[jimhudson]

Today's fish wrap (aka The RealEstatesman)lead story trumpets: ta-da! Beginning March 22nd the long delayed and legendarily troubled pride of CapMetro the Light Rail Red Line will begin Mon-Fri service with 19 trains a day beginning @ 5:45AM, reversing schedules @ 3:45PM. Special Cap Metro busses will provide shuttles to/from the State Capital Complex and the University of Texas with day tickets/weekly and monthly passes available that will be good on all city busses. No weekend or Holiday service will be available, perhaps later for special events etc.

Daily ridership is anticipated to begin @ 1,000 each way with growth expected as exposure grows.Park and ride is available @ the Sububan stations but not the urban stations. All freight traffic on this line will be run @ night and on weekends including the Hill Country Flyer, a tourist train that makes weekend runs into the Texas Hill Country! As several famous newscasters have said, Good Day and Good Luck!

[MikefromCrete]

jimhudson, on Sat, Mar 6, 2010, 02:59 PM, said:

Today's fish wrap (aka The RealEstatesman)lead story trumpets: ta-da! Beginning March 22nd the long delayed and legendarily troubled pride of CapMetro the Light Rail Red Line will begin Mon-Fri service with 19 trains a day beginning @ 5:45AM, reversing schedules @ 3:45PM. Special Cap Metro busses will provide shuttles to/from the State Capital Complex and the University of Texas with day tickets/weekly and monthly passes available that will be good on all city busses. No weekend or Holiday service will be available, perhaps later for special events etc.

Daily ridership is anticipated to begin @ 1,000 each way with growth expected as exposure grows.Park and ride is available @ the Sububan stations but not the urban stations. All freight traffic on this line will be run @ night and on weekends including the Hill Country Flyer, a tourist train that makes weekend runs into the Texas Hill Country! As several famous newscasters have said, Good Day and Good Luck!

Holy cow! It's hard to believe it's actually going to happen. All it took was replacement of the operating company. Let's hope the Austin service is successful.

[had8ley]

MikefromCrete, on Sat, Mar 6, 2010, 04:29 PM, said:

jimhudson, on Sat, Mar 6, 2010, 02:59 PM, said:

Today's fish wrap (aka The RealEstatesman)lead story trumpets: ta-da! Beginning March 22nd the long delayed and legendarily troubled pride of CapMetro the Light Rail Red Line will begin Mon-Fri service with 19 trains a day beginning @ 5:45AM, reversing schedules @ 3:45PM. Special Cap Metro busses will provide shuttles to/from the State Capital Complex and the University of Texas with day tickets/weekly and monthly passes available that will be good on all city busses. No weekend or Holiday service will be available, perhaps later for special events etc.

Daily ridership is anticipated to begin @ 1,000 each way with growth expected as exposure grows.Park and ride is available @ the Sububan stations but not the urban stations. All freight traffic on this line will be run @ night and on weekends including the Hill Country Flyer, a tourist train that makes weekend runs into the Texas Hill Country! As several famous newscasters have said, Good Day and Good Luck!

Holy cow! It's hard to believe it's actually going to happen. All it took was replacement of the operating company. Let's hope the Austin service is successful.

Hey Mike;
What it took Valero three years to screw up and drain the transit kitty it only took Herzog 78 days to clean up !

[stntylr]

Next month I'll ride it and give a report.

[saxman]

Ohh its about time. So this will only be rush hour service? Any way to do a round trip without staying on one end for hours to turn around and come back? Since my grandparents live in Austin, I'll probably try and take them on a ride.

[had8ley]

saxman, on Tue, Mar 9, 2010, 02:29 PM, said:

Ohh its about time. So this will only be rush hour service? Any way to do a round trip without staying on one end for hours to turn around and come back? Since my grandparents live in Austin, I'll probably try and take them on a ride.

As of right now rush hour trains are the only ones running. It's up to CapMetro to determine when, if and how many trains run. Right now I can only suggest you catch an early inbounder and turn right back or come into town from Leander, do some shopping and catch the evening train back. I understand there are portions of track on the north end that the "Baby Bullets" can hit 60 mph.

[stntylr]

It's 22 Mar and I going to ride the Red Line this afternoon. I'll take the 5:25 train from Leander to Downtown and ride the 6:45 train from downtown to Leander.
Barring any major incidents, I'll have some video tomorrow of my trip.

[jimhudson]

stntylr, on Mon, Mar 22, 2010, 02:05 PM, said:

It's 22 Mar and I going to ride the Red Line this afternoon. I'll take the 5:25 train from Leander to Downtown and ride the 6:45 train from downtown to Leander.
Barring any major incidents, I'll have some video tomorrow of my trip.

