by jude galligan
This past Sunday I caught an impromptu glance at the Commuter Rail Train parked at the downtown station. Up close, the trains are beautiful. Compared to a subway train, or if you’ve ever seen the NJ-transit trains, Austin’s commuter rail looks like a Mercedes. When I arrived, there were about 25 CapMetro workers milling about. I tried to discretely walk into the train but was cut off by an official looking guy. Still i managed to grab some pics where you can see the interior. Looks pretty cool!
One thing I am disappointed with is the gazebos. They’re small, don’t protect from the elements, and are fire-engine red. We spend millions of dollars on a train and get these crummy gazebos. The service won’t officially start until March, but it’s good to see this thing moving. From my window, I can see it going by and it is very quiet.
More pics after the jump!
The stations aren’t really any worse than par for the course for light rail – if you were expecting subway-style stations, you were bound to be disappointed either way. It’s all small potatoes compared to this problem:
http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/archives/000548.html