Capital Metro’s On The Move E-Newsletter is still calling this thing “urban commuter rail”.
It’s not urban. It’s arguably commuter. It’s definitely rail. One and a half out of three is not enough to justify this misleading terminology. This thing goes nowhere near the urban parts of Austin. Even its just-barely-inside-downtown last station is in the part of Austin where surface parking lots are more common than buildings.
Cut it out, you buttheads. Just cut it out. It’s commuter rail, not “urban rail”, and adding more stations in 2020 isn’t going to make it any more urban.
If it doesn’t go anywhere near the densest residential neighborhoods or anywhere near the densest employment centers, it isn’t urban, by any stretch of the imagination. If your stations are only in locations to which you have to drive, take a bus, or be dropped off by somebody who drove, it’s not urban; not even close.
CUT IT OUT DAMMIT.
Mike,
I just found your blog, linked from Austin Metroblog. Why aren’t you running the show — or at least more involved with Capital Metro’s “rail” project?
Well, frankly, because Capital Metro decided before the public ever got involved that they were going to hitch their wagon to Mike Krusee. From the very beginning (before the public saw the plan), I told them that it was a mistake; but they would rather fail with Krusee than win without him.