Capital Metro was approved in 1985 by the citizens of Austin with a one-cent sales tax. In 1986, the system was launched, taking over the existing city of Austin bus services.
In 1989, public perception was that too many buses were running virtually empty. The MTA tax was cut to 3/4 percent, and Capital Metro attempted to boost ridership by eliminating fares entirely. Although the program was wildly successful in attracting new riders, a perception created by a few in the media was that there were too many "problem riders" using the system. This shallow, baseless idea caught on to some professional hacks looking to write papers on the period.[2] [3] Both of these footnoted references point exclusively to testimony by a former Capital Metro board member turned staffer, Lyndon Henry, whose assertions that ridership only increased by 10 percent of regular fixed-route riders, that operating expenses skyrocketed, and that vagrants drove away normal riders contradict documents from the period.[4]
Market research showed that "In only a couple of isolated instances are on-board safety or less than desirable passengers or anything else negatively attributed to the free fare program cited as reasons for discontinued use of bus service."[5] Despite the facts and widespread support -- general public approval of the fare-free program was 81%, even though 49% of respondents had never used Capital Metro services; among riders, it was 97% -- the political forces fearing the media farces reinstated fares in January 1991.
In response to the new ADA compliance rules passed in 1990, the system eventually became the first bus transit agency to have its entire bus fleet equipped with wheelchair ramps.
In 1993, it took over shuttle bus service for the University of Texas campus and expanded it to run to nearby apartment complexes off-campus that cater to university students. (By 2004, Capital Metro was collecting $5.2 million a year from student fees.[6]
In October 1995, Capital Metro's board of directors increased the MTA sales tax back to its original rate of one percent, promising to set aside the additional quarter percent for future projects. This brought the annual tax burden up to $349 per household.
In 1997, Capital Metro's board of directors was "reorganized" just ahead of a performance review by the Texas Comptroller.[7] The review cited "ongoing criminal investigation" by the FBI, "irresponsible management", "expensive, embarrassing mistakes", "dubious contracting and purchasing practices", $118,000 spent on "food, parties, and presents for its employees" and culminated with "We have never, in all of the performance reviews we have conducted, seen an agency with such a lack of accountability."[8]
In 2000, Capital Metro proposed spending $1.9 billion for a light rail system with 52 miles of track on existing streets. The referendum was narrowly defeated at the polls.[9]
In 2004, Capital Metro added a trip planner to its web site. Riders enter their intended origin and destination, along with optional time, date, and other information, and the trip planner displays itineraries showing the stops, departure and arrival times, and times to get from the origin to the destination.
In 2004, after four years of additional lobbying by Capital Metro, a commuter rail plan — to be built on pre-existing freight rail lines — won voter approval. Capital MetroRail's new rail line will run from Leander through northwest Austin and east Austin before terminating at a station on the southeastern edge of downtown Austin, at the location of the Austin Convention Center. It is scheduled for completion in 2008.
In September 2005 Stadler Rail won a bid to build six diesel-electric rail cars for the system.[10] Those six cars will carry up to 1000 commuters per trip, on five routes in the morning, five in the evening, with a handful of routes running during the midday. The initial cost for this rail line is $90 million dollars
