The city of Austin’s public transit agency plans to increase service frequency and add 16 new stations along its two MetroRapid rapid bus routes by August 2017.
Capital Metro’s board approved a $10.2 million contract July 25 with Nova Bus to buy 15 new buses: seven 60-foot accordion-style buses and eight 40-foot buses. These will serve routes 801 and 803 running between North and South Austin.
Expanded hours and increased frequency for MetroRapid are also included in the agency’s proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget. Proposed service changes are subject to Capital Metro’s board of directors approval of the budget Sept. 26.
“[The changes] will make the service more attractive across the board,” said Todd Hemingson, Capital Metro’s vice president of strategic planning and development. “It’s increased freedom. You [will be able to] walk out and know the bus will come at any moment.”
Frequency would increase from buses running every 13 minutes to 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends. Buses would operate with longer hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Changes will amount to an additional 70,000 new service hours each year, Hemingson said.
Capital Metro will also build eight stop pairs for a total of 16 new stations before expanded service begins in August 2017.
Two stop pairs would be on Route 803, which serves Burnet Road and South Lamar Boulevard from The Domain to Westgate shopping center. Route 801—operating along North Lamar Boulevard and South Congress Avenue between the Tech Ridge Park & Ride and Southpark Meadows—would get the remainder.
Hemingson said agency staffers gathered public input and analyzed station locations by using ridership data from MetroRapid as well as on local bus routes, which make more stops than MetroRapid.
“[After] we were doing planning of these stops a number of years ago, these corridors … exploded with growth,” he said. “There are developments there now that we didn’t know were coming.”
The city of Austin’s public transit agency plans to increase service frequency and add 16 new stations along its two MetroRapid rapid bus routes by August 2017.
Capital Metro’s board approved a $10.2 million contract July 25 with Nova Bus to buy 15 new buses: seven 60-foot accordion-style buses and eight 40-foot buses. These will serve routes 801 and 803 running between North and South Austin.
Expanded hours and increased frequency for MetroRapid are also included in the agency’s proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget. Proposed service changes are subject to Capital Metro’s board of directors approval of the budget Sept. 26.
“[The changes] will make the service more attractive across the board,” said Todd Hemingson, Capital Metro’s vice president of strategic planning and development. “It’s increased freedom. You [will be able to] walk out and know the bus will come at any moment.”
Frequency would increase from buses running every 13 minutes to 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on weekends. Buses would operate with longer hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Changes will amount to an additional 70,000 new service hours each year, Hemingson said.
Capital Metro will also build eight stop pairs for a total of 16 new stations before expanded service begins in August 2017.
Two stop pairs would be on Route 803, which serves Burnet Road and South Lamar Boulevard from The Domain to Westgate shopping center. Route 801—operating along North Lamar Boulevard and South Congress Avenue between the Tech Ridge Park & Ride and Southpark Meadows—would get the remainder.
Hemingson said agency staffers gathered public input and analyzed station locations by using ridership data from MetroRapid as well as on local bus routes, which make more stops than MetroRapid.
“[After] we were doing planning of these stops a number of years ago, these corridors … exploded with growth,” he said. “There are developments there now that we didn’t know were coming.”
