In 2016, Capital Metro will be reviewing its transit system to develop recommendations for improving service. Part of that analysis includes seeking public input for the Connections 2025 service plan, and open houses start Feb. 16-20. “The purpose of it is to study our service area—with an emphasis on bus service—and the service we provide and then look at what’s changed in the last five years since we’ve done [the study] before,” Capital Metro President and CEO Linda Watson said. “There’s been such tremendous growth and development and so many changes that we think this is going to be huge for us.” Planning efforts will wrap up in the fall, and service changes could begin in January, Watson said. The plan will include short-, mid- and long-term solutions for the next one to 10 years and beyond. Every five years the agency adopts a new 10-year plan that serves as its road map. The last plan, was adopted in February 2010. On Sept. 14, Capital Metro’s board of directors approved hiring consultant Transportation Management & Design Inc. to development the 10-year plan at a cost not to exceed $466,276. About 32 percent, or $150,000, of TMD’s bid proposal was designed for public involvement. This process likely will include engaging key stakeholders, elected officials, low-income residents and residents with limited English proficiency to ensure Capital Metro hears the needs of everyone in the community, said Todd Hemingson, vice president of strategic planning and development. Goals of the Connections 2025 plan will include: • understanding how to better serve existing and potential riders, • improving transit design and operation to increase ridership, • developing a core transit network, • building advocacy and ownership within the community, and • defining transit’s role in regional mobility and economic development. “Increasing ridership is a big one,” Hemingson said during the Aug. 25 board meeting. “Our ridership is not going in the right direction now, and we want to make corrections to that.” Capital Metro is already moving forward with developing a core transit network. On Jan. 25, the board approved a contract to study high-capacity transit in Austin’s core—roughly bounded by RM 2222, MoPac, Hwy. 290 and the MetroRail line. The 30-month, $3 million contract will use remaining federal and local dollars left over from the Project Connect Central Corridor planning effort that resulted in the failed November 2014 urban rail bond. Connections 2025 and the Central Corridor planning efforts will run concurrently and use similar public outreach efforts so as not to fatigue the public, said Javier Arguello, Capital Metro's director of long-range planning. “There’s a lot of pieces and there’s going to be a lot of coordination, so we will come together with one unified approach that responds to the community’s concerns,” he said. For more information visit www.connections2025.org or call 512-369-6000.