Here’s a little handy graphic from Mayor Parker’s Metro transition task force, identifying what the team considers “major unresolved design issues” in the planned East End, Southeast, University, and Uptown light-rail lines. Attempts to resolve all 6 of them appear to be “bogged down” at the Metro staff level, according to the task force committee. Each problem might delay construction or increase cost, and each has already been “actively discussed” for at least a year.
What are they?
- the Downtown alignments of the East End Line and Southeast Line on Capital and Rusk streets as they cross the Main Street Line;
- how the East End and Southeast Lines and car traffic will flow around the proposed Dynamo Stadium site in East Downtown;
- how grade separation will work with a freight-rail crossing on the East End Line on Harrisburg near Hughes St.;
- details of the Southeast and University Lines near the University of Houston along Scott St.;
- how the University Line will cross and interact with Main Street Line at the Wheeler station in Midtown; and
- the design of the Uptown Line north of San Felipe, along the 610 West Loop.
Oh, and then there’s this little bit about finding the money to build it all:
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As long as Metro can resolve issues with the city concerning payments from its General Mobility Program, “funding appears sufficient” for the North, Southeast, and East End lines, the task force’s funding structure committee reports. But:
Hurdles remain for funding of the five line system. Funding threshold for five line[s] gets easier if Uptown line is delayed/deleted.
“We know there will be sufficient funding to build three new rail lines” were the words Mayor Parker chose to use at a press conference yesterday where she introduced her choices for 5 new members of the Metro board and released the task force reports. “However, hurdles remain for funding a five line system. I am committed to five lines, but we may need to proceed in phases.â€
A press release from the mayor’s office adds:
The Obama Administration’s budget proposal currently includes $900 million in federal funding for the North and Southeast Light Rail Lines. The East End Line, the only line already under construction, and the Uptown Line are to be funded locally. The University Line will also require federal funding. The current best guess estimate of when that funding might be approved is 2014.
- Task force finds ‘hurdles’ funding 5 light rail lines [Bellaire Examiner]
- Fed transportation secretary wants new leadership for Houston Metro, mayor says [Texas Watchdog]
- Mayor Annise Parker Names Five New Metro Appointees / Releases Metro Transition Team Reports [Mayor’s Office]
- Previously on Swamplot: Getting Around the East Downtown Soccer Blockstopper
Graphic: Light Rail Punchlist Committee, Mayor’s Transition Task Force on the Metropolitan Transit Authority
I would expect that the alignment of the Uptown line near the intersection with Westheimer will become another area of concern, more so than the intersections of LRT lines near UH and Wheeler/Main. I really would like to see more about how they’re planning to keep this from becoming a major charlie foxtrot.
In other news, at least the North line looks good to go!
The Main Street/Richmond Avenue convergence is truly the number one nightmare – you have not only one rail line and a bus hub but what is still a major intersection despite Main Street no longer really existing as a major thoroughfare between Richmond and downtown. Add a second train and it will only get worse. Most are surprised that there haven’t been more accidents at the intersection although the traffic design seems to have worked. So far.
The real question is how they’re going to get the line under the bridge under the spur a block west of Main Street. Not a problem, no doubt, is what everyone will be told. Everyone was also told there would be no condemnation along Richmond. There is going to be a lot of condemnation.
The second major nightmare will be Post Oak at Westheimer. Common sense would dictate it be put in along the westside feeder. But as with Woodway, the city didn’t stop to think about future easement needs. So entire buildings would have to be demolished. Plus no one could see the pretty choo-choo train on Post Oak. So it will be on Post Oak. No doubt Elyse Lanier will add her two cents worth again about how it should look. Look is all with Metro so far. Pretty esplanades. To hell with the businesses along the street that no longer have left-turn access.
As for the federal funding, a lot of that no doubt was approved on the basis of bonds issued and propose by Gene Locke and we all know Gene Locke is number one on the hit list. So despite the claim that Washington wants new leadership, if the funding bases are changed, Washingto may want a new application. And then suddenly there will be no funding for anything.
As things stand, perhaps that might not be such a bad idea. It would save us from five additional nightmares.
And isn’t it a little late to be identifying problems in lines that supposedly have already been approved and funded and are now being constructed?
