More than a year behind schedule on opening the downtown to Leander commuter rail line, the man in charge of Capital Metro, at least for now, does not anticipate any more delays in cutting the ribbon on the 'Red Line', as Cap Metro has nicknamed it.

"We think we've identified everything that needs to be done to open up safely. When we were developing this last little bit of a plan, I went around the room and asked everyone 'Is there anything else we can think of?' and no one had anything else we could think of that we needed to do," Doug Allen, Interim President/CEO said this week.

The rail line was expected to open a year ago but was delayed until March, 2009. Two weeks before it was scheduled to open, it was announced that the system would be delayed indefinitely. One major problem was signal timing, made clear at one point during a Capital Metro news conference at a school along 51st Street when a vehicle got trapped under the agency's crossing arms when the system failed, with local reporters just yards away. That was a public relations challenge for the agency.

Allen says testing and repairs have been continuous since then.

"When we get out there and test, there may be something that comes up, but none of us are aware of anything. If that happens, obviously we're going to have to deal with it," Allen said. "There's a learning curve on these rail programs clearly the agency has learned. My coming in with the experience I have, I can make sure that those things don't happen again."

He still expects an opening date to be announced sometime by the end of March, more than enough time to correct any further problems.

 

(Click below to hear KLBJ's Jarrod Allen's extensive interview with Doug Allen; duration: 21 minutes)