CapMetro Bus

CapMetro Bus is the bus public transit service of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Austin, Texas and serves Austin and the surrounding areas. MetroBus services include 82 standard routes and [|15] high-frequency bus routes as of 2021. It has several categories of routes: Local, Flyer and Limited, Feeder, Crosstown, Special services and UT Shuttles. CapMetro also operates an express bus service, [|MetroExpress], and a bus rapid transit service, CapMetro Rapid, in addition to the agency's commuter rail service, CapMetro Rail. In, the bus system had a ridership of, or about per weekday as of.

History

At the agency's inception, CapMetro originally operated a series of "paired" route service where two different routes that pass through downtown are served by the same buses, allowing riders to transfer between certain routes without leaving the bus. Since 2008, this practice has been eliminated and after a number of route pair reassignments, the agency merged the paired routes under single route numbers.
Meanwhile, most local routes carried two digits before CapMetro assigned a third digit for routes that do not serve downtown in 2000. Flyer routes were renumbered altogether to match their local stop counterparts, while express routes that operated during commute times only contained letters.

Vehicles

The majority of the current bus fleet consists of vehicles produced by two manufacturers, Gillig and New Flyer, with only relatively small generational design variations, most visibly in the use of flip-dot destination displays on older series versus LED displays on newer buses. A few smaller series of buses were acquired from other manufacturers, notably Optima and MCI. Older bus series produced by TMC and Blue Bird are no longer in service.

Standard routes

Local

MetroBus Local routes are intended to connect specific neighborhoods of Austin to Downtown Austin, with frequent stops. Since June 2014, north–south service within downtown Austin for all routes is provided via Lavaca Street northbound and Guadalupe Street southbound, with all routes serving at least one stop along both streets.
Prior to relocating routes to the Guadalupe/Lavaca corridor, many routes formerly utilized Brazos Street northbound and Colorado Street southbound before various construction projects took place. Since June 2014, the remaining lines no longer use Congress Avenue between 11th Street and Barton Springs Road. East-west service within downtown Austin for all routes is provided via 5th Street eastbound and 4th and 6th Streets westbound, so as to provide a connection along the Lavaca/Guadalupe corridor.
Some MetroBus routes are designated High-Frequency routes and operate with a headway of 15 minutes between buses weekdays, [|20] minutes Saturdays. Routes as of 2023:

