Transit, power and airport updates as Austin weathers ice: Capital Metro suspended, Austin Energy warns of scattered outages

City and county officials provided agency-by-agency updates at a winter-storm briefing, with details on transit suspensions, power risks and airport operations.

Capital Metro: Mayor Kirk Watson and briefing officials said Capital Metro suspended service during the worst of the event and planned to resume limited service at noon on Jan. 26. "Sus servicios están suspendidos ahorita, pero... van a empezar el lunes mañana, el 26 de enero, con servicio limitado empezando al mediodía," Watson said. Officials asked riders to check Capital Metro communications and the agency’s website for route cancellations.

Power and outages: Stewart Riley of Austin Energy said this ice event is not as extreme as some historic storms but warned trees and stressed limbs can lead to scattered outages. "Podemos esperar que haya problemas aquí y allá en el sistema... tenemos mucho personal afuera que andan pendiente de todos esta situación," Riley said. When asked whether outages were caused by ice on poles, lines or trees, Austin Energy said some outages were tree-related and several larger outages had been caused by lightning during the storm but were restored quickly.

Road crashes: An Austin Police Department spokesperson identified as Jean And D Jones reported about 67 crashes between last night and 9 a.m. "Anoche tuvimos aproximadamente 67 accidentes," the spokesperson said.

Airport operations: The aviation chief (identified in the briefing as the airport chief and addressed as Mimi) said the airport remained open with one runway in use and crews clearing and treating surfaces. The airport reported about 150 cancellations for departures and arrivals; a reporter cited a figure of 202 nationwide, and the aviation chief said the airport’s latest count was roughly 150 cancellations, adding that airlines and the FAA make decisions about cancellations.

Equipment and capacity: Richard Mendoza, director of transportation and public services, said the city added small snow-removal trucks and larger loaders since 2023 and maintains equipment thresholds (for example, loaders for four to six inches of accumulation) to respond where necessary.

What officials said to residents: Leaders reiterated that passable roads are not automatically safe and urged people to remain home if possible; they also asked residents to sign up for local outage notifications for cooperatives (Pedernales and the entity named in the briefing as "Blue Bonet").

Next steps: Agencies said crews are staged, personnel are actively monitoring conditions, and officials will issue further updates as conditions evolve.