As we know, Metro is preparing for a referendum this fall on the status of the general mobility fund, which is one fourth of the sales tax revenue Metro collects and which goes to Metro member cities for road projects. Metro Board Chair Gilbert Garcia has suggested freezing the payments after 2014, with any future [...]
Posts Tagged ‘light rail’
Can we please call a critic a critic?
Metro had a public meeting on Thursday to address the question of the diversion of transit funds to cities for road projects, which is expected to be a referendum topic this fall. The Chron has a story about the meeting that contains the following facepalm-inducing paragraphs: Resident Thomas Bazan said many residents don’t support the [...]
The B-Cycle era begins
At long last, Houston’s B-Cycle program officially kicked off last week. Mayor Annise Parker, an occasional bicyclist, called the federally-funded program “a quick, easy alternative to being stuck in traffic or walking long distances in downtown.” She said the bicycles may help familiarize residents with downtown, an area she said many still consider “foreign territory.” [...]
Metro comes to a fork in the road
Which way will they go? It’s up to them, and it’s up to us. The Metropolitan Transit Authority is preparing for a referendum, likely to be on the November ballot, asking voters to decide whether to put millions more of their sales tax dollars toward transit or continue diverting part of it for road projects [...]
Houston area transit preferences in 2012
The 2012 Houston Area Survey is in the can, and though the data has not been published to their website yet, there have been a few preview tidbits tossed out to whet everyone’s appetite. One of them has to do with attitudes about transit and neighborhoods. But perhaps the most dramatic change, [Rice professor Stephen] [...]
What’s to become of the downtown post office?
Lisa Gray writes about the future of the downtown post office on Franklin. In the past couple of years, there have been rumblings that the U.S. Postal Service plans to leave 401 Franklin and sell the 16-acre complex – a prospect that sets developers, architects and planners atremble. It’s not just that the parcel of [...]
Football season is over, but political football season never ends
It never even reaches the two minute warning. The committee chairman described it as a “food fight,” an after-midnight bout as Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold tried to jimmy legislation to block federal money for Metro to build or extend the University and Uptown light rail lines. In the end, his effort failed. But the wrangling [...]
Meet the new rail debate, same as the old rail debate
I feel like I’ve heard all this before. Opponents of the planned downtown streetcar system said Tuesday that county officials broke a promise with voters when they agreed to use advanced transportation district funds to help fund the project. The group contends that multiple pieces of campaign literature used to promote the ATD tax in [...]
There is nothing but highways
More bad policy coming from the Republicans in Congress. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday the House GOP’s highway spending plan is “the worst transportation bill” he’s seen in decades. “This is the most partisan transportation bill that I have ever seen,” LaHood said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO. “And it also is the [...]
Houston Central Station
This is pretty cool. [Last Tuesday], the Houston Downtown Management District hosted a competition featuring designs from five award-winning architectural firms. The challenge: to design an iconic new Central Station – Main on Main Street between Capitol and Rusk. The station would also be the transfer point for three light-rail lines. The five invited firms [...]
Thinking outside the box on the city’s finances
We’ve seen the ideas generated by the Long Term Financial Management Task Force, which I thought lacked a certain amount of breadth to its perspective. Here’s a taste of what else might be out there to think about. Good Jobs Great Houston, of which the Houston Organization of Public Employees is a member, held a [...]
Council approves B-Cycle, and other bike news
One other item that Council approved on its last day of business for the year was to clear the way for the city to start up bike sharing with B-cycle. As you know, I’ve been following this along, and am delighted to see this milestone. I look forward to the official launch, hopefully some time [...]
The Bellaire “urban transit village”
Very interesting. Nearly a year in the drafting, a sweeping change to Bellaire’s zoning laws creating an “urban transit village” where there is now a collection of nondescript warehouses will soon be before City Council. On Nov. 1, the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission unanimously voted to recommend Council approval of the zoning ordinance they’ve [...]
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 [...]
Apartment boom coming
I have many things to say about this. High occupancies and rising rents for apartments are driving a new wave of development in Houston’s high-end urban neighborhoods. More than 3,500 units in a dozen complexes are under construction primarily inside the 610 Loop and around the Galleria. Nearly 8,700 more are proposed, according to Houston-based [...]
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 [...]
Construction pains
I feel for the people and businesses that are being affected by Metro’s light rail construction. I wish that these large construction projects could be done without that kind of disruption, but it happens, and it sucks. What amazed me in reading this story was what some of those folks had to say about it: [...]
Hempstead commuter rail update
Here’s a look at how commuter rail along 290 might work. Commuter trains from Hempstead to Houston could start running by 2019 if the Gulf Coast Rail District can secure $300 million and if Union Pacific Railroad lets passenger cars use its track along Hempstead Highway. It would be the Houston area’s first commuter rail [...]
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 approves long term transit plan
The board of VIA Metropolitan Transit, the transit agency for San Antonio, has unanimously approved a long term roadmap that will bring rail construction to the city. San Antonio is the largest city in the U.S. with a bus-only transit system, according to the plan. The city’s only previous electric streetcar system was discontinued in [...]
City asks Metro for Harrisburg underpass
From the Inbox: Houston Mayor and METRO Seek Common Ground on East End Line Resolution of Harrisburg/Hughes Streets Over/Under Question Becomes a Milestone The city of Houston has concluded there is “strong sentiment” within the East End community for an underpass at Harrisburg/Hughes St. and has requested METRO’s Board of Directors vote in support of a [...]
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 [...]
East End community meeting to consider Harrisburg grade separation
From the Inbox: East End community meeting to consider Harrisburg grade separation Wednesday, June 15 Union Pacific’s East Belt rail subdivision is one of the busiest in the city, carrying more than 30 freight trains a day through Houston’s East End. For years, the crossing at Harrisburg has created delays and headaches for motorists and [...]
The Austin rail debate
The city of Austin is gearing up for another debate about how and where – and if – to build more rail there. This is the third time since 2000 that they’ve gone through such a debate. This AusChron story gives a good summary of where they are now and what may come next. Those [...]
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 [...]
Bye-bye, intermodal center
In the process of writing off some bad assets in what one hopes is the last ritual cleansing of the Frank Wilson era, Metro says good-bye to something we hadn’t heard of in awhile. Metro has given up on what it calls an intermodal terminal just north of downtown at Main and Burnett streets on [...]
Why aren’t we investing more in non-road transportation?
Houston Tomorrow has some disturbing news. A proposal to limit bike, pedestrian, and livability funding in the 2011 Transportation Improvement Program will come before the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Council (TPC) this Friday, February 25, at a public meeting in the H-GAC building at 3555 Timmons on the 2nd floor in Conference Room A. The proposal [...]
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 [...]
Metro seeks input for commuter rail line to Fort Bend
Metro is taking another step forward on the commuter rail line along US 90A to Fort Bend County that was part of the 2003 Metro Solutions referendum. Kimberly Slaughter, Senior Vice President of Service Design & Development for Metro, unveiled the project’s design at a press conference [Monday] morning. The train — known clunkily as [...]
How Houston commutes
Great post from Greg that looks at how people in some Census tracts get to work. One point to highlight: The Solo Drivers … This is an obviously large portion of the population. But there are some very interesting variations in the extent to which different parts of town score on this count. In general, [...]
Dynamo Stadium groundbreaking today
I presume things will be sufficiently de-iced for the ceremony today at 2 PM at the stadium site in the East End. The stadium will have 22,000 seats, and the expansion capacity will be 30,000 over 340,000 square feet. Populous, which was previously called HOK Sports, also designed Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and Reliant [...]