Tag Archives: Capital Metro
Tuesday, August 13, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro board awards bus operations contract to single firm, MV Transportation
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors voted Monday to combine operations at its two garages under one company, Dallas-based MV Transportation, Inc.The contract includes a base five-year period for $575.1 million with two optional three-year extensions and a…
Tuesday, August 6, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro pitches in for new East Austin bus station
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors approved a 40-year interlocal agreement Monday, July 29, with the Capital Area Rural Transportation System for construction and joint operation of the Eastside Bus Plaza, a transit station at the convergence of…
Friday, August 2, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Project Connect Blue Line yet to be defined
In the shadow of 2014’s failed Highland-Riverside rail ballot measure, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s similarly charted Blue Line is struggling to take form.The Blue Line is one of Project Connect’s two high-capacity transit lines. If approved, it will run…
Thursday, July 25, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
City Council
Solution to boost revenue for transit leads to broad debate over city signage policy
The Austin City Council will be considering limited exceptions to a city ban on off-premise advertising at its Aug. 22 meeting in order to allow Austin public schools and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority to display simple, non-electronic advertisements at…
Tuesday, July 23, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Orange Line alignment brings up question of community priorities
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to have a community-supported recommendation for Project Connect’s central high-capacity Orange Line by the end of the year. The recommended “locally preferred alternative” will likely have some combination of details about the route cost…
Monday, July 22, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Longtime VP Todd Hemingson to leave Capital Metro
After more than a decade with the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency’s executive vice president, Todd Hemingson, will step down Friday, July 26.His immediate plan, as he told the Monitor in an interview at the agency’s headquarters on Friday,…
Monday, July 22, 2019 by Austin Monitor
Reporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Hearsay and opinion
Careful what you read on the internet, folks… Capital Metro’s current incarnation of Project Connect is no different from anything else the agency ever does: complicated, controversial and confusing. Time, however, is running out for the community and the agency…
Tuesday, July 9, 2019 by Chad Swiatecki
Transit
Council to mull funding for incentives to increase transit use
The Austin Transportation Department has delivered its findings to City Council on how the city could start small programs that would provide incentives to some riders of public transit. The report, which included 15 potential pilot programs, was given to…
Monday, June 17, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro sets out to better define Project Connect
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is moving into the second of six phases leading up to a possible 2020 referendum on Project Connect.With preliminary engineering contracts already awarded for the two high-capacity routes and the board set to award contracts…
Monday, June 3, 2019 by Jack Craver
Transit
Cap Metro to debut new ride-hailing service in Manor
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously approved funding a new ride-hailing project in Manor run by Capital Metro. The service, called Pickup, aims to provide residents of Austin’s fastest-growing suburb an alternative to driving that is more reliable…
Monday, April 29, 2019 by Austin Monitor
Reporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Eyes on the Prii
Now we’re here… As public engagement sessions go, the April 27 kickoff for the input gathering process for the Drake Bridge Commons Project was certainly among the more novel we’ve encountered. Among the planned activities: actors portraying historic Austinites William…
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro to buy last wave of diesel, first electric buses
In line with its overarching vision for Project Connect, the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is hoping to phase out use of diesel engine buses beginning this year with the purchase of at least four battery electric buses.The agency has been…
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transportation
Getting everyone together for city’s first high-capacity transit line
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority has only just begun its initial yearlong leg of conducting preliminary engineering and studying possible modes and alignments for Project Connect’s Orange Line, the city’s first high-capacity regional transit route, but transportation officials are ready for…
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
AECOM wins Orange Line preliminary engineering contract
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority began advertising a contract for preliminary engineering design services and mode recommendations for the Project Connect 21-mile high-capacity Orange Line on Dec. 18, the day after the agency’s board of directors approved Project Connect‘s long-term vision plan.Now,…
Friday, March 29, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro to meet its own bus stop standards by 2020
The Capital Area Metropolitan Transportation Authority is wrapping up construction on the last of 16 MetroRapid stops approved in a contract with Muñiz Concrete and Contracting Inc. in May 2018. This year the agency is turning its attention to its…
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Transit fund celebrates 5 million discounted rides
Getting around is still the second-greatest cost for Austin residents, but the Transit Empowerment Fund – a collaborative effort between the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Austin Community Foundation and One Voice Central Texas – has eased that financial burden for…
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 by Jack Craver
Transit
Can Austin get dedicated transit lanes without losing car lanes?
Mayor Steve Adler and Capital Metro Transportation Authority leaders say it is critical that Austin put in place a high-capacity public transit system that runs in a dedicated right-of-way, but that the new system does not have to come at…
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
New downtown rail station to break ground early April
After carving away the excess from Downtown Station plans in January, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded a construction contract of $36,865,160 to Austin-based firm Jay-Reese Contractors Inc. at its Feb. 25 meeting.Jay-Reese was one of three firms to respond to…
Monday, February 4, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Access to schools highlights Cap Remap limitations
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority knew that its June 2018 network change, Cap Remap, would remove transit service from vulnerable communities long before the changes took place. The eliminations were part of an intentional attempt to funnel resources into frequent service…
Tuesday, January 29, 2019 by Ryan Thornton
Transit
Capital Metro cuts back on downtown station plan
A nationwide shortage of skilled labor and a tariff-induced spike in the cost of steel have raised estimated construction costs for Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s downtown rail station. Instead of looking for extra project funding, the agency has decided to…
