Commuter Rail on Track for Test Runs

Photo by John Anderson

Capital Metro will begin test runs of its commuter-rail line from Leander to Downtown this month, although actual passenger service is not scheduled to start until next fall.

The agency's first line, the Red Line, will use a 32-mile stretch of freight-rail track between Leander and Downtown. At last week's Urban Transportation Commission, community involvement coordinator John-Michael Cortez discussed the test runs, as well as the agency's efforts to improve safety along the track.

Test runs of the MetroRail cars will begin this month, Cortez said. Each car is expected to run about 1,000 miles of track before it is put into use. Initial runs will be from Howard Lane to 47th Street and run between 7pm and 5am, including weekends. During initial testing, cars will travel no faster than 20 mph.

The Red Line will use a 100-year-old freight-rail track – the same track that hauled pink granite to complete the construction of the Capitol. Eight stations will be located along the Red Line, which starts in Leander, with stops at Lakeline, Howard, Burnet and North Lamar, Highland Mall, Martin Luther King, and Plaza Saltillo before ending at the Convention Center.

Both the track and the crossings are being upgraded, particularly those crossings within neighborhoods, Cortez said. On that score, the only space that exists between the track and the back yards of homes are the easements and the privacy fences that most home­owners have built to block out noise.

The installation of safety fencing begins in February and will go in high-foot-traffic areas. Quad gates – gates that close off access to the rail in four directions – will be placed at all crossings. Those gates will allow Capital Metro to obtain a waiver from federal safety administrators so that the train's whistle will not need to sound at every intersection.

"We're walking up and down the alignment right now, looking carefully at those areas where we expect people to cross the tracks, even those places that are not established pedestrian crossings," Cortez said. "We want to hear from folks about places that might be potential crossings so we can evaluate them for privacy fencing."

Capital Metro also has launched an extensive outreach campaign focused on school children, with the first area of concentration on those schools closest to the rail line. Some 20 schools are located within a half-mile of the tracks.