The METRO Solutions transit plan for better mobility calls for the creation and improvement of numerous transportation options over the next 20 years:
72 miles of additional rail service, 50% more bus service, Signature Express bus service, 250 miles of two-way, all day Park & Ride service, nine new Park & Ride lots, nine new Transit Centers, and more!
Laid out in the presentation are pages with maps of transit services that will be eliminated, or modified so that the routes feed into the METRO rail.
“The plan is designed to integrate the rail system with the overall transit system, to make the maximum use of both buses and rail,” said METRO spokesperson Ken Connaughton.
Effective Monday, April 4, METRO will discontinue three Local bus routes and the two Downtown Trolley routes due to low performance. These routes were given six months’ probation last fall, with the understanding that unless ridership on the routes improved during the probationary period, they would face discontinuation.
The Metro board’s decision to curtail the bus, one of several either eliminated outright or on weekdays or weekends, hasn’t gone down well with several of the riders who say they depend on the bus to get to work. About 1,000 of them signed a petition asking Metro to reconsider the decision, signatures Peterson received Oct. 20.
The plan White and Metro unveiled includes some elements that go beyond what voters approved in the November 2003 Metro Solutions referendum, but other aspects were scaled back to reduce costs.
Bus rapid transit, which uses buses running on their own guideways, would be substituted for light rail in the initial phases of the North, Southeast and Harrisburg corridors and in a corridor through the Uptown-Galleria area from the Northwest Transit Center to the vicinity of Westpark and S. Rice.
The implementation plan also includes more miles of commuter rail than were in the Referendum plan, as well as 40 miles of Signature Express/Suburban BRT instead of 14.
The net result is 97 miles of rapid transit instead of the 36 envisioned in METRO Solutions.
Metro spokesman George Smalley said the revised plan would provide “equivalent service” to light rail until the changeover. “Everything is the same except for the wheels,” he said.
Trust us:
Smalley said the changes are covered by a footnote to the ballot resolution that says: “Final scope, length of rail segments or lines, and other details, together with implementation schedule, will be based upon demand and completion of the project development process including community input.”
Voters will be able to hold Metro accountable throughout the process because they will have the opportunity to vote to continue funding based on their experience with Metro Solutions up to that point.
ARTHUR LOUIS SCHECHTER, Chairman, Metropolitan Transit Authority
[Metro CEO Frank Wilson] said the changes will not require another referendum.
As part of its $2 billion initiative, Metro is proposing to run an east-west light rail line between the University of Houston’s central campus through Greenway Plaza to the Uptown-Galleria area.
Some say that line could lure more companies to the Galleria and Greenway business districts.
“Traffic is so bad that some people just shy away,” said David Wolff, Metro’s chairman, who also runs a land development company based in the Galleria area.
The big-ticket item in Wilson’s presentation, which has not been scheduled for a vote, is the purchase of 15 more rail cars for about $58 million.
“It’s the happy price of success,” he said. “It happened a lot sooner than we expected. We’re running 18 cars a day now — every car every day.”
Fare box revenue for March 2005 was $2.2 million. Fare box revenue for March 2004 was $4.5 million.
[T]otal system ridership in March was a bit over 8 million riders, a decline of 3.3 percent from March 2004 (8.3 million riders, system-wide). March 2005 bus ridership declined more than nine percent, compared to March 2004.
There’s a “shocking” problem with Metro’s Main Street train which officials are trying to keep hush-hush.
Electric current is apparently straying from Metro’s overhead power lines and eating away at some nearby material, including metal rail anchors at bridges over Buffalo and Brays Bayous, six track switches and two concrete-paved areas along the rail line.
The report notes Metro performed no “baseline” testing of electric current before it started running passenger rail service because it was in a hurry to get the line started.
[Metro CEO Frank] Wilson replied, “My responsibility is to move the project forward. I can’t blame those who came before me.”
