Quote:
Originally Posted by priller
No, no light rail. It's a heavy train that kind of looks light rail-ish (in fact, I just saw it at the downtown station this morning on a test run). It's called "commuter rail", and unfortunately it's not the best implementation.
And I wouldn't even call it a "system". It's only a few trains that will run on one line to north and northwest Austin and to some bedroom communities beyond that. But the only stop downtown is the one by the Convention Center, which is not really close to where most people work. They'll have to take buses or a nice long walk.
And the one thing that is close by -- 6th Street -- they don't intend to serve at all, since the train won't run on nights and weekends.
The whole thing is really dumb. It's almost like they want it to fail.
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I think short-term it might not do so well, unless gas prices shoot back up to $4/gal. However long term, and I mean like 20 years into the future, it'll most likely be heavily used along with many other lines that will probably be built. Perhaps a combination of light rail, commuter rail, monorail, streetcars, and (hopefully) MAGLEV. Don't think we'll see a subway here anytime soon though- supposedly they're too expensive because of Texas' shallow limestone. Although portions of the Dallas light rail is underground in the downtown area from what I hear.
Me personally I'm waiting for the day that flying cars become a reality (as projected by science magazines and movie after sci-fi movie)
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