In two votes Thursday, City Council approved funding to help the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority build a new downtown rail station and public plaza to serve the Red Line and gave the OK to turn East Fifth Street into a two-way street to help ease the congestion that the new development is expected to exacerbate. […]
Transit
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12th & Chicon bus stop will showcase East Austin’s African-American history
The bus stop at the southeast corner of 12th Street and Chicon once featured vibrant plaques commemorating the history of East Austin. But the plaques have fallen into disrepair since being installed in 2003. Now, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to redo the bus stop to honor the area’s African-American legacy. Creola Shaw-Burns is […]
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For Capital Metro, UT shuttles ground what could be high-flying ridership numbers
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s latest systemwide ridership statistics would be trending upward were it not for an unlikely population: college students. According to recently posted data, the agency gave fewer rides in March than it did over the same period last year. That was despite a significant increase in passengers on MetroRapid and small […]
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Small change brings big boost to MetroRapid
MetroRapid’s popularity has taken off after a small but significant tweak the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority made in January. So far in 2017, both lines of the limited-stop service have together seen a 26-percent increase in ridership compared to the same period in 2016. The service saw its best month ever in March, when the […]
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Traffic, affordability plague Austin in latest Zandan Poll
Traffic and transit woes continue to be the bane of most Austinites’ existence, but the latest edition of a long-running community survey suggests those frustrations are easing, at least a little bit. The newest Zandan Poll – started 30 years ago by researcher and market analyst Peter Zandan – finds that traffic and transportation again […]
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New MetroRail trains roll into Austin
With the arrival of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of new equipment, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is approximately half a year away from beefing up its tenth most popular route. On Thursday, workers at the agency’s North Operations and Maintenance Facility off Burnet Road unloaded six new pieces of Swiss-manufactured components that will […]
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Capital Metro touts partnership that keeps vulnerable residents moving
A nonprofit effort to expand transportation equity in Austin is celebrating a milestone while also dropping six figures to expand its scope. Last week, the Transit Empowerment Fund announced it has provided its 3,000,000th bus ride via its partnership with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. At a press conference on Tuesday, TEF Chair Janet Allen […]
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Mobility plan will prioritize transit
The collaborative effort to craft a transit priority policy is being rolled into the larger Austin Strategic Mobility Plan. Last Wednesday, Austin Transportation Department staff briefed the City Council Mobility Committee on their nearly year-old charge to put together a framework to guide decisions about transit-boosting treatments such as bus lanes and queue jump signals. […]
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Capital Metro approves Connections 2025
It’s all systems go for Connections 2025. On Monday afternoon, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors unanimously approved the framework that will guide the agency’s bus operations for the next decade. “This could be a watershed for Capital Metro,” Chair Wade Cooper said just before the vote. “The idea of implementing these high-frequency […]
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Connections 2025 delayed yet again
Connections 2025 is facing another monthlong delay. During a Monday afternoon work session on the proposed overhaul of the agency’s bus network, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors remained riddled with anxieties, leading Chair Wade Cooper to postpone the expected Jan. 23 vote to implement the sweeping changes. City Council Member Delia Garza told […]
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At Travis County, CTRMA’s park-and-ride proposal hits another pothole
The Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday pitched a second strike against an elaborate plan to build eight new transit-oriented parking lots along Central Texas toll roads. County Judge Sarah Eckhardt’s decision to defer action on the proposal put forward by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority comes a week after Williamson County Judge Dan […]
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Work session reveals new details, wrinkles in Connections 2025 draft
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority could turn toward technology to help pick up riders left stranded by the proposed overhaul of its sprawling transit network. On Wednesday, planners told the agency’s board of directors that options such as carsharing, vanpooling, flex-route buses or other on-demand services could fill the gaps in coverage created by the […]