On Monday, October 12, the weekday Red Line loses two morning trips. The 6:07 a.m. train from Leander to Downtown and the 7:20 a.m. train from Downtown to Howard come off the schedule, and the last train of the weekday daytime timetable leaves Downtown at 7:42 p.m. instead of 7:21 p.m. CapMetro's own notice says it is updating the weekday schedule "to maintain reliability."
If you are weighing a home or an apartment near one of the ten stations, the change is small on paper and specific in practice: it takes a departure out of the busiest part of the morning and nudges the end of the day. Here is the new timetable read against the old one, what the line actually looks like hour by hour, and where nearby homes are being built.
What changes on October 12
CapMetro's rail page announces the new weekday schedule and links to the timetable PDF. The PDF is headed "Effective October 12, 2026 - January 9, 2027," and it marks the two trips as eliminated and the last northbound times as adjusted. The rail page itself gives no end date and does not say what follows January 9.
| Item | Before | From Oct. 12 |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday trains arriving Downtown (from Leander and Lakeline) | 17 | 16 |
| Weekday trains leaving Downtown | 20 | 19 |
| Morning train cut, toward Downtown | 6:07 a.m. from Leander (7:09 a.m. Downtown) | Removed |
| Morning train cut, away from Downtown | 7:20 a.m. from Downtown (7:58 a.m. Howard) | Removed |
| Last daytime train out of Downtown | 7:21 p.m. | 7:42 p.m. (8:45 p.m. at Leander) |
The 7:20 a.m. train never went all the way to Leander. Per the PDF it ran only as far as Howard Station, so the Lakeline and Leander stations lose no northbound morning departure to the cut, but they do lose the 6:07 a.m. train toward Downtown.
The line, hour by hour
The Red Line is a commuter railroad first. The new timetable has trains leaving Leander at 5:41, 6:39, 7:06, 7:31, 8:04, 8:26 and 9:11 a.m. After that there is nothing leaving Leander until 2:30 p.m. Going the other way, the train that reaches Leander at 9:04 a.m. is followed by one at 2:20 p.m. Lakeline and the stations south of it get midday trains, but the end of the line does not.
The last weekday daytime train from Leander to Downtown leaves at 5:30 p.m. and arrives at 6:36 p.m. On Fridays, CapMetro's page lists service until midnight, with a separate Friday evening timetable of five trains from Leander starting at 6:41 p.m.; Monday through Thursday the page lists service until 8 p.m. CapMetro's page does not list Sunday service, so check it for a weekend commute.
| Station | Departs | Minutes to Downtown |
|---|---|---|
| Leander | 5:41 a.m. | 62 |
| Lakeline | 5:58 a.m. | 45 |
| Howard | 6:09 a.m. | 34 |
| Kramer | 6:15 a.m. | 28 |
| McKalla | 6:17 a.m. | 26 |
| Crestview | 6:23 a.m. | 20 |
| Highland | 6:25 a.m. | 18 |
| MLK | 6:32 a.m. | 11 |
| Plaza Saltillo | 6:39 a.m. | 4 |
The cut leaves a hole at the front of the morning. With the 6:07 gone, the next train after the 5:41 leaves Leander at 6:39, a 58-minute gap, and Downtown sees the same wait between the 6:43 and 7:41 arrivals. From 6:39 to 8:26 the gaps between Leander departures run from 22 to 33 minutes. That is the real frequency on this line: a train you plan around, not a train you walk up to.
What a ten-minute bus looks like next to it
The other kind of frequent service in Austin is the Rapid bus. We loaded CapMetro's schedule feed (GTFS, service date September 2, 2026) into our research database and counted. Routes 800, 801 and 803 each run 92 to 98 weekday trips in each direction, from about 4:36 to 5:01 a.m. until after midnight, with a peak gap of 10 to 11 minutes. According to Fox 7's report on CapMetro's June 7 service change, routes 800 and 837 were set to move to a full 10-minute peak, contingent on testing; our September feed shows both at 10. In all, 146 distinct stops sit on Rapid 800, 801, 803 or 837 at a route peak gap of 10.5 minutes or less. Route 803 runs closer to every 11 minutes, which is why only a handful of its stops clear that bar.
Set against the Red Line's 16 and 19 trains a day, that is the practical difference between the two kinds of transit. Neither is "better." They answer different commutes, and a home near a Rapid stop and a home near a rail station can both be sensible for the right job and schedule. What matters is whether the first and last departures fit yours.
What is being built near the stations
We counted permits for new houses and duplexes issued within one kilometer (about 0.6 miles, measured in a straight line from the station coordinates in CapMetro's feed) of each Austin station between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.
| Station | New house or duplex permits |
|---|---|
| MLK | 43 |
| Plaza Saltillo | 24 |
| Crestview | 22 |
| Highland | 5 |
That is a record of construction, not a forecast or a ranking of anything. Our permit feed is flagged as having an incomplete daily ingestion, so recent weeks may be undercounted. Permits within city limits only: Lakeline and Leander are outside the City of Austin's dataset. For the full permit history of a specific address, Zabalist's permit history search carries it. For the citywide picture, see our eight-week count of new-house permits.
What this means if you're buying or renting here
Test the schedule, not the map. A station that looks close on a map tells you nothing about the 6:07 a.m. train that no longer exists. Pull the PDF, find the departure that gets you to work on time and the one that gets you home, and check them against your own hours. If your day ends after 7:42 p.m. on a weekday, the rail line is not your ride home, and that is worth knowing before you sign.
Mind the date on the page. The timetable runs through January 9, 2027, and CapMetro's page does not say what comes next. If you are signing a 12-month lease or a 30-year mortgage, treat the schedule as something that can change, and read CapMetro's service-change notices before you commit.
If you own near a station. A schedule trim is not a change to your property, and nothing in this piece says it moves a value either way. It is a good reason to keep your own commute notes current when you talk to a buyer or a tenant.
For neighborhood-level housing background on the stations in the city, see our pages for Crestview, Highland, MLK, Downtown and Leander. This is general information about public schedules and records, not advice about a specific purchase or lease.
Sources
- CapMetro, The Red Line weekday timetable, effective October 12, 2026 to January 9, 2027 (PDF, read October 9, 2026).
- CapMetro rail page (new weekday schedule notice; hours of service as published).
- Austin Local Team analysis of CapMetro GTFS schedule data, service date September 2, 2026: weekday trip counts, peak gaps, stop counts and the "before" Red Line schedule. Counts are ours.
- Austin Local Team analysis of City of Austin building permit records, last synced to our database October 8, 2026.
- Fox 7 Austin, CapMetro June 2026 service changes.
If you are comparing a home on or near the line, our research tools and a local agent can pull the permits, flood and tax records for the address. One next step: ride-test the commute on the new timetable before you make an offer or sign a lease.