I rode today from downtown to Leander, returned on the last Soutbound train to downtown! NO VIDEO,SORRY!!!

Great new train, smooth ride, OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF RIDERS, every train full, stops @ station brief since no-one would get off and we were packed in like sardines, thought it was Friday afternoon in the NE!

On the Northbound there were a few actual comuters that had ridden in the early AM to downtown! They told me the wifi was spotty but did work! The biggest complaint they seemed to have was the shortage of trains, having to pack everyone into so few trips! Lots of CapMetro staff and Herzog folks around the stations and also on the trains! Many media (TV/Press/Radio) @ both ends, a few rding the trains! Biggest concern, the stations have no ammenities and until you get out to the last three stations no parking! Upon arrival @ the last station in Leander there are vending machines,plenty of parking but the bathrooms are locked and are for staff only! Many pax were told to take their kids/go across the Highway to a huge Grocery Store/Shooping Center which is dangerous and stupid!

Screw top liquid containers are allowed (water/soda/coffee/tea) but no alcohol (they say! )No food, there are two bicycle hooks on each car, rest of the bikes have to be held in the aisles!(there were lots today, lots of bikers trying the train!)My best guess is that 75% of the riders I saw were day trippers/joy riders (including me! ), didnt ride the last two trains from downtown back North but large crowds were waiting @ the downtown station when we arrived @ 6:30PM to go North! Really nothing to do @ the stations, they eventually probably will have facilities built @/around them, but for now its strictly a platform and a track!

The shuttle busses @ both ends and @ a couple of stations are timed to meet the trains, the drivers told me that very few people were using the busses, most riders just walked to where they were going or used their car @ the stations with parking!

The train is free the first week, will only run Monday-Friday, 2 hour passes are available, 5 day, 30 day and students and seniors and diabled can ride free with a Cap Metro card that costs $5 for 2 years, a deal! This includes all city busses and shuttles but not express busses (greyhound type direct runs that go from one point to another, sort of a LD bus!)Looks promising, one of our member's son is a runn ing the company hired to get the trains up and running and theyve done a first rate job! Take a bow Jay Hadley!!

This post has been edited by jimhudson: 22 March 2010 - 11:21 PM

[stntylr]

Hey, you and I were on the same train!
I was in the second car standing by the doors. I got off by Highland Mall and caught the next to last northbound train.
There weren't a lot of people on that train and after the next to last stop there were only three people in my car.

[had8ley]

jimhudson, on Mon, Mar 22, 2010, 09:18 PM, said:

stntylr, on Mon, Mar 22, 2010, 02:05 PM, said:

It's 22 Mar and I going to ride the Red Line this afternoon. I'll take the 5:25 train from Leander to Downtown and ride the 6:45 train from downtown to Leander.
Barring any major incidents, I'll have some video tomorrow of my trip.

I rode today from downtown to Leander, returned on the last Soutbound train to downtown! NO VIDEO,SORRY!!!

Great new train, smooth ride, OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF RIDERS, every train full, stops @ station brief since no-one would get off and we were packed in like sardines, thought it was Friday afternoon in the NE!

On the Northbound there were a few actual comuters that had ridden in the early AM to downtown! They told me the wifi was spotty but did work! The biggest complaint they seemed to have was the shortage of trains, having to pack everyone into so few trips! Lots of CapMetro staff and Herzog folks around the stations and also on the trains! Many media (TV/Press/Radio) @ both ends, a few rding the trains! Biggest concern, the stations have no ammenities and until you get out to the last three stations no parking! Upon arrival @ the last station in Leander there are vending machines,plenty of parking but the bathrooms are locked and are for staff only! Many pax were told to take their kids/go across the Highway to a huge Grocery Store/Shooping Center which is dangerous and stupid!

Screw top liquid containers are allowed (water/soda/coffee/tea) but no alcohol (they say! )No food, there are two bicycle hooks on each car, rest of the bikes have to be held in the aisles!(there were lots today, lots of bikers trying the train!)My best guess is that 75% of the riders I saw were day trippers/joy riders (including me! ), didnt ride the last two trains from downtown back North but large crowds were waiting @ the downtown station when we arrived @ 6:30PM to go North! Really nothing to do @ the stations, they eventually probably will have facilities built @/around them, but for now its strictly a platform and a track!

The shuttle busses @ both ends and @ a couple of stations are timed to meet the trains, the drivers told me that very few people were using the busses, most riders just walked to where they were going or used their car @ the stations with parking!

The train is free the first week, will only run Monday-Friday, 2 hour passes are available, 5 day, 30 day and students and seniors and diabled can ride free with a Cap Metro card that costs $5 for 2 years, a deal! This includes all city busses and shuttles but not express busses (greyhound type direct runs that go from one point to another, sort of a LD bus!)Looks promising, one of our member's son is a runn ing the company hired to get the trains up and running and theyve done a first rate job! Take a bow Jay Hadley!!

