Tag: Metro

Proposed Developments
06/07/12 6:46pm

Missouri City Rail Route: To Bellfort or Not To Bellfort?

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Public Transportation
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A public meeting at the Together We Stand Christian Church tonight is the third of 4 Metro has scheduled to discuss the possible route of a new 9-mile light-rail leg connecting Missouri City to the southernmost stop on the existing light-rail line, roughly paralleling US Route 90A. Metro isn’t anticipating construction of the extension before 2017, but there are a couple of kinks to consider: The main difference between the 2 route alternatives being considered is the northeast end of the journey. The first alternative (above) jogs off 90A to follow Bellfort into the existing Fannin South rail station, while the second (below) takes the Holmes Rd. route in:

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Public Transportation
05/15/12 12:06pm

This Is the How They Roll: Transit Boyz Take the Rap for Metro

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Transportation
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The hip-hop spokeskids for Houston’s transportation agency are out with their second CD — though, as Houston Press music editor Chris Gray notes, it appears that in at least one video by the Transit Boyz, the rapping progeny of Metro employees have been replaced by puppets. Puppets modeled after the Beastie Boys. A few other references are thrown in too: “We like big buses and we cannot lie.” Yes, they really did just say that.

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Art
03/15/12 9:38pm

Metro Marks the East End Line’s Halfway Point

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Magnolia Park, New Construction, Transportation
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In honor of “nearly” reaching what it describes as the halfway point in constructing the new East End light-rail line, Metro is releasing this rendering showing what it’ll look like when riders reach the track’s end. It’s a view of the station at the Magnolia Park Transit Center on Harrisburg at 70th St., the line’s easternmost reach. For the most part, the basic structure of each station will be identical steel constructions with glass canopies — much as they are on the existing Main St. line.

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Buying and Selling
02/10/12 3:54pm

Metro Buying Tiny Post Oak Parcel To Use for Uptown Line, Someday

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Galleria, Transportation
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Note: Story corrected below.

Houston’s transit agency is scheduled to close next month on the twice-delayed $550,000 purchase of a 3,589-sq.-ft. strip of land across Post Oak Blvd. from the Waterwall Park — even though the Uptown Line, the light-rail line the land would be used for, isn’t part of its current construction contract, and isn’t even expected to be complete before 2020, according to Metro documents. Negotiated under the real-estate happy regime of Metro’s previous administration, under Metro’s current administration, under an authorization approved by its earlier real-estate-happy board, the contract Metro signed for the property at 3009 Post Oak prohibits the agency from backing out of the purchase — even if its plans or route alignment have changed. But a Metro spokesperson tells Memorial Examiner reporter Michael Reed that the purchase still makes sense, and turns out to be a less expensive option for it than using eminent domain to acquire the parcel later. Going up next door to the site: a 20-story office tower for its owner, the U.S. subsidiary of Swedish development firm Skanska.

Photo: Memorial Examiner

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Downtown
02/01/12 10:00am

5 Designs for Houston’s New Main St. Central Station

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Proposed Developments, Transportation
23 Comments

The reddish steel structure shown here is UH architecture grad Neil Denari‘s design for the new light-rail transfer station on Main St. between Capitol and Rusk downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines currently under construction will intersect with the existing rail line. Besides Denari, whose firm is based in LA, 3 New York and 1 local architecture firm were invited to dream up schemes for the long open-air, 11-ft.-wide rail platform. A jury selected by Metro will pick the winning design, but Metro is still asking for rider comments on each of them.

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Downtown
12/28/11 11:37am

The North Line Bridge Is Up

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Near Northside, New Construction, Public Transportation
21 Comments

Reader Heidi Hagen’s photos of construction on the North Line along N. Main St. north of UH-Downtown show the new bridge that’s “popped up outta nowhere” around Hogan St. No, there’s no rainbow at the north end of Downtown, but if you look carefully from the right far vantage point can see the elevated concrete and steel construction that’ll be carrying an extension to the existing rail line over the Union Pacific railroad tracks to further points north: Lindale Park, the Northline Transit Center, and 6 other newly named stations. More bridge pix from earlier in the month:

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Public Transportation
12/20/11 7:04pm

Either/Or: New Metro Station Names Welcome Commuters with Healthy Supply of Slashes

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20 Comments

16 of the 25 official station names announced today for Metro’s new East End and Southeast light-rail lines and North Line extension include slashes. No, you won’t need to choose between Cesar Chavez and 67th Street: The Cesar Chavez/67th St. station will honor both. Same for MacGregor Park/MLK. The term “EaDo” has made it on to a station name — but only as part of the EaDo/Stadium team — not to be called “EaDo Stadium” of course, since Spanish bank BBVA Compass just paid a lot of money for the exclusive naming rights to the new soccer venue.

A few other station names you’ll want to be careful with:

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New Construction
10/28/11 11:09am

Laying Down Tracks at Metro’s 72-Hour Harrisburg and Lockwood Rave

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Public Transportation, Streetscapes
10 Comments

From those rockin’ dudes at Metro, moving to their own beat: a timelapse view of last weekend’s marathon Friday night to Monday morning East End Line construction project at the intersection of Harrisburg and Lockwood. (Traffic lanes and utilities had already been installed.) The beat goes on. . . .

