With extended hours and a new bus system, Capital Metro ridership increased between 50–70 percent during this year's South by Southwest conferences and festivals.

"It really was an all-hands-on-deck effort to move a lot of people around especially in the downtown area in what is probably our busiest time," President and CEO Linda Watson said during a briefing at the March 24 board meeting. "This was absolutely a record-breaking year for us in terms of ridership. Our ridership over these days was more than 50 percent above our average weekday ridership and more than 70 percent above our average weekend ridership."

The transit agency for the first time extended MetroRail hours to midnight on Wednesdays and Thursdays during SXSW, until 1 a.m. Fridays and until 2 a.m. Saturdays. The final Saturday of SXSW, March 15, saw the most riders at 8,134, which is an increase from last year of 7,758 riders on the same Saturday.

On MetroRapid, the agency's bus-rapid transit system that launched Jan. 26, the last Friday of SXSW, March 14, marked the most single-day riders for the new transportation system. That day saw 9,843 riders. A typical weekday in February on MetroRapid typically draws more than 5,200 riders, according to Capital Metro data.

Watson said many SXSW attendees also liked the agency's mobile app, which launched Jan. 26 as part of the MetroRapid debut. The app allows users to purchase tickets and plan a trip. Between March 9–16, the app was downloaded 8,747 times with 4,768 tickets sold, amounting to $29,863 in ticket sales. This is compared to the previous week, March 2–8, when there were 5,193 app downloads, 2,164 tickets sold and $19,993 in ticket sales.

Melvin Clark, the agency's vice president of rail operations, said Capital Metro will be meeting in April to discuss how to improve service for SXSW in 2015.

In response to a question from board member Beverly Silas on what would be required for the agency to offer more extended hours next year, Clark said Capital Metro would need to discuss with the freight carrier that uses the agency's rail line and likely hire additional engineers to operate the trains.