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[KevinKorell]

One little item I don't yet have worked out is what we're going to do with our time and our luggage for the day in Austin on Wednesday, July 18th.  By the schedule we're supposed to arrive in Austin at 9:23 AM.  We can't do our "official" travels until the early part of the evening rush (3:32 PM) when a full through round trip to Leander and back is possible.  Assuming a 3 PM check-in is possible, we all would need to do so quickly at our respective hotels and then make our way to the MetroRail station.  Without naming names or hotels, one person is staying at the hotel that is immediately adjacent to that station, while the rest are in another hotel several blocks away. 

 

That still doesn't account for the 6 hours or so in between.  We could use the time for personal sightseeing, but that would mean stashing our luggage someplace so as not to drag it around all day.  The only solution I could foresee is upon arrival, to take taxis or ride services from the Amtrak station to the hotels, have them store our luggage (but try to see if they have a courtesy of early check-in), and then go about walking around killing time for the day, hopefully finding air conditioned attractions.

[KevinKorell]

The above concern was partially alleviated by the approximately one hour late arrival of the Texas Eagle into town.  Most of the rest of the time was spent having lunch, and sitting in hotel lobbies staying cool.  All but one of the group got hotel check-in earlier than 3 PM.

 

So we rode, as planned, the MetroRail Red Line, a round trip between Austin and Leander.  The fare cost us $7 for a Day Pass, but I feel it was money well spent.  One gets a lot of bang for their bucks.  The line is 32 miles long, which is almost the distance that NJ TRANSIT's RiverLINE runs between Trenton and Camden.

 

The system ran punctually --- with all stops made on time.  The reason for this is that it is basically single track, with some double track segments and some double track at stations, which allows for meets.  Our outbound trip ran pretty quickly, but the inbound one took a little longer, as it was against the flow of the evening rush, so it waited at a couple of stations for not one, but two outbound trains to pass.

 

Technically, this service is defined as commuter rail. But the Stadler DMU equipment that it uses clearly remind us that the line between DMU commuter rail and diesel light rail is very thin.   In the immediate downtown section of Austin near the Downtown Station, there is even street running -- something one would associate more with light rail or streetcar than commuter rail. 

 

The entire round trip took us 2 hours 18 minutes.  The outer terminus of Leander is not served by every train, so some round trips take less time.  Many off-peak midday and Saturday trains terminate one stop earlier at Lakeline, near a major shopping mall.  There has been some redevelopment near some of the stations, so that they can serve as destinations as well as origin points for Austin-bound commuters. I also noticed a large clientele that rode between intermediate stops, so the line does not only benefit people travelling to & from downtown Austin. The system carries a lot of bikers and their bicycles; those represent some of those intermediate riders.

 

On the negative side, there are some very long distances of more than several miles between some stations. In between, we passed some residential and commercial areas (the latter with big box stores and chain restaurants) that I thought could provide more ridership if only MetroRail stopped there.  More stations along the way could be a positive.

 

Overall, I was impressed by Capitol Metro's rail system, and hope that the success of its one line can stimulate expansion in other areas where it is needed.

 

And this trip concluded our scheduled transit riding for LTRF.