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Capital Metro has released more info about the commuter rail line from downtown to Leander. Leander, of course, was originally called Bagdad. Just like the real Baghdad, the train to Leander appears to be fraught with danger. The "Rails with Trails" program has apparently been approved, so you will be able to hike/bike alongside fast moving trains. Don't go play on the tracks kids! Plus, the engines will be in the middle of the train, with passenger cars in front and back. Don't ride in the car in front! Momma said people in that car get blowed up when the train smashes into stuff.
You're probably thinking, "Why am I gonna risk my life to go to Leander? If I wanted to get blowed up, I would go to the real Baghdad." Well, the new rail line is conveniently close to new mixed-use developments by Pacific Summit Partners and Simmons Vedder & Co. 
Pacific Summit is building 3,000 homes and 150,000 square feet of neighborhood retail on 335 acres, while Simmons Vedder is building 1.5 million square feet of apartments, offices and shops on 63 acres. Both will be near the Northwest Park & Ride stop on the commuter rail line, one stop short of Leander. If you do make it all the way to Leander, make sure to check out the [insert cool thing to check out in Leander].
* Images from Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
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What's with the old-school attitude toward density and transit on austinist lately? Where I'm from, getting suburbanites' fat asses out of their hummers is known as "a cool thing to do in Leander." Unless you like. . . um. . . roads. And cul-de-sacs. And such. In that case: see you at TGI Friday's. I'll be the one in the oxygen mask, drinking the bottled water.
I like density downtown, but building huge new developments in empty fields far from downtown doesn't do it for me. This train goes from downtown to the suburbs and it is part of a larger plan which mainly involves more roads to the suburbs. I'd rather they just quit. Close MoPac from 360 South to 360 North. Bury I-35 in a tunnel with no exits between 71 and 183. Don't build any more roads anywhere that are wider than two lanes each way. At that point, a train from the suburbs to downtown might be popular enough to work. As it is, I think it will require continuing government subsidies and will only be used by people who can't afford to pay for tolls and parking, not the hummer owners.
The post conveyed more negativity than I actually feel towards the train. I like the train just fine. I don't like highways and I don't like sprawl and I think this plan overall means more of those, not less.
What Austin needs is about 100,000 fewer people.
That way the traffic, pollution, cost of living, etc. can go back the way they were.
We need negative growth, not more.
Tarvin,
Your old-school, keep Austin tiny rhetoric is so tired. You may have lived here your entire life, but this city is growing--and there's nothing you can do about it. If nothing else, be happy to live in a city that everyone wants to move to.
And if you want to live in a city with "negative population growth", I hear Flint, Michigan is lovely.
The problem isn't that this encourages density or doesn't; the problem isn't that it goes to the suburbs or doesn't; the problem is that it's a shitty rail line.
Rail can be great. You can also build shitty rail, which is what this is going to be. You'll have to transfer to a shuttle bus to go the last mile or two to the Capitol or UT or even to most of downtown. Imagine doing that every day, if you have the choice of otherwise taking your car, and you'll see the problem. (Light rail down Lamar/Guadalupe would have gone straight to all three - within an easy walk).
Hell, I've only been crackplogging about this for four years now; and every time a story pops up, I have to re-link y'all.
http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/archives/000324.html