Central Texas got a progress report from Capital Metro Monday night on the new commuter rail now scheduled to open in March.
The hope emanating from Capital Metro headquarters is that the Red Line will be up and running a full schedule without passengers by the end of February. By early to mid March the Red Line could become a reality to Central Texas commuters.
The Capital Metro Red Line is not on line yet, but information gleaned in Monday's meeting gave board members reason to be optimistic.
"The most significant change from the last meeting is that we have now notified the FRA that we would like them to come in and reevaluate all of the improvements we have made based on their recommendations," said Mike Martinez, Capital Metro Board Chairman.
In fact, the letter serves notice to the Federal Railroad Administration that Capital Metro believes the Red Line is 30 days away from being operational.
"It doesn't mean we will start running passengers on that train yet," said Doug Allen, the interim president and CEO of Capital Metro.
That's because there's still plenty of work that needs to be done. According to Capital Metro, when it comes to the entire 32 miles of track, only 30 percent of the hazard analysis program modifications, 69 percent of signal and crossing calibrations and just 9 percent of track rehabilitation have been completed to date.
"When we say that we only have 9-percent of the rail enhanced literally what we mean is once everything is built, we need to go through and shave the top of it off to make it smooth. It really is a day or two to do the entire 32 mile line because it is a piece of equipment that moves up the track," Martinez said.
As for changes to the hazard analysis program, they are still only about a third done.
"I think that is a lot of what is pending and in queue. It's work that has been done but what you saw in the presentation is that we are still waiting final approval," Martinez said.
