Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has some blunt words for Houston about light rail. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood likes Houston’s light rail that’s up and running but warns that regional transit officials have squandered opportunities the past decade by not building greater consensus. “The region needs to get its act together,” LaHood said during [...]
Posts Tagged ‘FTA’
Whither the University Line?
Is the University Line in doubt? Some people think so. Over the last decade, METRO spent $71 million of your dollars to build a rail line. But the agency recently took that project off the table for at least another decade and no work has been done. So where did all that money go? Ten [...]
FTA writes another check for light rail construction
Keep ‘em coming. The expansion of Houston Metro got another boost from the federal government with the allocation of $188 million in additional construction funding for the North and Southeast light rail lines. Congressman Gene Green, the Houston Democrat who is dean of the metropolitan area’s House delegation, said the money is part of Houston [...]
Metro signs Full Funding Grant Agreement
Full speed ahead. The head of the Federal Transit Administration on Monday signed $900 million in grant agreements to help pay for two Houston light-rail lines under construction by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The grants, the first federal funds ever provided for rail in Houston, were formally approved in a ceremony attended by the FTA [...]
Signing date for Full Funding Grant Agreement announced
From the Metro blog: On Monday, Nov. 28, METRO will be joined by federal officials, along with members of Houston’s congressional delegation, to sign the long-awaited Full Funding Grant Agreements (FFGA) for the North and Southwest light-rail lines. President & CEO George Greanias announced the signing date [Wednesday] at the Greater Houston Partnership’s luncheon. This [...]
Laying track
This has been a long time coming. For the first time in 10 years, workers this morning poured concrete for a new section of Metro light-rail track. The 80-foot section of steel rail will be part of the 6.6-mile Southeast Line. The line, scheduled for completion in 2014, will extend from Smith Street downtown to [...]
San Antonio rail progress
I’m glad to see them continue to move forward. VIA Metropolitan Transit has hired a program manager to oversee its high-capacity transit initiative, a move that board and staff members say will help usher in the agency’s plans for an urban rail line, possibly within the next five to seven years. The board voted to [...]
Metro gets more light rail funds
From the US Department of Transit: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced $1.58 billion for 27 transit projects nationwide that will improve public transportation access for millions of Americans while reducing our dependence on foreign oil and curbing air pollution. “Investing in a modern transportation network is a key part of President Obama’s strategy [...]
More on Metro’s rail to Fort Bend plan
Here’s a story from the first of the public meetings Metro is holding on the proposed US90A rail line to Fort Bend. Planners of a proposed project to extend light rail service from Houston to Missouri City are hopeful about securing $1 million federal funding for the undertaking. Kimberly Slaughter, senior vice president of the [...]
Metro in the President’s budget
They did all right. Houston Metro’s expansion is getting a $200 million boost in Obama’s budget request to Congress. The money for the North Corridor and the Southeast Corridor projects is $50 million more than the $150 million set aside by Obama in his last two budget proposals. The Metro project is part of a [...]
We’ll take it if you don’t want it
Dallas would like the FTA to know that they will gladly take any federal streetcar funds that Fort Worth doesn’t want. That’s the message the Regional Transportation Council, with the support of Dallas leaders, is sending to the Federal Transit Administration this month in the wake of Fort Worth’s decision to shelve its streetcar plan. [...]
Metro restarts some light rail construction
As if to punctuate Gilbert Garcia’s op-ed, the news for Metro at the start of 2011 is good. Last month, the Federal Transit Administration sent the first $50 million of the grant money for use on the North and Southeast lines. Last week, the FTA issued pre-clearance letters Metro needed before it could proceed with [...]
Garcia writes about the New Metro
Metro Board Chair Gilbert Garcia wrote an op-ed for the Sunday Chron that outlined what Metro did in 2010 and plans to do in 2011. If you’ve already listened to my interview with Garcia and Board member Christof Spieler, what he has to say will be familiar. And if you haven’t listened to it, you [...]
Metro reaches settlement with CAF
Fresh from the inbox: The Metropolitan Transit Authority announced today that it has reached a settlement with CAF USA, Inc. (a subsidiary of the Spanish Firm Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, S.A.) over two disputed contracts for the construction of light rail cars for its North and Southeast Corridor lines. Under the agreement, the contracts [...]
Moving on at Metro
Frank Wilson is gone at Metro, and others are following him out the door. “A number of the senior appointees that Frank Wilson brought in are no longer here,” said George Greanias, Wilson’s successor, but he did not describe it as a purge. The positions of the five people who have left were abolished, and [...]
The Bill King alternative to light rail
In case you missed it, Bill King wrote a column lat week that was based on an email exchange he had with me awhile back in which he laid out his alternate vision for what Metro ought to be doing. Some of the items on his list are things I’d support, like adding amenities to [...]
