Reply With QuoteI think a shot of patience will do them good.
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stori...s.7b6f9da.html
Metro announces ambitious plans, changes for rails and roads
09:52 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 14, 2005
By Jason Whitely / 11 News
If you're fed up with sitting in Houston traffic jams, Metro's new traffic plan could make your life a little easier. But light rail is only a part of it.
KHOU-TV
After two years, Metro isn't concentrating on light rail as much as it used to.
There are some changes Houstonians can look forward to on both the rails and the roads.
After two years, Metro isn't necessarily abandoning light rail, it's just not concentrating on it as much as it used to.
With no promised federal funds, the goals for 2012 have changed.
City leaders gathered downtown to announce different mass transit choices to Houstonians.
First, Metro only has plans for one new light rail line in the short term. It will be 8.3 miles and run from the Galleria to the University of Houston's main campus along parts of Highway 59.
Originally, Metro had plans for new four lines, totaling 60 miles, but now it will use a special bus system called "Bus Rapid Transit Lines."
Basically it's a fast, cross-town service.
Pete Musgrove is a dedicated transit user. "It doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense. I thought the train was a great idea to begin with, but when they started cutting all the local service, it just made things more inconvenient and uncomfortable," he says.
One line will run the entire stretch of the 610 West Loop from 290 down to Highway 90. The other will run just east of downtown, connecting Northline Mall to 610.
"And it's a lot different than a bus," said David Wolff, Metro Chairman. "And it generates a lot more riders. For example it has low floors. It's easier in and out. You buy the passes in advance instead of the driver sitting there having to make the change for you."
Metro is moving ahead with plans for two new commuter rail lines. One will be a 20-mile stretch from far northwest Harris County into downtown. The second, an 8-mile line from Fort Bend County, would link up to the existing light rail near Six Flags. There will be tracks, but no trains.
We can actually build some of these things before we have federal approval as long as we're confident that they will receive it. We are confident that that line will receive federal approval," says Metro chairman David Wolfe.
Finally, the city's antiquated HOV lanes are changing. Metro wants to open them in both directions around the clock.
The entire plan is ambitious over the next decade and certainly quite different.
Mayor White is no doubt excited. He lobbied hard to get Congressmen John Culberson and Tom DeLay on board. The congressmen were skeptical of Metro.
But they had to sign off since they can help secure $1 billion in federal money -- half of what it'll cost to pay for the plan in the next decade.
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Wow, switching from LRT to BRT. You really DONT know how to build a transit system if you change your mind every 2 years on what your going to build. Didn't the people vote for a plan with 60 miles of light rail? Not some hyped up bus?
Last edited by texman; 19 June 2005 at 01:46 PM.
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
I think a shot of patience will do them good.
I know that's right.Originally Posted by rantanamo
Just for reference, I rode the bus to work today, and was involved in a lively conversation with another rider who was absoutely certain that DART would have LRT in Carrollton by 2006, Addison shortly after, and McKinney (!) by 2011. He referred me to dart.org. I referred him to dallasmetropolis.com.
I guess the point is, transit systems will always be slammed for not moving fast enough. Then, if they let speedy implementation trump good planning, they'll get slammed for moving too fast in the wrong direction. I'm again impressed by DART's ability to satisfy both masters -- the "build it yesterday" idealists, and the "build it right" realists. It looks like Houston has not been able to find that happy medium.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
Its really kind of sad how Houston (METRO and the mayor) is doing everything wrong to build a uniformed, ummm, I now mean un-uniformed transit system. Houstonions are being ripped off.
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
hahaha oyy.. DART LRT Projected Line Opening Dates [32k PDF]... Carrollton December 2010, Mckinney in your dreams.
[ xvisionx.com 13 - my photo gallery + journal ] - be sure to check out my new interactive downtown dallas picture map.
Your assignment of responsibility/blame to "METRO and the mayor" sparked a thought. Is Houston's transit authority a multi-city entity, or is it a Houston municipal entity?