Video: Metro

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Public Transportation
08/11/11 11:46am

There Goes Your Popular Low-Cost Airport Shuttle Service, Houston

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Quicklink
10 Comments

THERE GOES YOUR POPULAR LOW-COST AIRPORT SHUTTLE SERVICE, HOUSTON Saturday, August 20th will be the last day for Metro bus 500, the half-hourly Airport Direct route from Downtown to IAH. Metro’s board voted to end the service last month because of low ridership and continuing revenue losses. A reduction in fare from $15 to $4.50 and the addition of several hotels to the route this past January increased the number of riders but “did not reach a level where the service could be sustained,” according to a Metro statement. The service had been in operation for 3 years. Committed Metro airport passengers will still be able to ride the 102 bus, which costs just $1.25 — but it’s not an express route. [more info; previously on Swamplot]

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New Construction
08/09/11 1:58pm

Metro Rail Gets Back on Track Tomorrow

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Public Transportation
66 Comments

Has it really been 10 whole years since any new tracks have been laid for any Houston light-rail lines? Not exactly. It’s been 9 years and 11 months. To celebrate the occasion, Metro is holding a small ceremony tomorrow to place the concrete base for the very first tracks on the new Southeast, or “Purple” line. Tomorrow’s morning pour will take place at 2979 McKinney St. near Ennis in East Downtown, but the 6.6-mile Southeast Line will run all the way from a new station on Smith St. to the Palm Center, with stops at Fannin (change here for the existing “Red” line), Crawford (baseball, anyone?), Bastrop (soccer?), Leeland, Elgin then Scott St. (both at the western edge of UH, crossing the path of the proposed University Line), Wheeler and MLK (on the other side of campus), and MacGregor Park along the way:

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Quicklink
07/28/11 1:15pm

Lonely at the Top

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Transportation
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LONELY AT THE TOP Metro president George Greanias will receive a “more stringent punishment” than normal for his first-time offense: viewing “sites of a sexual nature” on his personal computer, using the transit agency’s internet connection. Board chairman Gilbert Garcia praised Greanias’s performance in improving “transit services, morale, and community relations” in his 15 months on the job but said “the community must have confidence that the New Metro will be open and transparent.” Greanias will be suspended from his job for the next week without pay. [Hair Balls]

Real Estate Marketing
05/06/11 12:13pm

Metro Asks for Help Coming Up with Names for Already Named Light Rail Stations

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Transportation
25 Comments

See that map up there, showing all the stations on Metro’s planned light-rail lines? Metro is asking the public for help naming those stations. But not the stations that don’t have any names indicated next to them — the transit agency isn’t quite yet ready to get to those. No, Metro wants your help choosing names for the stations that are already marked with names. Like, the “Burnett Transit Center.” What should that station be named? Anyone? Anyone? And how about the one marked “Boundary”? Any suggestions? Spicoli?

This is, of course, the best kind of call for submissions. If you can do better than what they’ve already got, go ahead! If you can’t beat what’s there already, why bother? And you can get an idea what the fallback is gonna be, if all the suggestions suck. Just think what we might have ended up calling East Downtown if that naming “contest” had been pitched like this: Yeah, we’re threatening to name this area EaDo — unless you stop us, with something better. How well would that have worked?

You can get a sense of where the stations are planned for the new North, East End, and Southeast Lines from these maps:

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Buying and Selling
03/31/11 4:38pm

How Hakeem Olajuwon Sold Metro $5.6 Million of Swampland for Just $15 Million

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Downtown, Land Sales
27 Comments

In 2005, Houston’s transportation agency agreed to pay $15 million for 17.3 acres of flood-prone land along the northern bank of White Oak Bayou just north of Downtown, reports the West University Examiner‘s Michael Reed. Former Houston Rockets and UH basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon had purchased the property from the Union Pacific Railroad for an estimated $2 million six years earlier. But even more eye-popping than Olajuwon’s roughly estimated $13 million profit on the sale is this little nugget: A separate appraisal — conducted the same year as the sale — valued the property at only $2.6 million.

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Downtown
02/23/11 5:30pm

The Airport Direct Shuttle’s Long Goodbye

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IAH, Quicklink, Transportation
14 Comments

THE AIRPORT DIRECT SHUTTLE’S LONG GOODBYE After a ride on Metro’s newly discounted but still cold-as-a-meat-locker Downtown-to-IAH shuttle, Texas Watchdog reporter Steve Miller hears from an Airport Direct staffer just how last-ditch an effort last month’s price cut was. The new $4.50 one-way fare has increased revenue only slightly, the staffer reports, “but it will have to do more or the plug will be pulled in June.” In less-direct language, a Metro spokesperson backs up that statement. [Texas Watchdog; previously on Swamplot]

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Near Northside
02/22/11 1:07pm

What’s Left of the Burnett Transit Center

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Proposed Developments, Transportation
25 Comments

Has Metro ever made a more expensive mistake than spending $42 million on a contract with a Spanish rail-car construction firm that violated federal procurement rules? Now that the American subsidiary of Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles has agreed to return $14 million of that money, the answer is yes: That would be the $41 million Houston’s transit agency reports it spent on developing an intermodal terminal at the corner of Main and Burnett streets just north of Downtown. Metro CEO George Greanias confirms the agency has given up on the design (above), which would have included a giant octopus-like dome, bus bays, a commuter rail terminal, a “kiss-and-ride” area, and maybe a Metro RideStore, restrooms, newsstands, food stands, and gift shops. There will still be a Burnett Transit Center station with a North Line rail stop, but Greanias tells the Chronicle‘s Chris Moran the trashed design would have been too expensive to run. Metro may have even killed the bus station part: Greanias says they haven’t decided whether any other modes of transit will connect to the light-rail line at that location.

Image: Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects

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