Bus Operator Stephen Chang, at the helm

If you were onboard the 17 this morning between 5:30 and 9 a.m., you probably enjoyed a smooth ride under the skillful command of professional coachman Stephen Chang. You also unwittingly became a part of Capital Metro’s history, as that run was Stephen’s last–he’s retiring from Capital Metro after 23 years behind the steering wheel.

Today also happens to be Stephen’s 80th birthday–he has the distinction of being the oldest Capital Metro employee. Happy Birthday, Stephen!

Capital Metro celebrated Stephen’s milestones today with cake after he returned from his shift. Thanks, Stephen for 23 great years!

Capital Metro wishes Stephen Chang (pictured with his wife) a happy retirement.

The platform cameras are monitored 24-hours a day by security staff and rail dispatchers to observe any unusual or unsafe activity; they can send an officer out immediately if needed.  For example, rail dispatchers recently spotted this truck encroaching in the railroad right-of-way near the MLK station:

5-yard penalty for encroachment (and the real penalties and dangers are more severe)

We’ve seen worse, including people walking on the tracks and even setting up tripods on the tracks to take pictures (very dangerous and illegal).  With the cameras, we can also keep an eye on crowd sizes on station platforms as well as the ticket vending machines.

A couple of TV stations took a look at our camera system yesterday.  Here’s some of the coverage:

Go back with me in time to the late 80’s, early 90’s. At that time I was an assistant manager in a bookstore in Hollywood. And as fun and wild as it is in Hollywood, it was even more fun and wild in Tijuana. Plus it was a dangerous city, which was an added attraction for me. Kind of like some people are attracted to unsuitable people.

To get to “T.J.” I took Amtrak from downtown Los Angeles to downtown San Diego. There, in the same station, I would buy a one-way ticket for the commuter rail for two dollars. Then get on the red line to San Ysidro, the last town in California. A very small town. I think it was the size of Austin’s downtown and surrounding business district. It had more dirt roads than paved.

I quickly liked San Diego’s commuter rail. I noticed that the people of San Diego loved their system. It was efficient. It was on time. It was cost effective. It ran all day and on weekends. At that time there were four lines that took people to all points of the compass. To the beach on the west. The hills on the east. To La Jolla on the north. And the Mexican border on the south. It worked well.

That was then. I hear that now San Diego has the “Sprinter,” which looks like a bullet train. I’m sure it is an improvement of what looked like a row of box carts I rode in.

Then commuter rail came to L.A. Some people, the naysayers, argued against it. The people of Los Angeles, they said, love their cars too much to use the rail system. They insisted that commuter rail would not work in Los Angeles. I did not agree. I had seen it work well in San Diego. In addition, I drove the city bus in Los Angeles by this time and saw how busy we were taking people, millions, to work and school. We were scheduled five minutes apart during peak time and our buses were full. I would have at least six passengers on my side of the yellow line. That was normal. People would park their cars at the many park ‘n’ rides along I-10 and hop on the freeway flyer to downtown L.A. A monthly pass cost $40. Parking in downtown cost $200 a month. You do the math.

Commuter rail worked in Los Angeles. It was a necessity. I moved to Texas before the system was up and running. But on my many visits back to see my mother I sometimes would take the line that went to Hollywood. This is the one that travels underground. It was interesting to feel like those big city folks of New York.

Back in Austin, I heard the naysayers argue that it would cost too much and serve only a few people. “HA!” I would say out loud while tilting my head slightly. If we do not need it now, we will certainly need it in the near future. Had we not built now, it would only cost more to build later and we would push that cost to our children. Imagine if we were selfish and not built commuter rail. Now fast-forward to the year 2060. I will not be alive then, but our great grandchildren will. What will traffic be like in Austin in 2060? And no commuter rail. I can hear our great grandchildren saying to us as they sit stuck in traffic for three hours, “What were you guys thinking? Why didn’t you built a good rail system for us like they have in other cities? What were you thinking?” Then I think of the generation that came before us. What if they had refused to fight in WWII? But they did fight. And because they were not selfish we can live the way we do. Our generation benefited greatly from their sacrifice.

Next week commuter rail will begin in Austin. It is not so much for us today. It is for our grandchildren. And their grandchildren. We should be proud of ourselves.

“One dollar from Austin Bergstrom International Airport to downtown? Never take a cab again.”

Since Capital Metro started tweeting via @CapMetroRail, we’ve become acquainted with Logan through his always persistent, sometimes pointed tweets about MetroRail.

We let the media ride on MetroRail this past Monday, and we were allowed to invite a few other guests, too. Logan was my guest, and as his tweets indicate, he enjoyed the ride.

Here’s @logangentry’s stream from the ride:

My first tweet from the @capmetrorail! Many more to follow. Loving it!

