Bus Riders Union of Austin, Texas | El Sindicato de Pasajeros

Even before Leander-to-Austin line opens, Cap Metro could order a dozen more cars.

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Thursday, October 02, 2008

Capital Metro trains will pull out of the station beginning March 30, the transit agency decided Wednesday.

But even before the trains run, Capital Metro officials, on the presumption that the Leander-to-downtown-Austin line's initial capacity with just six rail cars will be insufficient, probably will put in an order for another dozen cars.

"We're just anticipating that the demand will be greater," said Fred Gilliam, the agency's chief executive officer and general manager, explaining what is likely to be an additional investment of more than $60 million.

The agency, as it did with the first six cars, probably would have to borrow all or most of the money for the additional trains. Gilliam also said that the agency in time would hope to add a second track on the line's southern 10 miles or so.

In a letter to federal regulators earlier this year, Gilliam said that the agency would hope to expand from the line's initial nine stations to about 20.

These additional plans, taken together, would at least triple the line's initial capacity of somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 boardings a day. But it also could double the initial cost of the project, which already has grown above the $100 million mark.

Construction is just now under way on the stations at Kramer Lane and Howard Lane, and officials say they won't be ready until February and early March, respectively. Work is yet to begin on a key siding track at Kramer, and other stations and sidings are in various stages of readiness.

Most significantly, officials said, the system of signals and computer controls on the 32-mile passenger line between Leander and downtown Austin won't be fully ready until December.

Final training of engineers and dispatchers can't begin until that system is ready, and that training will take at least six weeks, officials said.

"We can operate a system without two stations; what we can't operate a system without is a (control) system and proper training," said Doug Allen, an executive vice president at Capital Metro and its chief development officer, in recommending the March 30 opening date. That would allow, after the training period, another six weeks of "nonrevenue service" when engineers will run the sleek red trains on the line without passengers aboard.

The Capital Metro board, meeting at a retreat to hear about the status of the passenger rail project, did not take a formal vote. But the six board members present, through nods and brief words of assent — "Sounds good to me," one said — gave the agency staff the go-ahead to plan for the March 30 opening.

Allen told the board there probably would be pre-opening festivities March 27, for stakeholders involved over the years in the rail project, then a public celebration March 28 with free rides on the train. Official service during morning and evening rush hours, perhaps with a brief free promotional period, would begin March 30.

Even that March 30 date remains at least somewhat tentative.

Something could come up during the testing period to cause a further slide in the schedule, Allen said, "but we don't anticipate that happening."

When the agency in 2004 sought authorization from voters to run trains on 32 miles of existing track between Leander and downtown Austin, Capital Metro said it would be able to open the line by spring 2008.

That target was moved back to fall 2008 a couple of years ago after the agency awarded a contract to Stadler Bussnang, a Swiss company, to build the first six "MetroRail" cars.

The trains — diesel-powered, self-propelled cars that will seat 108 — arrived between last October and January and have been undergoing testing on the track since then.

But construction of the nine stations and at least four sections of siding tracks, as well as installation of signals and other track equipment, has fallen behind.

On Wednesday, Fourth and Trinity streets, where the downtown station will be, was a jumble of trenches, torn up pavement and stacked modular sections of what will be a temporary platform. The agency hopes to build a permanent station later closer to Congress Avenue.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in East Austin, the concrete platform and frames for the awnings have been in place for several months. But work on the surrounding grounds, including extension of a street into the site, was in the early dirt-moving stages.

At Kramer, workers have only now begun to clear land for the platforms that will flank the track. Work on a 2,000-foot-long siding there has not begun.

Construction at Howard began several weeks ago. But that piece of the project involves rerouting the rail line and building a 104-space park-and-ride lot, officials say, and thus will take longer to complete than the Kramer work.

bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698