New MetroRail timeline: October 2009

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Capital Metro released its budget on Friday, with plans to spend $154.7 million on public transportation and $6.8 million on capital projects.

The agency also now has an expected deadline of October 2009 to finish its long-awaited MetroRail and get it running for commuters.

The new budget is 76 pages and details decreases in both expenses and revenue from 2009. CapMetro also submitted 2009 numbers, but has revised this year's budget a number of times, making it difficult to determine exactly how the organization's actual expenses performed against its original budget submitted this time last year.

Here's what's planned for next year:

Cap metro wants to spend $164.7 million on public transportation and $6.8 million in capital projects.

The 2010 budget includes a fare increase in August of 2010. A local one-way bus fare goes from 75-cents to one dollar and other fares will increase as well.

CapMetro is also expecting to finally get the multi-million dollar MetroRail commuter train up and running. The estimated timeline now, is October 2009. The trains were originally slated to start running on March 30th of this year.

CapMetro's budget shows it expects MetroRail to bring in $495,575 in revenue. They estimate 403,098 passengers will ride the commuter train next year.

The overall budget shows total revenue will drop by 2.6%.and total expenses will drop by 2.3%

The new budget shows $7,117,227 will be set aside for cash reserves.