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Austin Commuter Rail - Good Deal or Bad Deal?

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[quote user="daveklepper"] Population density is one criterion, I agree, but multiple markets can exist.   Austin has a major educational institution, and live-at home students served by light rail can forgoe the need to buy and operate an auto.   Provided the light rail really serves them.   Does it?  [/quote] Capital Metro's Red Line, which uses Stadler diesel powered rail cars, runs in a heavy rail environment.  I am not sure whether calling it light rail is proper.  I think that it was originally called a heavy commuter rail system.  However, because of the problems getting the FRA's permission for the Stadler rail cars, they may have changed the classification. Approximately 50,000 students attend the University of Texas.  A significant percentage of them have access to a car.  Of the folks on the morning train with me (I take the last train in the morning from Leander), the largest group of riders appear to be students.  There also a sizeable group of government workers.  Most of them get on the train at Lakeline, which is the first station south of Leander, and get off at the MLK station, where they catch a transfer bus to the university or to the government center. The train runs on a line that does not necessarily go from where the people are to where they want to go.  It follows a rail line that was laid down nearly a century ago.  It meanders from the northwest of Austin to the east side of the city before turning west again to enter close to downtown.  But not in the center of downtown!  If one closed his or her eyes as the train departed from Leander and kept them closed until arriving downtown, he or she could imagine easily being on a naval ship that has set a zig-zag course to avoid an enemy submarine. Go to Google Maps.  Type in Leander, TX.  You will see a rail line that runs south from Leander.  Trace it to downtown Austin.  I think you will agree with me that it is anything but a straight shot.  Or anywhere near being one.  Or even a reasonable route. Long before I moved to the area, the leadership appears to have bought into the notion that Austin needed a commuter rail service to relieve its growing traffic problems - it has the worst traffic of any mid-size American city or so saith those who are supposedly in the know.  They spent a heap of money on it.  What they got is anything but ideal.  Although it is too early to tell for sure, I suspect the smart thing to do eventually will be to shut the thing down, sell off the equipment and admit defeat.  Of course, given that it is a political animal, it will never happen.  Oh well, it is better than riding a bus.  I'll admit that.
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