Gov. Perry did not force passenger rail on Austin. That was done by Cap Metro and the Austin Silly council. Yes, it is a joke. I heard the choo choo takes longer to get from Leander to downtown that it does in a car during rush hour.
Ummm, no. When the traffic is light, probably; the route downtown from the north is kind of indirect in that you have to travel to the east side and then back west into downtown.
But with Austin's legendary screwed up rush hour traffic, the Metroliner would win.
I might at this point add some backstory to the Austin Cap Metro trains.
Back around 1982, the City of Austin, in its always politically-trendy wisdom, cut a deal with the Southern Pacific Railroad to purchase about 160 miles of trackage between Giddings (50 mi. east of Austin) and Llano (about 50 miles west).
The SP and its predecessors had operated in this area for around a hundred years; one of their main sources of freight was the array of quarries in the rolling limestone 'Hill Country' west of Austin, providing gravel and rock to many customers to the south and east.
SP had sold the eastern part of this division (from Giddings to Houston) to the State of Texas so that they could expand US highway 290 to four lanes. Ironically, the SP (and later freight operators contracted by the City) made good money, for a while, out of hauling gravel to the highway builders to use for preparation of the new highway right-of-way that had just been abandoned by the railroad.
Now, the City of Austin, already in 1982 in thrall to the concept of Mass Transit, secured (IIRC) a $16 million loan from the FedGov as part of the ISTEA (Interstate Surface Transportation Enhancement Act) to buy this line. The city would be obligated to pay the FedGov back this money if they did not timely implement a commuter system.
The City of Austin ended up being a little tardy. The Feds cut them over a decade of slack in the start of the commuter rail system.
Of course, politics were heavily involved. And the more leftist and race-obsessed civic politics are, the nastier and more underhanded they get.
Anyhow, the City and its Capital Metro Transportation Authority eventually finalized plans, put out bids, and constructed the line. They are using only the central 32 miles of the total rails they own.
During the entire period from 1982 to the present, federal railroad regulations have required the City to continue offering freight service over the entire line. In common with many other municipally owned rails, the City of Austin has contracted this operation out to a succession of companies over the years. Typically, a rail company of this type owns and/or operates many small disconnected properties around the country. In Austin's case, a few of the contract operators have been incompetent or worse. The present operators are the best ones so far; they seem to know what they're doing, particularly with regard to the retention of the remaining customers through decent service.
But the commuter system will, in my opinion, never be self-supporting from farebox revenues. They are unlikely ever to recover avoidable operating costs, let alone the sunk cost of capital.
The City, its planning boards, and Capital Metro have mooted quite grandiose plans for running additional rail lines around the city. In contrast to the present line, which is a former Class 1 railroad, these lines would be built lighter and would be categorized as 'light rail.'
But considering the fabulous cost of upgrading the rails that were already there, including fully signalling the 32 miles for the current commuter operation, they must realize at some level that the building of even light rail right-of-way for dozens of miles through existing neigborhoods would take mui billions of dollars, and even the lefty and/or apathetic citizenry of Austin and Travis County is likely to pooh-pooh any actual realization of these plans (especially though their own back yards!), no matter how optimistically they are presented.