CapMetro explains alleged safety issues

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Just three days before the launch of Capital Metro's new commuter line - the MetroRail - there were lingering safety issues with the crossing gates. However, CapMetro officials have an explanation for the odd-looking gate function.

Two news photographers observed unusual gate behavior Friday morning at the Martin Luther King Jr. crossing, just one of the stops along the 32-mile line that runs from Leander to Downtown Austin.

Proper gate function and safety issues have plagued CapMetro for months. There are 70 gate crossings between Leander and Downtown Austin, and it's critical that each and every one works properly.

The observed issues were these:

• the gates go down properly as the train passes, but they rise afterward and then inexplicably lower again.
• the gate lowered as the train approached, then it rose, then it lowered again as the train neared the MLK crossing.

CapMetro said they have been thoroughly tested and there have been no problems. They also claim that although the unusual gate activity may seem strange to the eye, it is actually a high-tech safety feature of the gate.

For example, CapMetro explains that the gate at a crossing lowers as the train approaches. But, if the train stops too long at the station, the gate will rise to let traffic clear. Then, when the train starts back up, the gate comes back down. It looks strange, and they may make adjustments to the timing device, but they said it is all part of their built-in safety features.

"They system is operationally ready and everything has been functioning as it should," said CapMetro spokesman Adam Shaivitz. "We had the Federal Railroad Administration do very thorough observations and inspections of every safety component of the system this month and we wouldn't be starting up if the Feds hadn't given us the OK."

CapMetro's new safety features may make the gates appear to be acting oddly and the are sometimes receiving concerned-citizen calls.

"It does happen from time to time, we'll get a phone call through customer service where someone thought they saw a gate that wasn't working right, but as it turns out, it's doing what it's supposed to do as an added safety feature to let a car get off the tracks," said Shaivitz.

Some of those concerned citizens are still - well - concerned. Ken Wetta's Rome Pizzeria is next to the Parmer and 620 crossing. He said he has seen some weird gate actions for months.

"There was a lot of problems," said Wetta. "The crossings would go down without a train, they'd come up when a train is in the middle of a crossing and of the last month its started working a lot better."

Ken said the gates appear much more reliable now, but in his opinion, the gates still come down way too early and stay down way too long, inciting drivers to do a very dangerous thing.

"The crossing would go down for a minute, two minutes, before the train ever got there," said Wetta. "So, a lot of traffic would just go around the crossing because it's malfunctioning and they're still doing it."

A casual observer can see the worn-out path where drivers skirt around the gates - something that is very illegal and highly dangerous.

CapMetro explained a gate could come down with no train approaching because a maintenance crew is around the track.

The MetroRail, confusion and all, opens on March 22.