Metro Rail Downtown Station

I’ve had a good experience using the Metro Rail at this station, because the train is always on time. It’s usually not too crowded. It’s clean and the service is great. Definitely a nice alternative to sitting in traffic driving your favorite your car. You can use the train buy purchasing a ticket at the vending machine or using the app.

This is the WORST transit system EVER. My ride out to Leander from DT was delayed 45 mins. Had to keep waiting for the other train to pass. 15 mins at a stand still at least 3 – 4 times. Even worse on the way back. Got on the train an hour ago and have gone 1 mile. Sat at a stand still for 40 mins twice. Totally late for everything o had planned. Never again.

Love the train, though I wish it ran a lot more often. It would be great to ride it on weekends to go downtown for fun, or in the evenings for dinner, but there aren’t that many trains running. I’m sure it’s cost, but still.
Anyway, I rode it with my son just for fun when he was off school last week, and we had a blast. Just a great way to get downtown and back and spend time with the kiddo. Trains are clean, tickets are easy to get, and kids 5 and under are free.
You can whine all day about where the stations are, etc. But all in all, it’s a great train ride, and that’s all my son wanted. He still talks about it with a big smile on his face.

Pros: It gets you downtown. It gets you home. It has a ticketing station. There are seats! Don’t put your ticket up too quickly because they’re scanning them somewhat regularly now.
Cons: Watch out for the bike lane that you are required to cross, especially during heavy traffic! Be a good pedestrian and make sure not to get run over.

A fan of the Metro Rail so far :)
+lots of seating but gets crowded (as does everything else) after work
+decent stops… goes all the way out to Leander
+easy to buy tickets at this station… just follow the directions
— wish there were later times on weekends
— wish pricing didn’t jump up from $ 1 to $ 2.75 once you pass out of Zone 1…
— would probably help to have more park & ride stations

After coming from Switzerland I have been having public transportation withdrawals, especially rail options. I just tried the light rail this past Saturday and was VERY excited, and very pleased.
The light rail I read is only about 1 yr old, and I like they have started out small, and have great plans to grow, with one of the next routes going to the airport. On Saturday there is a great little station outside the Domain area (closest to me) that has a closed business on the weekend that you can utilize their parking for the rail. Super convenient, free wifi, inexpensive ($ 1 –one way), clean and safe (there were security guards on in the evening), and bikes are no extra charge (better than Switzerland!). Plus, a quick 20 – 30 minutes to the Downtown station.
The payment system has a few kinks, as the credit card didn’t seem to be functioning well, and it was rejecting my friends new one dollar bills from the bank. I trustingly put in my 5 dollar bill hoping I could get change, and was happy to receive a change card towards future uses, which will definitely be happening after my positive experience. I am looking into getting the re chargeable cards.
Improvement idea: Besides extending the system throughout the rest of Austin, also add some additional park and rides for those living outside downtown and want to drive a short distance — park and go.
TIP: The station doesn’t have bathrooms, but you can easily access the bathrooms in either of the lobbies of the nearby hotels.

I use the metro rail twice a week to go to DCI in Highland. It’s great and terribly convenient, only taking 15 minutes between here and there. I can’t wait until they expand it. I would use it all the time if it went to more places.

I live off Highland, so I started taking the train downtown when I go out for drinks. I drive 3 minutes or walk about 15 minutes to the HIghland station and then take the train to downtown. It’s always so nice!
I’d make this a 5 star review except I am unhappy how it stops running at 12 am on the weekends (and 7 pm on the weekdays) and that people in Austin don’t know how to ride it! STOP CROWDING THE DOORS! Everyone will get it!

The location is really great. Walking distance to 6^th St., right by the convention center, and plenty of great restaurants nearby. Not much to say as there’s not much here.

Compared to San Diego’s «Trolley» (so stupid that they call it that), the Austin Rail is pure luxury. There are spots to hang your bike, and an overhead space for storing larger items. The seats are new-​looking and comfy. It is only a measly $ 1 each way to ride in 1 zone… or is it zone 1?
We took this bad boy from downtown to Black Star Co-​op Brewery. Everyone should do this, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Some things have improved about the MetroRail service since the first reviewer (Hi, Patrick S. from Denver!) made his post, so it seemed appropriate to go ahead and post a public service announcement along with my two cents from a local’s perspective.
MetroRail *does* have weekend service now, starting with SXSW Music in March 2012. You can catch the commuter rail service until just after midnight on Fridays and from 4pm to midnight on Saturdays. They also run other extended service during special events such as Pecan Street Festival, but you need to check the schedule page and Twitter feed to confirm before you go.
Austin’s MetroRail is a *commuter rail* system, which means it was funded and designed for a very limited purpose: to get people who live on the north side of town to their jobs in downtown (generally a weekday, 6a-​6p proposition), which (in theory) keeps their cars off the roads and reduces traffic for everyone. The trains run on tracks that they share with a profitable pre-​existing freight service, and the cars holding people aren’t allowed to be on the tracks at the same time as the cars holding freight (per federal rule), so the City has to balance any extended commuter service hours with a loss of the freight service hours.
The long range plan (which of course depends on voter approval & funding) is to link up the MetroRail line with other local and regional rail systems as they are developed. It just ain’t here yet…
So, what about the Downtown MetroRail station? I love that it is one of the few stations along the 9-​station line that drops you off in a pedestrian-​friendly destination that you would actually intend to visit (rather than a midpoint stop before you must get on a bus or cab to reach your desired drop off). Within 1 – 10 blocks in any direction of this station, you can eat, drink, and be educated or entertained to your heart’s content. Generally, if I ride MetroRail from my north Austin base, the Downtown Station (or Plaza Saltillo, the one before it) is where I get off.
Also good to know:
— Trains are clean & almost always run on time.
— You can bring your bike.
— You can drink from a spillproof container, but food is not allowed.
— There is free wi-​fi on board.
— Ticket kiosks take cash, credit, and debit.
Check out the How to Ride Guide for more info:

I want to give this 5 cool factor stars and 1practical star… the trains are very cool looking but there is only one line and it pretty much only goes north of downtown into the burbs… I hope that eventually Austin expands what could be a cool feature but right now I think it’s perceived as something of a joke.
Oh yah, it doesn’t even run on weekends…