A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a leisurely trip on the
Austin Capital Metro Light Rail with a few wonderful friends. My journey began at the Downtown Station located E 4th directly behind the Austin Convention Center. I traveled from Downtown, meandered through East and North Austin ending at the Lakeline Station. The light rail continues onto Leander (one more stop) completing approximately a 32 mile journey that takes about an hour due to various station stops.
Austin's light rail has been functioning for over a year now, but I've never had the need to travel from to and from Downtown to East or North Austin or even Leander since I live in Southwest Austin. After hearing several friends who live north of Austin comment about their daily journey, I thought I was about time I experienced the trip so I could tell out of town clients about the experience.
One way tickets vary from $.50 to $2.75 depending on your preferred distance of travel, membership level and if you are able to take advantage of the reduced fare criteria. Tickets are purchased either
online, at a retail outlet or at a kiosk (shown above) at one of the light rail stations.
Taking the trip during the middle of the day allowed me to take in the scenery (that you often don't get to enjoy traveling 70 mph on the highway) on a quiet train ride. The cars were clean and wifi is free for those looking to work while commuting to and from work. The conductor was polite enough to wait for us to snatch our tickets out of the kiosk so wouldn't have to wait 20 minutes for the next train. Overall, it was great experience. Now I'm just waiting for the day I can catch the train in Southwest Austin and mosey into downtown.
Thanks to two great friends for joining me on this journey and Independence Title for creating this handy
Austin Transportation Guide, which also discusses Austin's other form of transportation, the
Car2Go program.
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