Capital Metro's Response to Swine Flu

Recently, more cases of the Swine Flu virus have been identified in Texas. The health and safety of our employees and passengers is a top priority. That is why we're taking steps to minimize the risk associated with the virus. Staff is using a hospital-grade sanitizer when cleaning the facilities and the interior of buses. Capital Metro also is encouraging employees to disinfect their work areas as a way to maintain a healthy work environment. Please be aware that these steps alone cannot fully prevent the spread of flu.

What you can do:

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the following steps to reduce your chance of catching or spreading Swine Flu:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• The CDC advises that influenza is spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• When you cough or sneeze cover your nose and mouth with a tissue. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. If you don’t have a tissue, use your upper arm not your hand.
• If you get sick, the CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

For more information about Swine Flu visit their Web site or call 1-800-CDC-INFO.

Capital Metro is working closely with local, state and federal authorities to monitor the Swine Flu outbreak and will take additional steps as needed. Read more

Capital MetroRail Update

Yesterday at the Capital Metro Board meeting, Executive Vice President Doug Allen presented an update on MetroRail progress. Capital Metro and Veolia have made significant headway to ready the Red Line for passengers.

* The agency has received the official waiver letter from the Federal Railroad Administration that allows Capital Metro to operate the system when all the components are ready.
* Train engineers have been certified on the operation of MetroRail vehicles, and dispatchers have been certified on the use of the Centralized Traffic Control system.
* Veolia has hired a new safety director, Randy Jamieson, with extensive experience in freight and passenger rail operations.
* Capital Metro has completed a comprehensive inspection of rail system components along the entire 32-mile line.

Doug also outlined the "critical path" to startup, as visualized in this chart.

The agency is working with the city to complete the installation and testing of signal preemption technology that will synchronize rail and traffic signals at several major intersections. In addition, Capital Metro is working to improve shunting, which controls the timing of the crossing arms and the ability of rail dispatchers to monitor trains along the system. Both shunting and signal preemption are key components to the successful operation of Capital MetroRail. Read more

Don't Leave Me

You step off the bus and walk the short distance to work. You've already had your coffee. Perhaps you were just promoted the day before. Or your kids are doing extremely well in school. Whatever the case may be, you feel good. You reach into your pocket for your wallet and, oh, my gosh, it's not there.

You think you might have left it on the bus. "Yes," you say to yourself. "I remember I pulled out my monthly pass."

What to do if you leave a personal item on the bus? The first thing to do is contact customer service at 474-1200. This number is posted at every bus stop. If you remember the bus number, perfect. This works to your advantage because customer service can contact the driver a lot faster. If you don't know the bus number, don't worry. Tell customer service which route you were on and at what time. Customer service, along with a radio dispatcher, will do some digging for you.

Capital Metro will work quickly to return a lost item left on one of its buses with the owner, be it a valuable item, like a wallet, purse or cell phone, or just lost marbles that someone wants back.

Once customer service has located the right bus, a radio dispatcher will call the operator and ask her or him to search the bus for the lost item. The operator will do so at the next bus stop. The operator then reports back that the item is in his or her possession. This is communicated back to the owner and arrangements are made to return the items to their owner. The owner can wait for the bus to make its return trip; sometimes a street supervisor is sent to retrieve the item; or, the owner can pick-up the item at the downtown office at 4th and Congress.

Here is a friendly reminder. Just before you deboard the bus, look up at the advertisements. Notice the one with a picture of a set of keys, purse, cell phone and other items and these three words: "Don't Leave Me." Read more

Calling all policy wonks!

Time for an update on the status of Capital Metro’s legislative agenda.

Where to start? What’s in the hopper? A number of things, all of which are moving along but the clock is ticking with only 35 days left in the session that ends June 1. Most of our bills have had committee hearings in at least one of the chambers and a few have been approved by at least one side of the Legislature but we’re still working to see what will make it out.

For more information about the status of some major bills that could affect Capital Metro, read on…

‘OMNIBUS’ BILLS re: fare enforcement ability, confirmation of contracted peace officer authority, and use of State travel discounts
- Senate Bill 1263 (Watson) and House Bill 2469 (Rodriguez)
- Status: HB 2469 was reported favorably from the Transportation Committee and is now awaiting scheduling by the Calendars Committee for consideration by the full House. On the Senate side, no hearing has been scheduled yet in the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

STATE TRAVEL DISCOUNTS FOR ALL PUBLIC TRANSIT AGENCIES
- SB 1264 (Watson), SB 899 (Duell), and HB 2899 (T. Smith)
- Status: Both of the Senate bills have been approved on the floor and SB 899 has been scheduled for consideration by the House Transportation Committee on 04/29/09. On the House side, Smith’s bill has been favorably reported from the Transportation Committee.

BUS-ONLY SHOULDERS
- SB 434 (Wentworth) and HB 1790 (Bolton)
- Status: The Senate has approved SB 434 but at the requests of senators representing these areas, they removed Williamson County and added El Paso. The House Transportation Committee took up the House version of HB 1790 last Thursday. The committee substitute that Rep. Bolton offered also excluded Williamson County but it also excluded El Paso County because of concerns by a legislator representing that area. The House Committee didn’t take a vote on Thursday so we’ll see if they take up the Senate version of the bill this week (or next, etc.) and if they’ll vote out the Senate or House version.

FUNDING BILLS
- There are a number of bills, and related constitutional amendments (the SJRs and the HJRs), that would authorize different means of local-option funding for transportation, including transit, projects. There are also a number of bills that would authorize additional vehicle registration fees to fund the same.