Prediction on what will be the most popular bumpersticker in Houston, and probably plastered on sides of buses, by the end of the year.
“Don’t blame me. I didn’t vote for her.”
I don’t care what they do, build it or don’t, just fix Richmond Avenue one way or the other because it’s shit now. And, “we are waiting for the rail” just doesn’t wash anymore. And while you’re at it, fix the major cut through street: COLQUITT!!!
Make it one way, no through trucks at least.
The way it is now makes is impassable.
“The East End Line, the only line already under construction”. They’ve also been working on six blocks of the Southeast Line along Scott St in EaDo, but the construction speed is apparently being throttled as it’s taken almost three months to replace the median with some asphalt for an eventual traffic shift.
And while you’re at it, fix the major cut through street: COLQUITT!!!
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Good luck. They probably will use Colquitt to park all the equipment on the weekends. Then fix it. Maybe. Depends on whether you all voted for Annise Parker or not.
A woman scorned is nothing compared to a mayor scorned.
One other question is how these “intown” lines are going to serve the “out-of-town” lines. Coming in from the planned 290 line, you will have to transfer to a bus or the Uptown line, then transfer from the Uptown line to the Richmond/Westpark line, then transfer to the Main Street line, in order to get downtown. Or just take the bus. Most will take the bus. Which means waiting possibly 30-45 minutes. One assumes, a dangerous thing in this city, that the Hwy 90 line and possibly the Clear Lake/Galveston line, might actually go downtown without having to transfer. But that isn’t real clear. But then so far nothing about Metro seems clear until after-the-fact.
As for everyone else, well, there is less bus service already and probably will be even less since they most likely will cut some more to pay for the rail lines. So how is everyone supposed to get to the rail lines so they can get somewhere?
One of the worst examples of how the city and the county don’t know what the word urban planning means is the expansion of the Katy Freeway. That should have included a rail line, alongside the freeway, from Katy to downtown. The logical place to put rail lines is alongside the freeways. But then the developers aren’t real keen about development along freeways. And Metro, of course, serves the developers. Along with the city and county officials. Of course the developers aren’t really that well served either as you can see from the disaster along Main Street. Paying $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom chi-chi box in order to live one black from rail and then having to walk four or five blocks to the rail station isn’t really what most would call a convenience. Of course if you’re lucky, you can just catch the bus outside your apartment complex. Which sort of defeats the purpose of having rail, doesn’t it? Of course at this point, hyou have to ask what the purpose of rail was and is. Not sure anyone really knows.
@Matt Mystery, you wrote:
“One of the worst examples of how the city and the county don’t know what the word urban planning means is the expansion of the Katy Freeway. That should have included a rail line, alongside the freeway, from Katy to downtown. The logical place to put rail lines is alongside the freeways. But then the developers aren’t real keen about development along freeways. And Metro, of course, serves the developers.”
If I remember right, Jim Blackburn fought with a large group to get public transport along with the freeway, but didn’t John Culberson and his friends crush that effort? I’m not sure if I would blame Metro for that; they can only do so much.
@miss_msry, Colquitt’s deplorable state is growing on me. It’s like going off-roading, any and every day of the week!
If I remember right, Jim Blackburn fought with a large group to get public transport along with the freeway, but didn’t John Culberson and his friends crush that effort? I’m not sure if I would blame Metro for that; they can only do so much.
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It was really more a matter of Bob Eckels who was focused solely on the toll road aspect than anything else and of course Metro could have forced the issue but didn’t. Probably because they didn’t really have a plan. Looking at their current plan, they still don’t really have a plan. They start to construct three new rail lines and suddenly discover there are problems.
I believe there is an easement on the north side supposedly “reserved” for an eventual line. I cannot remember. The state made some sort of concession with regard to future rail use. As for Culberson, well, he has about as much influence as a congressional page. In fact his pages probably have more influence than he does.
@MattMystery may be the only person in the city blaming Parker for design flaws at Metro that only came to light because her team brought it to light.
@MattMystery may be the only person in the city blaming Parker for design flaws at Metro that only came to light because her team brought it to light.
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Not blaming her for any such thing. She was not on the Metro board. Just the same this “oh, my, how did things become such a mess?” act about the financing aspect is a little incredulous given her 12 years as a city councilmember and as controller.
