East End civic groups want Metro to include two extensions in the new $2 billion expansion plan:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s plans fail to capitalize on the potential for riders in the East End, which has a predominately [sic] low-income Hispanic population, said Gilbert Moreno, president and CEO of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans and leader of the committee, which is called the East End Transit Task Force.
“We’re amazed that after all of the planning Metro has done and all the changes they’ve made, they still haven’t pushed (proposed rail lines) further east,” Moreno said.
“If they don’t include the East End in these plans, then they owe the people in this area a refund.”
Moreno and business leaders and organizations such as the East End Chamber of Commerce and the Greater East End Management District began discussions shortly after the November 2003 referendum was passed.
They later formed the committee to press their ideas and eventually proposed two extensions of the transit system’s Harrisburg Corridor.
The corridor begins downtown and ends at the Magnolia Transit Center in the East End, but Moreno said the lone light rail line that has been proposed in Metro’s plan would lack connectivity to the rest of the system in southeast Houston.
The committee’s answer would be a light rail line that begins at the Harrisburg/Lockwood intersection and heads south on Lockwood toward Elgin, which is where Metro’s East-West Corridor is expected to be charted.
The group also proposed either “signature” bus or bus rapid transit routes that would begin at the Magnolia Transit Center and head south along 75th street and Evergreen to the Houston Community College/Gulfgate Transit Center.
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Metro spokesman George Smalley said the authority’s planning staff is evaluating the committee’s proposed routes.
