Greening Austin Daily

KUT Article on Cap Metro Budget

3rd September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

KUT also has a story about the proposed Cap Metro Budget:

If the proposed 2011 budget passes, Cap Metro will begin charging the elderly and disabled for bus fare for the first time in the agency’s history. Adam Schaivitz, a spokesperson for Cap Metro, told KUT that the new 50 cent fare is consistent with the practices of other transit agencies nationwide.

But as those fares go up, the price of a Metro Rail ticket would actually decrease. Currently non-reduced fares cost between two to three dollars….

But not everyone agrees.

“Capital Metro could run trains every minute on the minute, and not see a substantial increase in ridership,” said popular transportation blogger Mike Dahmus.

In his blog Dahmus calls the Red Line a failure that could spoil Austinites’ desire for an urban rail system.

“The problem is that people don’t want to go two miles east of the University of Texas and then ride a shuttle bus to UT, that’s ridiculous. The problem is that people don’t want to go to the convention center and then walk half a mile to a mile to their office,” Dahmus told KUT.

I agree completely with this Dahmus guy! I really don’t think it’s fair to punish bus riders for the failure of the metro rail, which was poorly planned.