AUSTIN | Transportation Updates - Page 104

M1EK · #**2061** Posted **May 5, 2010, 2:08 PM**

Yes, that's right; I was replying to JDawgboy when I mentioned the Pecan Street Festival. 4/20 is an outlier - and like I said, I have the sneaking suspicion an organized joyride was taking place given the little kids present and the shot of somebody who looks a lot like Cid Galindo (IOW, why would he be going north from downtown when last I heard he LIVES downtown).

Lots of groups have organized expeditionary (i.e. joyride) trips on the Red Line - I've been invited to quite a few such trips on facebook.

KevinFromTexas · #**2062** Posted **May 5, 2010, 8:20 PM**

I'd like to go up to the Domain sometime. I've never been on a train before, so it sounds neat.

M1EK · #**2063** Posted **May 5, 2010, 8:28 PM**

Today I watched the 8:02 arrival at MLK; there were 15 passengers (4 shuttlebuses).

viva el crackplog

Hint: There's a real good reason Capital Metro was quick with the ridership figures for Saturday but still hasn't reported any weekday ridership since the first week of pay service.

Jdawgboy · #**2064** Posted **May 5, 2010, 8:51 PM**

I agree that because of the Pecan Street Festival plus the fact that Capital Metro advertised that they would have Saturday service probably brought a lot of people out who had yet to ride the train. I missed the free week of service and so that is why me and my friends went since Weekdays are not convenient for me. The point I was trying to make was just about everybody that I talked to or overheard coupled with the news reports shows that overwhelmingly people would like to see weekend service.

AustinExPat · #**2065** Posted **May 6, 2010, 2:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

I'd like to go up to the Domain sometime. I've never been on a train before, so it sounds neat.

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for mentioning it, Kevin. I see that bikes can be brought on the train, too. I'll be bringing mine; it looks like it would be a bit of a hike to the Domain from the Kramer station. Or is the station right next to the Domain? I'm having a little trouble with the maps.

M1EK · #**2066** Posted **May 6, 2010, 3:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AustinExPat

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for mentioning it, Kevin. I see that bikes can be brought on the train, too. I'll be bringing mine; it looks like it would be a bit of a hike to the Domain from the Kramer station. Or is the station right next to the Domain? I'm having a little trouble with the maps.

Try the 982 or 983 buses that drop off at Great Hills/Jollyville if looking for speed (and they run all day); or the #3 that drops off on Braker on the very edge of the Domain (for convenience).

Myomi · #**2067** Posted **May 6, 2010, 3:58 PM**

At first I thought the same thing. Wouldn't it be cool to try the rail by making a visit to The Domain. However, then I looked at the times. The latest morning train departure on a weekday from downtown is 9:05AM. The earliest southbound train departure from Kramer Station is 5:22. Do the math and unless my reading of the train schedule is wrong, you see a long 8+ hour day at the Domain. I love shopping, but I do not want to be trapped there for that long. Now you could do the 3:45 Northbound from Downtown and catch the 5:57 Southbound from Kramer. That's about 2 hours. Certainly enough to do some quick shopping I suppose (if you know what you are looking for), but certainly not enough time to grab a bite to eat. However, it's about a 20 minutes walk to the Domain, so that figure become even more of a crunch.

In the end, I really want to ride the train, but I am not going to ride the train just for the sake of riding a train. That only proves that the system is badly designed for anything but commuting (and even then its not great). I might ride it once, but I certainly wouldn't make it a habit.

KevinFromTexas · #**2068** Posted **May 6, 2010, 11:05 PM**

Yeah, I'm curious to see what it's like, but if it's impossible to get up there and back without it being a huge hassle, then it's not worth it. We live in South Austin, about 3 miles south of Ben White, and have friends just northwest of The Domain. It would be great to be able to take the train up there to see them. But I don't see how you could do it practically right now.

AustinExPat · #**2069** Posted **May 7, 2010, 12:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myomi

Do the math and unless my reading of the train schedule is wrong, you see a long 8+ hour day at the Domain. I love shopping, but I do not want to be trapped there for that long. Now you could do the 3:45 Northbound from Downtown and catch the 5:57 Southbound from Kramer. That's about 2 hours. Certainly enough to do some quick shopping I suppose (if you know what you are looking for), but certainly not enough time to grab a bite to eat. However, it's about a 20 minutes walk to the Domain, so that figure become even more of a crunch.