Metro to try mediation with CAF
Whatever works. The Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to negotiate the cancellation of a $331 million contract with a Spanish rail car manufacturer through mediation, local transit bosses said Wednesday. That is why, despite the agency’s announced intention to cancel the contract, no action [was] proposed on [Thursday's] agenda, explained Metro President George Greanias and board [...]
Feds reject CAF’s review request
I smell a lawsuit coming. Federal officials on Friday rejected a Metro contractor’s bid to preserve its $330 million deal to supply rail cars, setting the stage for possible litigation over the soon-to-be-canceled contract. Dorval R. Carter Jr., the chief counsel of the Federal Transit Administration, said the contractor, CAF USA, failed to provide any [...]
How Metro nearly cost itself $900 million
It’s an impressive feat, for some sense of the word. In the first months of the procurement process, documents show, [former Metro CEO Frank] Wilson intended to use local rather than federal funds to buy the light-rail vehicles, possibly in the hope that this would avert the need to comply with federal requirements. “FJW (Wilson) [...]
CAF asks FTA to reconsider
Don’t know how much good this will do them, but I guess it can’t hurt to try. Metro’s rail car contractor formally asked federal officials Friday to reconsider their decision that the company’s $330 million contract must be canceled in order to preserve federal funding for light-rail expansion in Houston. The company, CAF USA, said [...]
Metro responds to FTA, and CAF responds to Metro
Over the weekend, Metro posted a letter from CEO George Greanias to the FTA in response to the findings of the FTA from their investigation into Buy America compliance. Basically, Metro says they agree with the FTA’s findings, have issued to a stop-work notification to Spanish vendor CAF, and will work to terminate their contract [...]
Add another year to the construction schedule
Metro may have dodged a bullet with the FTA, but they’re still going to feel the effect of the federal agency’s decision in the Buy America case. The Metropolitan Transit Authority today retracted its acting president’s statement that the agency could complete construction of three rail lines by October 2013, saying a delay of up [...]
FTA gives Metro a second chance
That sound you hear is a bullet whizzing past Metro’s ear Metro violated federal laws in making a deal with a Spanish company to purchase 103 rail cars, and must re-bid the purchase in order to qualify for a $900 million grant, the nation’s top transit official said today. Peter Rogoff, the administrator of the [...]
More on Metro’s finances
The Chron reports on Metro’s current financial situation. I think you can largely sum this up as follows: “Clearly, Metro is burning through its cash,” said Steven Craig, a University of Houston economics professor specializing in public finance. Craig said the declines in Metro’s reserves are “frightening” because its growing light rail network will require [...]
Metro’s cash crunch
From last week, a story about how times are tough at Metro. Facing a $49 million budget shortfall this fiscal year, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has begun to slow construction on two light rail lines and may embrace more drastic measures in the coming months as uncertainty grows over a $800 million grant from the [...]
Metro gets record of decision for University line
Very good news. Metro has received word that final approval has been given concerning the environmental review process for the University light-rail line. “Houston clearly needs the University Line as an East-West transit artery,” said George Greanias, action president and CEO of the transit agency. “We’re extremely gratified the FTA has taken a big step [...]
DA clears Metro
Nice. Months after prosecutors took boxes of documents from Metro’s downtown headquarters and experts examined the agency’s computers, the investigation into allegations that Metropolitan Transit Authority administrators illegally destroyed public documents has ended, Metro officials said today. In a letter to METRO, the Harris County District Attorney’s office wrote, “Our investigation found no evidence of [...]
Fort Worth gets streetcar funds
Good for them, though they’re not quite ready to jump on it yet. A downtown streetcar loop could be in Fort Worth’s near future, but the City Council has some serious issues to consider first. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that an “urban circulator” project submitted by the city and Fort Worth Transit Authority [...]
More “Buy America” complications
From the “It’s always something with Metro” department: The Federal Transit Administration plans to deny the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s request for a waiver from Buy America rules in connection with [a $15.8 million radio equipment] radio purchase from Motorola, FTA spokesman Paul Griffo said. “During hard economic times, the Obama administration’s goal for taxpayer funds [...]
The 290 FEIS
The prep work for the expansion/overhaul of US290 is entering its final stages. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed transportation improvements on the US 290/Hempstead Corridor is now available for review. The proposed US 290 Program Corridor begins at the IH 610/US 290/IH 10 Interchange in Houston, TX and extends northwestward to [...]
Metro responds to FTA letter about “Buy America”
As we know, Metro had received a letter from the FTA that challenged its compliance with the FTA’s “Buy America” requirement due to Metro’s agreement to buy two prototype light rail cars that would be built in Spain. Metro has now responded to that letter and produced some rather compelling evidence that their actions did [...]