Capital Metro Service Guidelines and Standards

First and foremost, Capital Metro is about providing mobility to our community. We receive our primary funding for operating service through the one-percent sales tax. Sales tax receipts are subject to the health of the general economy as we have seen recently. It is our responsibility to our community to use those funds effectively and efficiently.

The Capital Metro Board of Directors approved a revised and expanded Service Guidelines and Standards document on June 29, 2009. This document is a policy tool that reflects the mission and goals of Capital Metro. The Service Guidelines and Standards provides an impartial and objective set of criteria by which services can be assessed and informed decisions can be made regarding transit resource allocation.

All routes are assigned to groups based upon their service attributes. They are then compared to other routes within the same group. Local bus routes and commuter bus routes are not expected to perform the same because of their vastly differing characteristics; therefore, they are not compared to each other but instead are compared to their peer local or commuter routes.

The first section of Service Guidelines and Standards contains guidelines for the general design and quality of the overall transit system. This section also lays out guidelines for service characteristics including the service span and frequency. Guidelines are to be used with some flexibility but reflect the intent of Capital Metro in service design and delivery. Further, the guidelines for existing routes are not intended to preclude changes to routes that meet these minimum thresholds. In many cases, it may be possible to improve the productivity of those routes by making minor changes to service frequency or trip times.

The second section describes the standards for service evaluation. This section lays out the methodology by which existing fixed route services are evaluated and how poorly performing routes are identified. This methodology is to be applied rigorously and consistently in determining the performance of individual routes. Again, routes are compared only to their peer routes.

The standards require that two performance indicators be calculated for each service. Each route’s performance is compared to the average performance for its group. If a route performs more poorly than 33% from that group’s average performance, it is designated “probationary”. Capital Metro staff will then develop an action plan to help improve a probationary route’s performance. That plan, developed in concert with riders and the communities that are served by the probationary route, may include marketing, outreach, schedule adjustments, route realignment or service elimination. All changes will be accomplished under the same requirements for public input and comment as are currently employed.

Service Guidelines and Standards is a living document and will be reviewed at least every other year with the Capital Metro Board of Directors.

Read Capital Metro’s Service Guidelines and Standards

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
2910 East 5th Street | Austin, Texas 78702 | (512) 389-7400
Specific Route Information | (512) 474-1200