By its nature, DART must attempt to satisfy the needs of all its member cities, of which Dallas is the largest but not the onliest. Plus, the suburbs bring in a LOT of DART's sales-tax-based revenue. When DART is successful -- as it has been with the LRT planning -- it's because they've found a balance between the needs of transit-dependent urbanites and transit-optional suburbanites. The Denton County Transit Authority (DCTA) has a similarly disparate member base... the open discussion of issues like what routing to select may make the final result stronger than if DART and, say, Lewisville had gone it alone.
Is that requirement for compromise what's missing from Houston? And how might the Dallas success vs. Houston woes help shape future state legislation regarding regional transit needs?
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
I think what is happening is a great step forward, giving all the realities. First of all, we have an A-hole named Tom Delay who, for years, has been screwing Houston out of rail funds, even though the people of Houston have voted again and again that they want rapid rail transit: Let me clarify that: Tom Delay actually WROTE legislation that SPECIFICALLY spells out the city of Houston, as in, "HOUSTON SHALL RECEIVE NO FUNDING FOR RAIL". That's right, Houston is specifically written out of federal rail funds, thanks to Tom Delay. Sugarland keeps voting him in to office, but many Houstonians despise him. Hell, even Delay’s constituents in his suburbs like Sugarland have been baffled by Delay’s anti-transit-anti-Houston stance: they are the ones suffering in traffic just like everyone else, and thus want commuter rail, badly. Without the feds funding, nothing is going to happen, as has been shown for 20 years. Houston needed rail 25 years ago. We can thank a handful of leaders for the traffic mess the city is in today.
Be that as it may, the new plan adds a very nice strategic west-east LRT rail line, now, that ties 3 major universities, the lower Montrose area, the large business districts of greenway plaza, and Uptown. And it ties to and crosses the existing north-south line that goes to downtown and all the other areas.
The other lines that were slated for LRT but are now BRT, are still going to be built….including laying the tracks down, and building the station platforms. The rails will be covered with asphalt. And when funding and ridership warrant, the trains and electric power will replace the BRT’s, and the tracks will be uncovered.
Plus, 2 new commuter rail lines: one going northwest from downtown, and another to the southwest, will be built, now.
If Houston tries to fight to get everything at once, right now, the city will loose and get NOTHING. What is happening right now is probably the only way the city will finally receive its fair share of the pie. It has been long overdue.
Last edited by 2112; 20 June 2005 at 02:37 PM.
What ever happend to public servants, who served the public?
Everytime I hear the phrase "Tom Delay", the hair on the back of my neck starts to stand. I can't stand the sight of him nor the sound of his name. Tom Delay has royally screwed Houston time and time again.
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant? What? Oh, yeah.
This is just my theory. But I think he sees Sugarland as his little controlled, conforming, and just the all-good way of life, where everyone thinks wholesome thoughts, looks the same, and everyone is the way they are suppose to be. And he sees Houston as that sespool next door with all the city-crap and anti-goodness such as the poor and the immigrants, and the free-thinkers and artists and homosexuals and all the rif-raf that comes with it. He seems to be just a general anti-urban, anti-ethnic, anti-city type person. And to him, urban mass transit, especially rail, represents all the evils of "that way of life". That's my theory.
I hate him.
But hey. That's just me.
Last edited by 2112; 20 June 2005 at 03:38 PM.
Yeah, but can you tell us what you really think?
Ok, Here goes:
:firegrin:
You know its funny how in this new plan, Commuter rail can suddenly be built to his district, Sugarland without waiting another decade..strange...
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
You got it!!!
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
The other congressman mentioned is John Culberson. He was my RA at SMU in 1980. He's gone progressively to the right since the days he had to deal with the perpetually-partying residents of Snider Hall.
Given his current stances, he is almost unrecognizable as the nice person I once knew. It's a real shame what has happened to the republican party. One must robotically tow the line, parroting the same positions, lest one be called a traitor, as has happened to McCain.
Is there no room for a thinking person of conscience any longer?
It seems that way. For someone like me that typically votes Republican it's particularly disheartening to see the state of the party.Is there no room for a thinking person of conscience any longer?
Dallas uber alles
^Agreed
ask the dallas city council...
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