Local-option funding bills, and related constitutional amendments, include
• SB 855 & SJR 24 (Carona)
• SJR 52 (Davis), which is a duplicate of SJR 24
• HB 3448 & HJR 122 (Rodriguez), with HJR 122 identical to Carona’s SJR
• HB 9 & HJR 9 (Truitt), which is the companion to SB 855 and with HJR 9 identical to Carona’s SJR
• HB 1674 (Villareal)
• HB 3341 (Miklos).

Vehicle registration-only bills include
• SB 249, Shapleigh
• SB 294, Hinojosa (identical to HB 1716)
• HB 1716, Gonzales Toureilles (identical to SB 294)

- Status: Since there are so many bills regarding this issue, I’ll give a simple summary and say that Carona’s bill and Davis’ constitutional amendment have been approved by the Senate, and that all of the House local-option funding bills and House constitutional amendments were taken up by the House Transportation Committee last week but were left pending with no action. For the vehicle registration fee bills, both of the Senate versions have been approved on the floor but the House Transportation Committee hasn’t taken up the issue yet.

CAMPO PEER REVIEW-RELATED BILLS
- SB 2015 (Watson) and HB 4432 (Rodriguez).
- Status: Watson’s bill has been approved by the Senate. Rodriguez’s companion is awaiting a scheduled date for consideration by the House Transportation Committee.

I didn’t go into the content of the bills since, if you’re wonky enough to read this, you’re probably already versed in them. If you need a refresher or primer though, info about the content of the bills, save for Watson’s and Rodriguez’s Peer review-related bills, can be found in a previous blog posting. An overview of the Watson and Rodriguez Peer Review-related bills (as written by us, Cap Metro staff) can also be found online here. (Note that Rep. Rodriguez has since publicly stated his intention to move forward with Senator Watson’s bill and not the version that he previously filed.) And if you really want to dig around, find the actual bills and much more detailed information through the Texas Legislature Online. (You can do an easy bill search by entering the bill number in the top right-hand corner of the page. e.g., simply enter “HB 2469.”)

While we track a lot of other bills, those are the big ones that we’re advancing or watching. Here’s hoping that the next time I submit a post, I can tell you that all of the bills we wanted to pass, did! Well, maybe I’ll sneak an update in before June 1. Holler if you have any thoughts or questions. Read more

Wednesday Morning on the 987

The oblong box cruises south on Mopac. It is 6:22 on a mid-week morning and still dark outside. The interior lights are off. Two individual overhead spotlights are on as two of my passengers read. That means 21 passengers are asleep in the recliner seats. That makes me feel good because my smooth driving lulled them to sleep, which is what they wanted and looked forward to when they boarded at Leander and Lakeline. A 15-minute nap will help them get through the morning. As I drive this particular morning I see a meteor streak down and quickly disappear. It is the end of its million mile journey. I don't mention this to my passengers. It is too early to wake them.

But like almost all good things, this ride, as comfy and cozy as it is, is disturbed at 6:26 when the first passengers deboard from the bus. I go into my routine. "Time to get up. Don't forget anything. Make sure you have what belongs to you. Up and at 'em. Show them what you're made out've." Reminds me of when I was the duty N.C.O. in the Marines and had to call reveille, decades back. I walked the barracks to make sure every marine was up. Job well done.

My passengers know me by my name because this is the third time (or "mark-up," to use transportation lingo) I've had this run, the 987 Leander.

Each of my passengers smiles at me as they walk out and onto work. It's priceless.

They are in a good mood because their morning commute was quiet. Uneventful. Just as they like it. I did my part in making their day start off well. In turn they will make other people's day better. It is a chain reaction made from positive energy. At 6:44 the bus is empty except for me. And I think to myself, "Another job well done." Read more

Celebrate Earth Day Everday

Happy Earth Day!

In case you were wondering, Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for our environment. According to Wikipedia, Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental demonstration in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year.

In my opinion we should treat everyday as Earth Day.

There are lots of things you can do to preserve our environment and our quality of life everyday. But if you really want to make a difference, ride the bus. Public transit offers the most effective and immediate method to reduce harmful emissions. It far exceeds the benefits of other energy saving household activities, such as using energy efficient light bulbs or adjusting thermostats.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, a single person, commuting alone by car, who switches a 20-mile round trip commute to existing public transportation, can reduce his or her annual CO2 emissions by 4,800 pounds per year, equal to a 10 percent reduction in all greenhouse gases produced by a typical two-adult, two-car household.

Use Capital Metro's online trip planner and give transit a try. Read more

ServicePlan2020

Capital Metro's bus service is going under the microscope. Capital Metro: ServicePlan2020 is a comprehensive operational analysis of every aspect of Capital Metro's bus service. The resulting recommendations will become our roadmap for growth over the next 10 years.

Most big transit agencies do some kind of major analysis of their services and routes periodically. It's a beneficial process, as routes tend to morph over time into a spaghetti bowl. A relevant example is the 'Dillo routes before they were streamlined last year. Likewise, it's an opportunity to thoroughly examine procedures and generally improve the system.

Capital Metro is way overdue for this type of mid-range planning. Some of the legwork for ServicePlan2020 has already been completed. Last year, Capital Metro completed a market segmentation study that yielded a considerable amount of information about rider demographics, barriers to riding, and what people like and don't like about us. That info is one dimension of the analysis. Other factors to be included are: existing system conditions (what works and what doesn't) and community participation and feedback.

ServicePlan2020 makes progress this week when two stakeholder committees convene and begin their work, analyzing various service aspects and identifying unmet needs. A Technical Advisory Committee (made up of planner types from allied transportation entities) and a Community Advisory Committee (representative of riders and community groups who have a key stake in public transportation) will meet periodically over the course of the year to refine ServicePlan2020. We want your involvement, too, and we'll post updates and open house meeting information here as things go along.
Read more