It’s hard to get motivated when you start your day stuck in a bumper-to-bumper logjam on the highway. That’s why hundreds of people attending the Get Motivated seminar at the Austin Convention Center yesterday opted to ride MetroRail instead of tangling with traffic.
Based on preliminary figures, we provided more than 2,800 trips on the train. That’s about 1,000 more than a typical weekday. In fact, we pulled in some extra buses to pick up passengers from the rail stations since there were so many people waiting to ride.
Here’s what some of our customers said on Twitter yesterday:
@jcderr: This is the most crowded I’ve ever seen a @CapMetroRail train. Standing room only at Howard Station.
@austinchick99: Everybody #getmotivated to take @CapMetroRail downtown. Full-no riders on at Howard. Quick response & bus got us downtown 2min b4 train!
@Jezzika117: The metrorail is packed like sardines this morning. ***! Ahhh (-_-) @CapMetroRail
@CTXstudentlife: We’re reppin’ @concordiatx on the @capmetrorail this morning headed downtown. It’s packed in here!
@jcderr: SRO on @CapMetroRail 5:30 northbound. ****. What’s going on?
Sounds like good motivation for additional MetroRail service!
CapMetro Blog 
Yes, if we only had more events at the Convention Center, which is the only major attraction served directly (within walking distance) by the Red Line.
Exactly! I’m all in favor of my events off the red line. Look forward to the next one.
The bus beating the train downtown isn’t really a glowing endorsement, especially since pre-Red Line bus routes gave faster trips to downtown for almost every current Red Line rider. Those bus routes also didn’t require a $30 per person subsidy.
>>Those bus routes also didn’t require a $30 per person subsidy.
They didn’t? They certainly required some subsidy (no public transportation operates subsidy-free). How much was it for those lines specifically? I don’t know, how do you?
I thought they separated express routes out in their figures, but it looks like they’ve lumped them in with the rest of the buses. I don’t know how much they cost, but I’d like to. Would CapMetro care to enlighten us?
The last I saw one of the worse performing express bus routes was running 10-15 per ride subsidy. Not good, but better than the Red Line by a long-shot.
Give cap metro a fair shake here pleaseeeee.
Its a new system including a steap learning curve these big events cause due to higher than expected ridership, if they repeat the same mistakes year upon year then grumble away but kindly allow them to get the stats to work and plan with that events like this or ACL , SXSW, Pecan St Festival cause.
I like and use this train service and the more weekend big event services the better 🙂
Satisfyed customer here.
Love this! Thank you for sharing such an insightful article!