MetroRapid Buses Get MetroDelayed

Two MetroRapid bus lines planned for this year won't be in use until 2025 (Photo by Benton Graham)

Initially slated for this year, the Pleasant Valley and Expo Center MetroRapid bus lines are now delayed until 2025. KUT broke the news Feb. 15, and Cap Metro president and CEO Dottie Watkins promptly responded to a tweet about the story, writing, "I know our community is frustrated by this delay. I'm frustrated too, but we're committed to delivering the best program for everyone."

Come 2025, Project Connect will add two MetroRapid lines – high-frequency buses – to the existing 801 and 803 MetroRapid routes, which currently run every 10-20 minutes during peak hours. The lines will run from Mueller to Goodnight Ranch in far Southeast Austin, and from the Expo Center in far East Austin to UT and Downtown.

"The original scope of Project Connect's CapMetro Rapid projects has expanded significantly as the three parties [Cap Metro, Aus­tin Transit Partner­ship, and the city of Austin] look to integrate new means and methods to deliver what voters approved in 2020," a Cap Metro spokesperson told us in an email. Cap Metro says the original 2023 date accounted for a "simple bus stop model" but end-of-line charging and mobility enhancements including shared-use paths for bicycles and pedestrians mean it's going to take longer.

As a part of Cap Metro's effort to switch to an electric fleet, the rapid bus lines are being designed to accommodate electric buses. The KUT story cited "poor planning assumptions about charging the electric buses and shipping delays" as factors, because Cap Metro planned to change out low-battery vehicles at bus depots but "realized swapping out vehicles at the depot would require 80 electric buses, not the 40 they planned for." Instead, the agency will put electric chargers at the ends of lines. Nationwide, transit agencies have also faced delayed timelines for electric bus production. We reported last summer that at least one of the two manufacturers supplying electric buses to Cap Metro, New Flyer, had experienced supply­-chain issues for electrical components.

In other news, the board of directors for the ATP, the organization tasked with implementing Project Con­nect, will make another critical decision at their March 1 meeting on whether to make Greg Canally's role as interim executive director permanent.