In the last act for several Metro board members, we get a step forward on another commuter rail line.
Moving to extend Metro’s reach into Fort Bend County, the agency’s board agreed Thursday to spend up to $500,000 on environmental studies for a commuter rail line connecting southwestern suburbs with central Houston.
During the last meeting for chairman David Wolff and three other Houston appointees, the Metropolitan Transit Authority board authorized its staff to finalize the alignment, begin public meetings and environmental review and take other steps to advance the 8.2-mile, $250 million project in the U.S. 90A corridor.
U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, whose district includes much of the corridor, has agreed to seek federal funding for the project, Metro officials said. Service could begin within three to five years, they said, enabling Fort Bend County residents to board a single Metro train that would bring them to jobs in the Texas Medical Center.
Despite all the talk about maybe having to slow some things down, it’s been a busy couple of weeks for the advancement of commuter rail plans. First Galveston, then Hempstead, and now Fort Bend. I think those are all the corridors that have been actively bandied about lately, though there are certainly other possibilities; west on I-10 and north on I-45 come to mind. I hope the new Board is able to pick this ball up and keep running with it.
A key advantage of Metro’s plan, Wolff said, is that it would use trains Metro already owns on tracks that would parallel Union Pacific freight tracks in the same corridor, tying into the existing Main Street light rail line to create a seamless experience for passengers.
The commuter line would begin at Fannin South, the southern end of the Main Street line, and continue to the Fort Bend County Line at Beltway 8.
“The commuter rail has to tie into light rail in order to be attractive to the consumer,” Wolff said.
Now where have I heard that before? This is an advantage for the Fort Bend line, one that the Hempstead line at least does not share. It would of course be best to be able to continue on from the FB line into Greenway Plaza or the Galleria, but being able to get to the Medical Center and downtown is a good start. Continuing this line into Fort Bend, for which various options already exist, is vital as well, but that would require Fort Bend County giving Metro permission to operate there. As it happens, when I spoke to David Wolff, he told me that Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert was on board with the idea. We’ll see how it goes from here now that Metro has taken this step.
I am glad to see this moving forward but frankly, it is about time that Metro actually picked up their shovels and actually started building something. Mass transit here has been studied to death while other cities are building and moving forward.
Sadly, I see that as Bill White’s (and the Metro board under his administration) legacy here in Houston. He talked the good talk but never actually carried through on the plans. It’s unfortunate because now we have a mayor who clearly is not as much of a champion of transit (despite her assurances otherwise).