Rt.	Name	Created	Eliminated	Notes	Ref.
1L	North Lamar / South Congress	—		Eliminated due to creation of [\|801]; service along Lamar replaced by [\|275]	—
1M	Metric / South Congress	—		Renamed [\|1] due to creation of 801.	—
6	East 12th	—		Merged with [\|5]	—
[\|8]	Govalle	—		Rerouted over portion of 20 when 20 and [\|120] were split by fall 1996 Renamed [\|300]	—
[\|9]	Enfield / Travis Heights	—		Paired with [\|14] when [\|11] eliminated Originally 9 Enfield; August 2008 it replaced 14 and name changed Eliminated due to low ridership; covered by: 21/22 on Exposition, [\|662] on Enfield, 1 on Congress, [\|331] on Oltorf, 300 extension on Ben White west of Woodward Service west of MoPac not on Enfield or Exposition not immediately replaced until restored by Pickup; service in Travis Heights neighborhood and on Burleson not replaced	—
11	Cherrywood	—		Paired with 14 until eliminated	—
11	Stassney			Renamed [\|111]	—
12	Manchaca	—		Paired with 20 until Feb 2000 then [\|3] until 3 and 12 merged	—
13	South Congress	—		Paired with 1 until merged with it	—
14	Travis Heights	—		Paired with 11 until 11 eliminated then with 9 until 14 and 9 merged	—
15	Red River	—		Paired with [\|16] until 15 merged with [\|10]	—
16	South Fifth / Westgate	—		Paired with 15 until 16 merged with 5	—
[\|17]	Cesar Chavez	—		Merged with [\|2]	—
[\|19]	Bull Creek	—		Merged with [\|30]	—
[\|21]	Exposition	—		21 ran clockwise, [\|22] ran counterclockwise; signed 21 Exposition Loop; both eliminated at the same time Parts replaced by [\|335]; part covered by 17 and [\|18]; portion on Exposition replaced by Pickup	—
22	Chicon	—		21 ran clockwise, 22 ran counterclockwise; signed 22 Chicon Loop; both eliminated at the same time Parts replaced by 335; part covered by 17 and 18; portion on Exposition replaced by Pickup; remainder changed from 22 to [\|322] as it no longer went through downtown	—
23	Wood Hollow	—		Merged with 19	—
23	Johnny Morris			Renamed [\|323]	—
[\|24]	Walnut Creek	—		Merged into [\|39]	—
25	Ohlen	—		Paired with 3 until Jan 1997 on weekdays, and until Jan 1998 on Saturdays Renamed [\|325]	—
26	Riverside	—		Paired with 5 until merged with 20	—
27	Dove Springs	—		Paired with [\|7] until merged with it 7	—
28	Ben White	—		Originally paired with 30 until 28 renamed [\|328]	—
29	Barton Hills	—		Paired with 19 until Jan 1998 Eliminated due to low ridership; service on Robert E. Lee Blvd. transferred to 30	—
[\|31]	Oltorf	—		Paired with [\|46] until Jan 1999 Renamed 331	—
[\|32]	Airport Boulevard	—		Combined with 46 and part of 8 to form [\|350]	—
33	William Cannon	—		Renamed [\|333]	—
34	? 'Dillo	—		Discontinued as part of a restructuring.	-
34	Great Hills			Part transferred to [\|383]; remainder redundant with other routes	—
35	Convention Center/UT 'Dillo	—		Renumbered to [\|85] as part of a restructuring of 'Dillo service.	-
36	Congress/Capitol 'Dillo	—		Renumbered to [\|86] as part of a restructuring of 'Dillo service.	-
[\|37]	Colony Park	—		Paired with [\|38] until Aug 2000 Rerouted over part of [\|320]; As the route no longer served downtown, renamed [\|337]	—
38	South Lamar	—		Paired with 37 until Aug 2000 Renamed [\|338] South Lamar	—
39	Walnut Creek / Koenig	—		Originally 39 Koenig Lane By fall 1996, rerouted replacing 24 and renamed Walnut Creek / Koenig Renamed [\|339]	—
[\|40]	Parkfield	—		Originally continued in limited stop to the UT campus; this section discontinued by 1996. Renamed [\|240]; part transferred to 383	—
[\|42]	Quail Valley / Metric	—		Renamed [\|242]; rerouted off Quail Valley	—
[\|43]	South Oaks	—		Originally 43 Southwest Oaks; extended and renamed by Jan 1994 Renumbered 203/204	—
[\|44]	Cedar Bend	—		Originally 44 Balcones Northwest Rerouted and renamed 44 Cedar Bend Renamed [\|244]	—
[\|45]	Copperfield	—		Renamed [\|245]	—
46	Bergstrom	—		Paired with 31 until Jan 1999 Combined with 32 and part of 8 to form 350	—
47	Anderson Mill?	—		Discontinued due to low ridership.	-
47	East 26th Street	—		Created between January 1994 and July 1995 as Dean East/UT. Converted to a regular bus route ca. 1996.	—
111	Stassney			Renumbered from 11; renamed [\|311]; number later reused.	—
120	St. Johns			Replaced St. Johns section of 20; extended east replacing [\|208] in Jan 1998 Renamed 320	—
[\|151]	Allandale			Split from [\|51] Renamed [\|491]	—
161	Delwood			Split from 151 Renamed [\|492]	—
[\|201]	North Loop			—	—
202	45th Street			Went in the opposite direction as 201 Eliminated when 201 rerouted and became an independent route	—
202	Battle Bend	—		Eliminated due to low ridership.	—
203	Buckingham Circulator			Originally 43 South Oaks, renumbered when route extended to Buckingham Renamed [\|252] and western part eliminated	—
204	Southwest Oaks Circulator			Originally 43 South Oaks, renumbered when route extended to Buckingham Renamed 252 and western part eliminated	—
205	East Lakeline				—
206	West Lakeline				—
208	East Austin Circulator			Merged into 120	—
209	Lohmans			Served The Island, Bar K Ranch, and City Hall area Discontinued due to low ridership; Bar K Ranch and City Hall area service merged into [\|102]	—
238	Westgate	—		Created from part of 338 Renumbered [\|318] and extended east via Slaughter Lane	—
240	Rutland			Renamed from 40 Section on Kramer eliminated; section on Braker transferred to [\|392] in Feb 2002 Rerouted north on Parkfield replacing part of 244; rerouted several times, until August 2010 Portions replaced by [\|324]; sections covered by [\|803], [\|466], and 325; other portions lost service until restored by Pickup	—
242	Metric			Renamed from 42 Eliminated in January 2006; part became branch of 1; rest renamed [\|243]	—
244	Cedar Bend			Renamed from 44 Cedar Bend Part transferred to 3; part to 240; remainder renumbered [\|391]	—
245	Copperfield			Renamed from 45 Part transferred to 1; remainder renumbered 392	—
252	Buckingham Slaughter	—		Became 201; section through Buckingham eliminated due to low ridership	—