken sailor.  It is quiet, and there is often no real warning that a train is about to cut across a street, so this is definitely not all about bad drivers.  It makes me quite nervous to drive anywhere near the thing, so I often avoid the area altogether.  Not what the small business owners were hoping for!

The problem highlights the fact that rail systems are best built BEFORE the areas they serve are fully developed, which eliminates viability in either Austin or Houston.  Austin's rail won't go to UT or the Capitol for a simple reason:  nowhere to put it!  At least not without destroying traffic mobility in the area.  Houston has that problem now, and it will apparently get much, much worse with the new plans to destroy the major streets in the Galleria area, just to put in a train of questionable utility.

I think most of us love the idea of urban rail, but the reality should make us all stop and think twice, thrice, and more.  It is 19th century technology in 21st century wrapping paper.  The cost and the tremendous inconvenience make any such project highly questionable.  Most of the problems go away, of course, with elevated rail, but that would be significantly more expensive - and in hilly Austin, probably difficult to do.  Here in Flatland an el would make a lot of sense, but no one wants to pay for it.  

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by: Dale Napier @ Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 17:24:17 PM UTC

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Really inaccurate (0.00 / 0)

The incidence of crashes in Houston has gone way down - it hardly happens now, thanks to some physical changes to the interfaces between the trains and the rest of traffic.

Houston's line is now first or second, depending on the month, on the metric of passengers-per-mile for all light rail systems in the whole country. They don't get much more successful than that.

Austin's 2000 LRT plan was the way to go - the same thing that's worked in Dallas, Portland, Salt Lake, Denver, Phoenix, etc. Yes, even in Houston (although Houston's line runs only in the urban core, not out to the burbs on a rail right-of-way).

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by: m1ek @ Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 21:15:02 PM UTC

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And "nowhere to put it" (0.00 / 0)

the 2000 LRT plan would have served UT and the Capitol directly - by running down Guadalupe and then cutting over to Congress. It is possible; other cities did it; and we had a plan to do it - before Krusee forced it to the polls too early (coinciding with a groundswell of suburban Republican voter turnout for W's first run).

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by: m1ek @ Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 21:16:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

just agreeing with the general sentiment (0.00 / 0)

The Metro Rail is only going to run during rush hour - well, it is kinda near where I live but won't take me to work. In fact, if the testing is any indication, it will be an impediment to my commute. Yay.

I saw a News8 story on the Rail that had 1 person saying that the schedule had never been realistic to begin with.... I may be remembering this wrong, but wasn't one of the delays because shortly beore one of last spring's opening dates, they suddenly remembered that people needed training??? They should have been doing training all along, so that isn't a valid reason. Obviously there were other problems, but that one always bugged me.

Anyway, I wish them well, but I won't be using the Metro Rail. Doesn't go anywhere I want or need to go, and runs at times I'm busy doing other stuff.

Hill Country Ride for AIDSmy HCRA Page

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by: BeckyH @ Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 03:26:12 AM UTC

I won't be riding it (0.00 / 0)

The CapMetro Express buses are 1. faster, 2. run more frequently, 3. stop two blocks from my office, and 4. don't cost as much. I think this is MetroFail in almost every way. They should have spent the money to hold down fares, buy more buses, and give the drivers a much deserved raise. Instead, this train is far too much like The Simpson's monorail episode to even be funny.  

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by: TexianPolitico @ Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 15:01:54 PM UTC

Austin behind? (0.00 / 0)

I can't believe Dallas and Houston had light rail lines before Austin. Is Austin lagging behind in its progressive weirdness? :)

I can't speak for Houston, but the Dallas lines do go somewhere. Sure, they don't service everyone. But they service those who live and work near them. I have also used it to avoid spending $15-20 to park at the American Airlines Center. A $3 roundtrip and being let out at the the AAC's door sounds better to me. I've noticed on my Red Line trips it is used quite a bit in the middle of the city into downtown and southward. Not so much in the northern burbs, but it is what it is. The new Green line into Carrollton that will connect to a DCTA line to Denton will serve even more people.  

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by: John McClelland @ Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 17:32:30 PM UTC

Keep expanding the rail. (0.00 / 0)

We are learning lessons from all of these various stabs at rail. Sure we can do better, but we can't stop now. Yes it's true it will make traffic unpleasant when we start tearing up the drag to put a train in, but it's an investment.  Ultimately we need to get rid of a few lanes and create some traffic headaches in the short term, so in the future less cars need to be on the road.

Not to mention the jobs created by large scale public infrastructure projects, but who cares about jobs?

If a city like Amsterdam can have trains, bike lanes, pedestrians paths and cars run through their much older and more narrow streets... below sea level and over canals, then we can do it here in Texas.

Even if our various municipalities make different choice about what works for them locally, we can connect them and make it work. One of my favorite things about Berlin is the integration of East and West Berlin's transit systems.  

Honestly it's shameful that China has faster trains than Texas, and that European cities have effective mass transit and we don't. Everything is bigger in Texas except for our vision for transportation. That does not seem very Texan.  

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by: JD Gins @ Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 02:25:47 AM UTC

Red Line FAIL (0.00 / 0)

Thanks to the Red Line, we will likely not see rail on Guadalupe in front of UT in my lifetime - the justification for taking a lane on that corridor rested on picking up forty thousand or so passengers, from BOTH frequent service out to the burbs on what's now the Red Line's northwest 2/3 of service AND the urban areas like the Triangle and Hyde Park.

With just one (or with forcing a transfer from the Red Line to light rail at Lamar/Airport), ridership is likely too low to make this happen.

I've only been talking about this for six years. Maybe you missed it.

http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.c...

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by: m1ek @ Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 14:55:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]