Thanks Jim...Brian deserves all the credit. He came from an all freight RR and had to learn the CFR for pax ops (Code of Federal Regulations) before he could make any move at all. It only took 78 days from the day he stepped on the property. I doubt he slept more than 4 hours many of those days. Better things will come to pass with CapMetros lead; he just runs the trains, signals and M of Way. BTW, I guess you are already aware that each trainset is 6.6 million !!!

[gswager]

How's the passenger load once the fare has kick in and the excitement gone?

[had8ley]

gswager, on Wed, Mar 31, 2010, 12:11 PM, said:

How's the passenger load once the fare has kick in and the excitement gone?

Lower than expected but Herzog has a five year contract so I don't see any end in sight. I'm told CapMetro is looking into expanding service eastward.

[AlanB]

had8ley, on Fri, Apr 2, 2010, 10:31 AM, said:

gswager, on Wed, Mar 31, 2010, 12:11 PM, said:

How's the passenger load once the fare has kick in and the excitement gone?

Lower than expected but Herzog has a five year contract so I don't see any end in sight. I'm told CapMetro is looking into expanding service eastward.

They should probably also look at simply expanding the number of runs a bit, especially runs all the way to the end.

[jis]

had8ley, on Wed, Mar 10, 2010, 03:08 PM, said:

I understand there are portions of track on the north end that the "Baby Bullets" can hit 60 mph.

I wonder if there are any fundamental differences between the Austin Stadler GTWs and the NJT RiverLINE Stadler GTWs that prevents the Austin ones from eventually going faster than 60mph. NJT has upped the max speed on the RiverLINE to 65mph.

As I understand it, Al Fazio who is deeply involved in the RiverLINE and also in planning the line from Camden to Gloucester County in NJ has been an adviser to the Austin folks, so there is a common connection of expertise between the two. Al has also been in the lead in negotiating more flexible waivers for temporal separation requirements on the RiverLINE with FRA, allowing portions of that line to operate later and earlier than it could before.

[jimhudson]

AlanB, on Fri, Apr 2, 2010, 12:03 PM, said:

had8ley, on Fri, Apr 2, 2010, 10:31 AM, said:

gswager, on Wed, Mar 31, 2010, 12:11 PM, said:

How's the passenger load once the fare has kick in and the excitement gone?

Lower than expected but Herzog has a five year contract so I don't see any end in sight. I'm told CapMetro is looking into expanding service eastward.

They should probably also look at simply expanding the number of runs a bit, especially runs all the way to the end.

You are correct Alan (as usual!)! The donut hole in the middle of the day prevents people who want to come downtown to shop/keep an appointmnet etc. from utilizing the train as much as they would like! Ive talked with several people who wanted to do this on a regular basis but due to the donut hole
wont be able too! Having more end to end runs is also a good idea as is expanding service to the South (the UP tracks run the Eagles and numerous freights)since our major North-South routes are clogged with traffic! (MOPAC/IH35/S. Lamar/Congress Ave.)There are lots of park and ride CapMetro lots that could get thousands of cars off the road that are underutilized now!

As to the question about speed, currently it only goes 60mph once out of the city, theres been several instances already of idiots stopping on the tracks, trying to run the gates and the City has had to place turn lane barriers @ one bad intersection to prevent traffic snarls and some idiot getting hit that gets impatient cause they have to wait 5 whole minutes to get through an intersection! (Id say the 5 minutes versus eternity is a pretty good bet! )

It seems that lots of bike riders really enjoy using the train, with only 2 bike hooks on each car CapMetro has had to limit the number of bikes (I believe it's 8?), also they have a cap on the number of standees which is under review! The early and late trains have the lowest ridership but adjustments will be made! As Jay Hadley has told me (his son is a VP with Herzog in AUS), CapMetro decides, Herzog does! This may not be ideal, I still thinkl Cap Metro is like having the fox guarding the henhouse but political realities are just that! Its still a nice train, when yall come to Austin be sure and ride!

This post has been edited by jimhudson: 02 April 2010 - 01:23 PM

[Bill Haithcoat]

I just heard that ridership has gone down badly. Any up to date official word?

[stntylr]

I don't know the official number but I just rode it last Tuesday and the afternoon inbound train was pretty light with several people still looking just to ride the train for fun. The outbound train did have some commuters on it.

[had8ley]

The numbers aren't exactly what CapMetro would like but they're not far off. OTP is about as good as it can get which should be the deciding factor for those who insist on sitting in traffic. Good rumor has it Jim that they'll be all day service on Saturday, May 1st. I just might trot over to Austin to ride the "baby bullets."