By Lyndon Henry, Editor
Why are urban rail stations in downtowns – central business districts (CBDs) – typically spaced so much more closely than in outlying stretches of rail lines? Of course, one major reason is that more frequent stations are needed to serve the density of these highly compacted activity concentrations – employment density in particular, although population density in city centers, like Austin’s, has also been increasing.
Commuters to downtown jobs will tolerate a longer walk to an outlying light rail transit (LRT) station, or even access of a mile or more to a park & ride. But over a century of experience has shown that most people don’t want to spend much above about five minutes walking to their workplace from their transit stop. Or from their workplace to the nearest transit station, to commute home at the end of a day’s work.
To some extent, in Austin Rail Now’s previous post, these factors are reflected in the map-graphic shown (originally prepared by the Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA) and included in a public document by the Austin Transit Partnership). Using shaded circular areas around several proposed downtown LRT stations, the graphic illustrates a quarter-mile/five-minute walk distance around each station. While the DAA’s graphic bolsters the case for adding a Wooldridge Square station to the LRT plan (an addition we strongly support), it also exposes a large gap in coverage for the southwest segment of downtown.
Republic Square station fills need
This gap can be filled by a Republic Square station (between W. 4th and 5th Streets), as shown in the graphic above (at the head of this article), which we’ve adapted from the DAA map. On our graphic, red lines radiating westward from the proposed station indicate approximate 4 to 5-minute walk distances to points in this area. Southwest downtown includes such major sites as the Federal Courthouse, the Seaholm development (with various shops and restaurants), the Austin Central Library, and several large condo and apartment highrises. The district also includes a multitude of other establishments, such as smaller shops, hotels, restaurants, and more. A Republic Square LRT station would also be just six blocks from the major westside Whole Foods Market.
The need for another downtown station (in addition to stations already proposed by the Project Connect team and the DAA’s Wooldridge Square concept) is highlighted in the following graph comparison of station spacing. This uses roughly equivalent block lengths in several peer cities (considered quite successful in the industry); the data used for Austin includes the proposed Wooldridge Square station, which Project Connect considers an “option”. This comparison suggests that the downtown station spacing so far proposed for Austin’s coming LRT system seems inconsistent with Best Practices by these typical peer systems.
Easy Interface with current transit hub
In addition to ease of access, another factor typically involved in the layout and spacing of downtown stations is the need to minimize peak crowding and to avoid overcrowding at any station in these high-population areas. Providing too few stations in these situations (which may be indicated by longer stop-spacing) can create excessive crowding that is unpleasant, dangerous, and disruptive to smooth operation and service.
And in regard to the proposed Republic Square station specifically, there’s another major consideration: the opportunity for LRT to interface with the major bus transit hub at Republic Square, which has functioned for years to provide a relatively smooth interface among routes, well-known to the public.
Not only is the Republic Square hub well-established and familiar to the transit-riding community, it’s positioned six blocks (along 4th St.) from the downtown MetroRail station at the Austin Convention Center, providing a feasible interconnection between MetroRail and the large assortment of bus routes converging at Republic Square. Adding an LRT station here would expand Republic Square’s role into a multi-modal transit hub.
For multiple reasons, a Republic Square station would fill a critical need and eliminate the remaining serious gap in the proposed downtown LRT alignment. But if this gap were to remain in the final plan, we can’t help imagining whether future generations of Austinites will be wondering: “What were they thinking?” And it’s critical to keep in mind here that retrofitting an urban rail station into an existing alignment – particularly in an intensively developed central-city environment – is far more expensive than including it in the original construction project. ■
_______________Austin Rail Now 