The path to replace outgoing Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority President and CEO Linda Watson will trace through a town hall meeting in early 2018. On Wednesday, the transit agency revealed the names of the four candidates still in the running for the position. It also announced a community confab scheduled for Jan. 8 at which […]
Transit
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Breakdowns plague MetroRapid fleet
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s highly heralded MetroRapid buses fell well short of the agency’s maintenance goals during Fiscal Year 2016-17. Each month, the fleet of 55 vehicles failed to reach the minimum goal of miles traveled between road calls. “A road call happens anytime there’s a mechanical failure that requires the vehicle to be […]
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Capital Metro sticks with ultralow-ridership line in Manor
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving full speed ahead with its plans to prioritize frequency over geographic coverage, but the agency’s commitment to that principle isn’t total. The recent adoption of the contentious June 2018 service changes that eliminated several routes and altered others due to low ridership will keep intact the No. 470 […]
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New to Austin’s public transit system? A Cap Metro employee will ride the bus with you
Priscilla Jove, 19, sat cross-legged on a bench at a bus stop on the corner of West Oltorf Street and South Lamar Boulevard Saturday afternoon. A biology student at Austin Community College, Jove was headed out to study. She said she rides the bus because she’s not just curious about the human body – but […]
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Transit priority is a top priority for Project Connect
Project Connect is doomed unless the city hands over dedicated right of way. That was the message relayed by Javier Arguello, long range planning director for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to the city’s Urban Transportation Commission on Tuesday night. Arguello told the body that the high-capacity transit investments Project Connect is ultimately trying to […]
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Capital Metro board approves major renovation of its bus network
The first time was all it took for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s contentious June 2018 service changes. The sweeping overhaul of the transit agency’s bus network earned the board of directors’ stamp of approval on Wednesday, avoiding the months of delay the board afforded to Connections 2025, the service plan from which the changes […]
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Cap Metro plan up for a vote today
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors is set to vote today on a major overhaul of its bus system. If approved, the changes would take effect in June, changing more than half of all routes in the area. While some buses would run more often, other routes would be eliminated. Some are calling […]
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Park-and-ride plan rides again
Regional transportation planners have resurfaced an effort to build parking lots for suburban bus commuters that fell off the radar earlier this year. On Wednesday, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors learned that the complicated funding strategy agency staff had been banking on as of January was no longer an option. Last […]
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Capital Metro board treated to an earful at two public hearings
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors sat through hours of public testimony on Wednesday, much of it critical of the agency’s proposed bus network redesign. In fact, the board scheduled two separate public hearings, one in the early afternoon and the other in the evening. Dozens of speakers attended both and held forth […]
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Capital Metro board hears about proposed changes to proposed changes
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is making adjustments to a long-planned massive overhaul of its fixed-route bus network just weeks ahead of a scheduled vote on the sweeping changes by the board of directors. During an extended work session on Tuesday, agency staff gave the board an overview of the tweaks they are making to […]
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Urban Transportation Commission reacts to Capital Metro route changes
In September, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed the Austin public that there would be a major restructuring of citywide bus lines to kick-start the Connections 2025 transit plan. To elaborate on the exact changes, on Oct. 10, Caitlin D’Alton, a senior planner at the agency, offered the members of the Urban Transportation Commission a […]
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Capital Metro’s newest board member Travillion talks transit
The newest member of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors on Tuesday expressed his concern for transit-dependent residents who have been pushed out of Central Austin, a sentiment that could spell trouble ahead for the transit agency’s planned realignment of its fixed route network. In a one-on-one chat, Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion […]