Austin's commuter rail system is faced its first big test. Monday, trial runs for the new trains got underway.

A back lot fence, near Metric Blvd was about as close as you can get to the trains right now. Capitol Metro’s new Service Center is still under construction, but it is already home for the commuter trains. For the past few days, work crews have been rolling them back and forth, testing them inside the service center.

Monday night, they hit the main line marking a new beginning for Capitol Metro.

The gates were scheduled to open around 7:00 p.m. Monday night and two commuter trains were supposed to roll out on test drives.

The trains can carry more than 100 people but the doors, for now, will only open for a team of engineers. Those looking forward to commuting by rail, like Laveretta Duke, still must board a bus.

“I have not even seen the train tracks, so I don’t know, but I’m going to take my kids on it, we’ve never been on a train,” said Duke.

The test runs will be done between the hours of 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. The trains are capable of reaching speeds up to 70 miles per hour, but for this round of testing; they’ll stay around 20mph.

Currently there are four trains at the service center. Eventually there will be six.

Built in Switzerland, they started arriving in Austin on flatbed trucks in late October. The lease purchase deal, for all six, is costing Cap-Metro about $35-million.

The plan is to keep one as a back up, while the other five carry passengers between downtown and Leander.

It’s a trip Josh Blais said he will take to get to his job.

“I actually work in Leander and I’m currently vehicle-less, so it would help out a lot,” said Blais

For now the trains will not reach Leander or downtown. The test runs will take place between the service center and Howard Lane.

If you live in the test area, you may hear the horn blow a few times as the train approaches a few crossings that have not yet been up graded.

The last two trains are expected to arrive next month, with service to begin by next fall