Greening Austin Daily

Metro Rail Update

5th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Last week was the second week of the metro rail running.  As this Statesman article notes, during the first week after the metro rail opened, when fares were waived, ridership was doing pretty good, but now that riding is no longer free, ridership has been down to about 1,000 daily boardings.  The article also notes that “In Houston, ridership on the downtown light rail line (which opened in 2004) grew almost 50 percent between the first year and the second,” so there’s still hope for the metro rail increasing its passengers as more people try it out.  The rail isn’t helpful to Carsi or I since I would have to drive a bit to get to the nearest station, and Carsi lives downtown and can just walk to work.   But it seems much more convenient than driving for those who do live and work near the line, and I’ve heard good things from some people who have tried it out.  Let us know if you’ve tried it out and how you think it measures up to driving to work!