CapMetro Rapid

CapMetro Rapid is a bus rapid transit service in Austin, Texas, owned and operated by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (CapMetro). It currently consists of two routes which run north-south served by stations designed by McKinney York Architects.

Service on the first route, MetroRapid North Lamar/South Congress (Route 801), began on January 26, 2014. It replaced existing CapMetro Bus Routes 1L/1M and the 101 Express, which traveled along the same corridor. (1M was renamed Route 1 Metric/South Congress, while a local version of the northernmost portion of former route 1L was created as Route 275. The Metric corridor is now served by 325.) Before the original Route 1 North Lamar/South Congress was split into 1L/1M in 2006, it was the busiest line in the CapMetro system and peaked at 10 minutes headways Monday through Friday, with wider headways on the weekends. The current Route 1 has wider headways, resulting in overcrowding buses.) Route 801 serves 29 stations between Tech Ridge in North Austin and Southpark Meadows via the University of Texas and Downtown Austin.

A second route, MetroRapid Burnet/South Lamar (Route 803), serves a total of 28 stations between The Domain and Westgate. It began operation during August 2014, but the original Burnet/Manchaca Route 3 remained in service at slightly reduced frequency.