Austin’s regional transit agency, Capital Metro, is taking feedback from the public on a plan to add up to five new rapid bus lines. It comes as ridership on the existing rapid bus lines, known as MetroRapid, has been rising. In September, Capital Metro saw a 10.1 percent increase in passengers over the same month […]
Transit
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Capital Metro updates ETA for journey-planning app
Recovering from a rocky start, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority says its new and improved mobile transit application will soon be live and ready for mobile users to download. The agency launched its new application for Android users on Monday, promising, among other features, the ability to purchase electronic tickets using both Apple Pay and […]
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Commission stresses need for better TOD planning along Green Line
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying the potential for placing transit-oriented development districts along Project Connect’s rail commuter Green Line, but the Planning Commission says that effort may be somewhat futile without a concentrated push to create vibrant communities along the corridor. Looking to similar efforts along the existing Red Line rail corridor, Commissioner […]
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Capital Metro talks batteries over electric bus contract
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pressing on with its fleet electrification plan despite a number of kinks yet to be fully ironed out. After the agency’s board of directors approved a contract with New Flyer of America on Monday for purchase of six electric buses, Dottie Watkins, vice president of bus operations and maintenance, […]
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Capital Metro board awards bus operations contract to single firm, MV Transportation
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors voted Monday to combine operations at its two garages under one company, Dallas-based MV Transportation, Inc. The contract includes a base five-year period for $575.1 million with two optional three-year extensions and a 5 percent contingency. At a total of $1,405,337,529, the bus contract is the largest […]
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Capital Metro pitches in for new East Austin bus station
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors approved a 40-year interlocal agreement Monday, July 29, with the Capital Area Rural Transportation System for construction and joint operation of the Eastside Bus Plaza, a transit station at the convergence of East Cesar Chavez and East Fifth streets. Meant to serve as a connection point between […]
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Project Connect Blue Line yet to be defined
In the shadow of 2014’s failed Highland-Riverside rail ballot measure, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s similarly charted Blue Line is struggling to take form. The Blue Line is one of Project Connect’s two high-capacity transit lines. If approved, it will run in some form of dedicated transitways between the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and the Austin […]
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Orange Line alignment brings up question of community priorities
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to have a community-supported recommendation for Project Connect’s central high-capacity Orange Line by the end of the year. The recommended “locally preferred alternative” will likely have some combination of details about the route cost and type of vehicles, but since the stations and transitway can be built for either […]
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Longtime VP Todd Hemingson to leave Capital Metro
After more than a decade with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency’s executive vice president, Todd Hemingson, will step down Friday, July 26. His immediate plan, as he told the Monitor in an interview at the agency’s headquarters on Friday, is to take some time to breathe before figuring out what comes next. While […]
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Council to mull funding for incentives to increase transit use
The Austin Transportation Department has delivered its findings to City Council on how the city could start small programs that would provide incentives to some riders of public transit. The report, which included 15 potential pilot programs, was given to Council members and other city staff last month, for consideration ahead of the upcoming negotiations […]
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Capital Metro sets out to better define Project Connect
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving into the second of six phases leading up to a possible 2020 referendum on Project Connect. With preliminary engineering contracts already awarded for the two high-capacity routes and the board set to award contracts for most of the other lines later this month, Project Connect program manager Dave […]
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Cap Metro to debut new ride-hailing service in Manor
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously approved funding a new ride-hailing project in Manor run by Capital Metro. The service, called Pickup, aims to provide residents of Austin’s fastest-growing suburb an alternative to driving that is more reliable than existing bus service. While Pickup is modeled after Uber and Lyft, there are some […]