All aboard: A first look at McKalla Station at Q2 Stadium

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As thousands of Austin FC fans descend upon Q2 Stadium Saturday to celebrate the club's 2024 season opener, they'll feast their eyes on the brand new CapMetro rail line stop, located adjacent to the stadium.

CapMetro previewed Tuesday the latest stop along the transit authority's passenger rail line. Austin FC President Andy Loughnane said its unveiling marks a "special moment" in the club's growing history.

"This is the culmination of a big vision that set forth many years ago when the original planners of the stadium and the site came together," he said. "But through a lot of hard work, a lot of perseverance through many channels — including political channels and fan base channels — our private-public partnership has come together to make this station possible."

CapMetro will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony around 10 a.m. Saturday morning to debut the station before fans flock to the stadium later in the evening. For a project constructed amid COVID-era inflation impacts and construction setbacks, CapMetro leaders said they were particularly proud to deliver the station both on time and on budget.

"There were over 300 people that were involved in this project — you're looking at about a $60 million investment here, locally, throughout the region," said Dave Kubicek, CapMetro's executive vice president overseeing capital construction, engineering and design. "We knew that [this project] was very important around the interconnectivity into the overall [Red Line and north Austin] environment."

While CapMetro had developed projections for McKalla Station's ridership, those numbers were developed pre-COVID, according to Sharmila Mukherjee, CapMetro's executive vice president and chief strategic planning and development officer. Since, game day ridership has far surpassed the transit authority's estimates, with them poised to spend the next several months tracking travel patterns to see how game day and day-to-day commuter operations go.

As for the design behind the station, officials said they wanted to create a cohesive aesthetic that took elements from Q2 Stadium to pay homage in McKalla Station's final look. McKalla also features double tracking, permitting trains to run regular and game day service on one of the two tracks while extra trains are staged on the other.

The station also features an extra long special events platform to accommodate larger crowds accessing the rail stop for Austin FC games.

With rail services available six days a week — including beyond game days — Kubicek added CapMetro is working closely with Q2 Stadium officials on finalizing parking accommodations for north Austin residents who'll use McKalla Station as part of their live, work and play commutes. Currently, the stadium has about 750 parking spots on site, and some of those daily use details are being fine tuned, he added.

With McKalla Station's launch this weekend, CapMetro leaders added they'll continue to evaluate ridership at Kramer Station, which had previously been the closest stop for Austin FC fans to access the stadium. That stadium currently sees the second-highest ridership volume along the Red Line, second only to the downtown station.

When the future Broadmoor Station comes online, officials added they'll then work to determine Kramer's travel patterns and how those have evolved before figuring out what that stop's future looks like. Previously, officials had suggested closing Kramer once McKalla and Broadmoor stations were operational.

"COVID changed our travel patterns quite a bit and we see off-peak patterns really changed," Mukherjee added. "So Kramer's well traveled now, McKalla is designed to be a success, I have no doubt. And once both of those stations are functioning and then when the future Broadmoor comes alive, we will understand the travel patterns better and figure out the plans for Kramer."