Well, there goes my interest in trying out the Red Line any time soon. Thanks!

M1EK · #**2070** Posted **May 7, 2010, 6:04 PM**

25-30 people got off the Red Line at 8:12 this morning at the 'downtown' station. M1EK was there.

• Video Link

Coverage at el crackplog

M1EK · #**2071** Posted **May 7, 2010, 6:38 PM**

By the way, Phoenix, with a light rail line that's more akin to what we would have delivered starting in 2001 if Krusee hadn't forced it to the polls early, just passed 45,000 boardings per day.

Short summary of things the brigade of apologists in this forum got wrong:

1. Ridership isn't strong; it's very, very weak
2. Nobody's riding the shuttles - most UT riders passed on the service entirely (guess 50 per day, MAX, compared to 700ish on express buses)
3. It isn't translating into political support for building more rail; instead, the city has backed away from urban rail planning (for now, they say).

Do you think any of the people (SecretAgentMan, JMVC, many others) who asserted that I had no idea what I was talking about will give me credit now?

bluedogok · #**2072** Posted **May 9, 2010, 2:58 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by AustinExPat

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for mentioning it, Kevin. I see that bikes can be brought on the train, too. I'll be bringing mine; it looks like it would be a bit of a hike to the Domain from the Kramer station. Or is the station right next to the Domain? I'm having a little trouble with the maps.

The Kramer Station is about halfway between Burnet and Braker on Kramer, it is a pretty good hike over to The Domain from there but I see people doing it in the after work. I took my car in one morning for routine service at the import shop on the corner of Burnet & Braker, it took me about 20 minutes to walk to the office from there, so Myomi's time from Kramer Station is probably spot on. I can tell you there are no sidewalks from Dillard's to Braker on Domain Drive....I don't think they are on the Burnet side either except near the new office building entry.

austin242 · #**2073** Posted **May 9, 2010, 4:30 AM**

I think the Problem is they should have built south instead of north on the Metrorail line.

arbeiter · #**2074** Posted **May 9, 2010, 11:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by austin242

I think the Problem is they should have built south instead of north on the Metrorail line.

Surely you aren't serious about this.

Metrorail's failures are obvious but geography (at least in the general sense) has nothing to do with it.

austin242 · #**2075** Posted **May 10, 2010, 12:30 AM**

I meant that they should have figured out where most riders of cap metro are first which percentage wise would be south and east austin.

bluedogok · #**2076** Posted **May 10, 2010, 12:53 AM**

I don't think the idea was to serve existing ridership, it was to try and get new people.

M1EK · #**2077** Posted **May 10, 2010, 1:15 PM**

The most obvious source for 'new' riders is an area where geography creates plenty of current riders - and where you have a rail corridor to work with (the most common recipe for a successful rail start is to run fast in the burbs on an existing rail corridor and then transition to running in-street to go right to the major activity centers).

There's no such concentration of suburban employees headed downtown anywhere else in our area - I can't remember where I saw it, but research showed that NW and Cedar Park and Leander were the largest source of UT/Capitol/downtown workers among the far suburban areas. South had far less people working there, not that there's any good rail corridor down there to use anyways.

Myomi · #**2078** Posted **May 10, 2010, 5:02 PM**

Also, I believe the goal is to have the Austin/SA commuter rail line serve the further south communities like Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, etc. Who knows if that will ever happen, but that is the plan.

paulsjv · #**2079** Posted **May 10, 2010, 5:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myomi

Also, I believe the goal is to have the Austin/SA commuter rail line serve the further south communities like Buda, Kyle, San Marcos, etc. Who knows if that will ever happen, but that is the plan.

Round Rock already has a plan that I saw in their news paper.

Here's a link to KXAN though.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/w...ter_rail_route

M1EK · #**2080** Posted **May 10, 2010, 5:51 PM**

Sigh.

1. UP isn't going anywhere until first we come up with $2B to build a new freight corridor, second we somehow convince them to move there, and third we come up with new rules to govern the interchange between passenger and freight rail because a large minority of their freight traffic on the current line is, in fact, local and not through.

2. Round Rock's plans aren't going anywhere until the money fairy comes back from the dead. Even then, likely not.