You might have already heard this rumor circling through various blogs and discussion boards. Clearly the Dillo is a downtown-centric service. As a frequent rider of the Dillo, I can attest to the fact that there were never many riders sharing the bus with me. I’ve often thought that by extending the 6th Street Dillo route into East Austin and beyond Whole Foods (for, instance Comal to Mopac) would encourage more ridership.
What CapMetro did right:
-The Dillo is inexpensive to ride.
-The Dillo route is easy to remember
-The Dillo 5-minute headway was very convenient
I find it irrational that they would consider killing the Dillo before the Metro Rail has even begun. If the Metro Rail is a success, then this will trickle down to the Dillo. The Dillo would have been a transfer bus to get from Red River to Lamar.
The Dillo DID used to run all the way to just west of Mopac – there also were 4 or 5 variants on routes (one running far down Congress; one running near ACC; etc).
It’s never been much of a winner – the seats are uncomfortable and the headways were never frequent enough to make it rideable without a schedule (despite their claims to the contrary). Pulling the Dillos in and running on more frequent headways was an experiment advised by many (but not me; they clearly pulled in the routes too far to be of much use).