COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TRAIN WILL GET YOU TO THE AIRPORTS — SOMEDAY “Rail to Hobby and IAH is still in the long term plan, though, given the uncertainties of funding, there’s no way anyone can give a date. Hobby is likely first in line, since it’s closer and there’s a lot more population nearby that would also benefit from the connection. And the first step is there — get on Harrisburg at the end of the east end line and just stay on the same lane and you’ll end up at the Hobby Airport parking garage.” [Christof Spieler, commenting on What Southwest Wants To Make Hobby Airport Look Like]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Los Angeles did not get a rail link to LAX because the owners of the off-site parking lots around the airport were afraid of losing their business to transit passengers. It would not surprise me if a similar attempt were tried in Houston should METRO ever try to extend LRT to Hobby.
I think Dallas runs heavy rail out to DFW in the form of the Trinity Railway Express, a distance of about 17 miles. If Houston were to try to link up IAH, heavy rail would make more sense considering the distance to downtown is about 22 miles.
Yuck. Last thing I’d ever want to try unless the bag fees get so high I just travel with a back back.
DART’s (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) orange line will extend to DFW late next year. Sadly, that’s one for Dallas.
The Philadelphia airport line on SEPTA is one of the area’s greatest assets.
A pipe dream.
DART in Dallas runs to SWA headquarters in Dallas but not to the Love Field Terminal! How about that?
DART expects to extend their line to DFW in the near future. In the meantime they provide a bus from the end of the line to DFW.
Rail to HOU and/or IAH. ..give ’em another 20 years.
DART has a bus line from the Inwood rail station to the Love terminal, which is a shorter ride than AirBART in Oakland. And, @ Craig, it’s not that big a nuisance – I’ve ridden BART during Bay Area rush hour with a full week’s worth of paddling and camping gear. The longest slog is usually carrying all that stuff out of the terminal (well, there WAS the time we had a miscommunication about when my flight got in, and I had quite the laden stroll through some of the finer parts of Berkeley).
After the current METRO lines are finished, the resulting low ridership will result in no more lines being built.
Houston will never build rail where it makes sense, like paralleling freeways and extending out to the burbs. There are rail cities and there are car cities, Houston is, and will always be, a car city.
This cities inability to get anything done still amazes me.
I’m sure they’ll start laying track the same day they tear down the Astrodome, right? I agree with @Zzzzz – Disney working with George Lucas couldn’t come up with that level of fantasy.
doesnt METRO regular buses go to both airports?
not sure about existing bus routes now, but if you were referring to the direct link to IAH from downtown then that shut down a few years back after the city threw a couple million down the drain on it. no demand for it apparently.
There is currently no bus service from IAH to downtown Houston. There are 2 routes from Hobby that stop in downtown, but neither is an express service and they both take around 50 to 55 minutes to hit downtown. A car takes about 20 minutes.
The issue that killed the express service from IAH was that few if any residents took the service, since you would have to take a bus or hitch a ride with a friend from where ever you live to downtown, to then take a bus north. Visitors to our city headed downtown are more likely to be conventioneers or business people with a meeting downtown who can easily justify the expense of a taxi or rental car for their transportation. As a stand alone service, the bus wasn’t very economical.
The 102 goes all the way from downtown to IAH, but it’s not an express route and takes over an hour to get there. That’s actually not that bad when you factor in the fact that you don’t have to screw with parking.
I used to take the Airport Express from downtown to IAH frequently. I’d usually walk or bike a little over half a mile to the rail and take that to downtown to catch the Express. There is technically still bus service, but if I recall, it literally makes over a hundred stops and takes about two hours—it functionally does not exist.
Now I just drive and park. Sigh. Houston leaves me with no other practical option, even though I want and would use (and did use) one.