The latest story on Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck’s proposed University line route is a bit strange. Not because of Rad Sallee’s reporting, but because of the material he has to work with:
Houston Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck apologized Monday to residents from neighborhoods in the Museum District for the impression that she is pushing a light rail plan that would raze some of their homes for the tracks.
Instead, she said, her proposal would place the tracks outside the sound walls that separate the neighborhood from the north side of the Southwest Freeway, with the tracks overhanging part of the freeway. The plan is an option to avoid laying the tracks on nearby Richmond Avenue.
[snip]
Clutterbuck explained that while driving on Dallas’ North Central Expressway she had seen a light rail line suspended over the wall of the freeway and asked Metropolitan Transit Authority officials to consider a similar arrangement here.
“Metro showed me their plan and said ‘you’d take all these houses,’ but I said, ‘You’re not listening — that’s not what I’m asking. You wouldn’t have to take all those houses if it’s cantilevered.”
Morgan Lyons, spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, said he consulted with a DART engineer and neither of them could think of a DART line suspended as described. Lyons said parts of the system are elevated over freeways at crossings or run parallel to freeways, possibly appearing cantilevered when seen from a car.
[snip]
Glen Eisen, who lives on Castle Court a block north of the freeway, said that even if the rail were suspended, Metro would still have to take some homes to reach Main. Clutterbuck said she had not investigated how Metro might accomplish that transition or how the cantilever technique would affect the signature bridges over the freeway.
Well, this has certainly cleared everything up. Suspend the tracks just like Dallas did…except that Dallas didn’t do that.
But this confusion isn’t Councilwoman Clutterbuck’s fault; it’s Rep. John Culberson’s fault. Really!
Doug Childers, president of www.richmondrail.org, joked that “when we said put the rail where the people are, we didn’t mean this.” He blamed the confusion in part on U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, for announcing his opposition to a Richmond route last week before studies were completed.
Speaking of confusion, that would be the same Doug Childers who works for a firm that wants to capitalize on light-rail development. We need a scorecard to keep track of all this.
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