It’s me and a bunch of reporters on the @capmetrorail http://tweetphoto.com/13721723

college students who commute, here’s your stop on @capmetrorail MLK station for a campus shuttle http://tweetphoto.com/13721953 free 4 UT

Really smooth ride with free wifi on the @capmetrorail. A long…long wait, but it’s appearing to be worth it so far

Special thanks to @capmetrorail for letting me ride this afternoon! Glad to see it finally happening.

KXAN interviewed Logan about the experience; Check out the story here.

Eight service-minded students are trekking across the southern U.S., volunteering along the way. Today they helped test our MetroRail trains. Thanks, Breakers!

A group of eight high school and college students from across the nation (and one hailing from Toronto) spent the day on the train as part of a five-day Alternative Break Tour, sponsored by Calling All Crows in partnership with City Year and the band State Radio.  The service tour began in Little Rock Arkansas, and will end tomorrow in New Orleans. At each stop along the way, the “Breakers,” as they informally referred to themselves, were volunteering with local organizations by day, and rocking out with State Radio at night.

So what did they think of the train? They loved it, down to the “new train smell.” Damon Cawley, the group’s tour guide/chaparon/riding companion from City Year, said he’s been on trains all over the U.S. and–I’m not even kidding–said our MetroRail trains were the nicest he’s ever been on.

Calling All Crows is a is a service organization that mobilizes musicians and fans to promote human rights. On their Web site you can experience the Alternative Break Tour through video and blog entries created by the students. It’s quite cool. You can hang out with the Breakers tonight, when State Radio plays at La Zona Rosa.

Central Texas’ transit agency is at a critical turning point, and we know it will not happen without good leadership, good service, good employees and community support, all of which exist and is growing stronger each and every day.  The final approval of our MetroRail operations is testament to that.

The new board at Capital Metro has hit the ground running, and we are committed to working tirelessly on behalf of our communities to realize the mission of our organization.  Our mission statement drives us to “provide high-quality, customer focused, effective and efficient transportation services and systems for our communities.”

To get our agency to the place we all want it to be, we must also gain the necessary community confidence that has not always proven to be there for us. If we strive to fulfill our mission statement exactly as it is stated, I believe that community confidence will follow.

We are all very aware our transit agency has a history with particular issues, and they tend to be the mainstays of people’s perception that linger over our heads — a lot of which is not good. We cannot and will not shy away from our past.  We must accept and embrace who and where we are today, learn from our past struggles, challenges and success, and move forward in our desire to make Capital Metro the premier transit agency in the country.

Beyond rail, we have already begun making decisions to improve in strategic areas by creating a more active, involved board with new sub-committees to ensure a more direct interaction by board members on an ongoing basis and to create a more transparent decision-making process. We have created a rail operations subcommittee to ensure MetroRail’s success, a labor relations subcommittee to help relieve the strain from past negotiations, and an executive search subcommittee to spearhead the nationwide search for our next General Manager. We have also maintained the two existing board subcommittees– audit and finance, as well as operations and planning.

In keeping with this new culture of change, I am thrilled to announce the agency brought on two individuals with extensive and impressive financial experience to ensure our financial stability over the short and long term. I am honored and pleased to have former Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley and former deputy comptroller for the state of Texas, Billy Hamilton joining the CapMetro team. Betty and Billy will serve in a consulting capacity for the agency as we face, and work through, one of the most difficult economic downturns the country has ever seen.

Without a doubt, our community demands and deserves a transit agency that is reflective of a world class city. I believe MetroRail will help us achieve that vision for our transit agency.  Rest assured, there is no one on this board, nor within the agency, that believes otherwise. As we move forward, we will work on both short and long terms goals simultaneously, as one should not forsake the other. We no longer have the option of pitting one issue against another at CapMetro. It serves no purpose and does nothing to move this agency forward. I am confident with a new, engaged board and new executive leadership, CapMetro is on the road to success so that we can become an agency that not only earns the public trust, but also commands national respect.

As our rail gets up and running, I encourage each and every one of you to come out and see what MetroRail has to offer as part of our next steps to success.  And when you do, tell us what you think, how we can be better, and where we have risen to your expectations.  It is only through community partnership and conversation that we will stay on the road to better times at CapMetro.  I hope you will all join me in the endeavor.

Interim President/CEO Doug Allen talks to employees about the testing at the Downtown Station.

The trains started running their regular schedule at 5:25 this morning. Shortly after 7 a.m. the train began picking up groups of testers at the stations. Once the train arrived at the MLK, Jr. and Downtown Stations,  some people transfered to the rail connector buses to test the routes as well.

Shortly after 9 a.m., the train headed northbound to drop the testers back off at the stations. At 10:15, all of the testers simultaneously began using the ticket vending machines to see if the network could handle it…and it did.

Other aspects of the testing include security cameras, station announcements, boarding with bikes and wheelchairs, lost and found process, Wi-Fi and Go Line trip planning.

Overall, the testing went well this morning and right now all of the participants are at a lunch debriefing to discuss how things are going. More testing will continue this afternoon and again tomorrow.

A Capital Metro employee attempts to purchase a MetroRail pass on the ticket vending machine for testing purposes.