Commuter rail service still on hold

Commuter rail service still on hold

Wednesday, 13 May 2009

Capital Metro to provide update by mid-June

When Capital Metro announced in March that it would not begin commuter rail service between Leander and downtown Austin by the end of that month, officials from the agency said they would have a progress report ready by May 15.

Though the report came two days early, there is still no set date for rail service to begin, according to a Capital Metro press release.

“Capital Metro will report back to the community by mid-June,” said Fred Gilliam, president and CEO. “We are as eager to get MetroRail started as you are.”

In the past few weeks, the transit agency has reached several goals on its path to rail service. According to the press release, Capital Metro appointed a new safety director, resolved 23 of 26 violations cited by the Federal Railroad Administration while working on the remaining ones and received a waiver of operations letter from the FRA, which will allow Capital Metro trains to operate.

The release cited several other safety measures the agency has finished putting in place, as well as remaining goals such as completing the final stages of engineer training and certification, completion of traffic light preemption and several other objectives.