Austin rapid bus program could start in 2013

Cap Metro approves bus funding

Vilas Bhuchar, Nov 11, 10.

Austin’s transit agency board approved spending $27.2 million - nearly $22 million of which would come from a federal grant - on 40 new rapid transit buses for two new routes, according to The Austin American-Statesman.

One line would run from North Lamar Boulevard through downtown to South Congress Avenue (21 miles), while the other rapid line would run from Burnet Road through downtown to South Lamar Boulevard (16 miles). Both lines could be open to the public by 2013, notes the story:

Capital Metro’s “bus rapid transit” program, delayed for years by lack of funding and the transit agency’s focus on commuter rail, may become reality by 2013.

The agency board on Wednesday approved spending $27.2 million — nearly $22 million of which would come from a federal grant — on 40 new buses for two new routes.

The total project would cost $47.6 million and is contingent on the Federal Transit Administration covering 80 percent , which Todd Hemingson, the agency’s vice president of strategic planning and development, called “highly likely.”

The 60-foot and 40-foot rapid transit buses would stop less frequently than local service buses and would include technology to extend green lights or change red lights to green as buses approach intersections. They would run at shorter intervals than most other Capital Metro buses: 10 minutes apart during morning and evening commute times and at 15-minute intervals at other times.

The buses would arrive by 2012 , and the lines would open after completion of 70 stations that would be located every mile or so, on both sides of the street.

The stations would be “enhanced bus stops,” Hemingson said, with special architectural features and digital signs showing when the next bus would arrive.

One line would run from North Lamar Boulevard through downtown to South Congress Avenue, for a total of 21 miles. The other rapid line, a total of 16 miles , would run from Burnet Road, through downtown to South Lamar Boulevard.

The North Lamar/South Congress line would replace current route No. 101 , which has fewer stops than the No. 1 route along the same line, officials said. The Burnet/South Lamar corridor has only local buses with stops every few blocks.

Hemingson said the North Lamar/South Congress corridor currently has about 16,000 boardings a day, Capital Metro’s most productive service. The North Burnet/South Lamar corridor has about 4,500 boardings a day.

Under the contract with Nova Bus , the agency would pay $663,000 each for 22 60-foot buses , each with 62 seats, and $456,000 each for 18 40-foot buses, for a total cost of about $22.8 million . The remaining $4.4 million would be for a store of spare parts for the buses, including entire engines, maintenance director Carl Woodby said.

The cost of those 60-foot “articulated” buses (with an accordion-like middle section to make turns easier) is well below the estimated $1.1 million each for 60-footers with diesel-electric hybrid engines brought before the board four years ago. That figure essentially brought the project to a standstill at the time, and the agency began pursuing federal funding in earnest.

Woodby said the Nova Bus buses, aside from having regular diesel engines, are similar to the vehicles discussed in 2006 . However, he said, there are more companies producing them now, including more U.S.-based manufacturers, and that competition helped drive the prices down. Four companies bid for the contract awarded Wednesday.