So her new board is going to wave a magic wand and solve it all? Her new board may signal to Washington that Houston does not have it together. And what funding is there may not be there as a result.
City of Houston councilmembers and controllers have absolutely no authority or responsibilities to METRO. If Parker had spent her time monitoring METRO’s finances instead of the City’s, that’d have been a misallocation of her time and resources. Now that she’s mayor, it certainly will take more than a wave of a magic wand…and step one is identifying the challenge and the options at hand. Better to start immediately than waiting for bigger problems to come downhill later on.
If anybody deserves blame for METRO having overextended its finances (and fostering a screwed up internal culture), it’s probably Bill White.
Matt Mystery needs to run for Mayor.
City of Houston councilmembers and controllers have absolutely no authority or responsibilities to METRO. If Parker had spent her time monitoring METRO’s finances instead of the City’s, that’d have been a misallocation of her time and resources.
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Well she knew enough about the problems to make them an issue while running for mayor. She just didn’t know enough to make them an issue while controller?
She kept rubber-stamping everything Bill White put in front of her. Expecting him to endorse her as mayor. Which didn’t happen. How dare he. Seems to be her real agenda. Getting back at those who didn’t endorse her and didn’t support her.
Either way it doesn’t matter – what matters is that Metro as always has proven to have created more problems than it has solved. And probably will continue to. Maybe we should try electing people to the board instead of having the mayor and county judge appoint them.
Matt Mystery needs to run for Mayor.
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Matt Mystery is very picky about who Matt Mystery associates with. Politicians are not high on the list. In fact they are not even on the list. So I wouldn’t make a very good mayor. A good monarch perhaps. Especially when it came to sending politicians to the tower and having them beheaded for ripping off the people.
Matt Mystery,
I’ve no doubt you’d be comfortable as Tyrant!
Me too, truth be told.
But that particular position isn’t available – now or ever.
Matt Mystery, you have Data! Convictions! Attention to Detail! Consider City Councilman then?
What I’m saying is that working to make things better beats griping at things as they are.
Though as an Idealist, you probably cannot lead the People.
Instead you are sentenced to frustrated Observation.
or armed Insurrection.
As a very esteemed attorney told me while I was screaming again at the Attorney General’s Office over the “Street Ordinance” in Fourth Ward, you can’t fight City Hall. Especially ours. But of course I did. And while some might say I didn’t, I won. There is affordable housing in Fourth Ward. And no condemnation of what had already been built as a result of a survey that was intended simply as a vehicle for condemnation to be rid of what little affordable housing had been built and to try to prevent any more affordable housing from being built. Of course everyone who ripped off the taxpayers got away with it. But I guess you can’t win everything, can you?
Expect absolutely nothing from either the city or the county and I guarantee you that you will not ever be disappointed.
I avoid politicians. I particularly avoid those who claim they saved Fourth Ward. All of them did everything they could to destroy it in order for the developers to turn it into River Oaks East.
Along with some preservationists who I also avoid and warn everyone about every chance I get.
John Cornyn by the way was a wonderful attorney general whose parting shot was his opinion on the question of whether TIRZ was meant to be used to improve blighted areas such as Fourth Ward or blighted areas such as Memorial City and Galleria. He went with Fourth Ward. Kind of hard to think of Galleria as blighted. But I guess it depends on how much the developer has stuck in your back pocket, slipped under the table, or shoved under the bathroom stall.
I have no idea what happened to John Cornyn when he went to Washington. I suppose he smelled the money finally and became a politician.
As for making change, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar I suppose but sometimes a fly swatter works best.
By the way did the Houston Chronicle run this little story?
Is that graphic online somewhere? I’d like to get a closer look at the routes.
From TheNiche:
City of Houston councilmembers and controllers have absolutely no authority or responsibilities to METRO. If Parker had spent her time monitoring METRO’s finances instead of the City’s, that’d have been a misallocation of her time and resources.
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With 200 million in new debt issued while Parker was Controller, monitoring isn’t the first word that comes to mind. During the elections, the phrase “balanced budget” was used so freely, even though beginning in 2004, the City’s budget has never been balanced.