mattyt36

Probably not the best thread for this article, but it is a good one discussing the success of the City's land use reforms that are now celebrating their 25th anniversary. (It does mention parking requirements, however.) Houston, we have a solution - Works in Progress

Seems to me the strategy is a typical Republican one--deliberately "starve the beast" in order to make cuts elsewhere inevitable while completely avoiding any policy debates.

He does, but I'm not particularly hopeful--that'd require him changing his tack, and as you say, he comes across as unnecessarily "combative" and "not very likable." Hard to change course with that attitude. It actually seems like he doesn't particularly like the City, which is, I suppose, one way to run it.

Every time I see Whitmire’s name in the news, all I can think is we’re in for 4 years of real hurt and for no reason at all. As @noahmf said

Ah, yes, I forgot, the only acceptable way to "circumvent the voters" is to storm the Capitol when they're counting votes. Who needs the legal process?!

The website I sent sure does. The peak was in the 20K range, from 2015-2019. Stats go back to 2005. Does this mean you spoke with people who took it who described the ridership as "enthusiastic"? So your anecdotal sample was comprised of a set of only people who rode the train? What exactly is meant by "enthusiastic ridership"? Hobbyists?

FWIW, Amtrak ridership statistics available here: Amtrak Ridership | Bureau of Transportation Statistics (dot.gov). It's a nice little utility where you can click on the city and see the boardings and alightings, so two way traffic--airport traffic is traditionally presented one way. Houston at 15,833 for federal fiscal year 2022, or 43 daily average, or 21.5 each way daily average. However, since trains operate only 3 days per week, that'd be right at 100 per day or 50 each way. More than what I would've guessed quite honestly. Pre-pandemic they were above 20K annually. San Antonio almost three times as much at 45,819, but it has train service to Dallas as well--I think daily. Austin 26,665. Fort Worth 93,181 (it has train service to Oklahoma--I think daily) Dallas 40,197

I can see it now. Food & Wine Magazine: Best Amtrak Stations in the Country for Food POST Houston Forget Washington, DC Union Station! If you're one of those many gourmands frequently traveling the bustling 5-hour trip* from Houston to San Antonio, you can experience a gourmet food court at POST HTX, where you can get a burger for $25 before you hear the call for "All Aboard!" * - Editor's note: Often 8 hours. Operates 3 days per week.

I'm so confused . . . that would require them using more than 3 gates at Terminal D 🤣🤣🤣

Ah, Bluey's concerned with minority contracting. Didn't see that one coming.

And make that 2 more long-haul routes as GIG is also being added. Bound for Brisbane: American Airlines to fly Down Under next winter - American Airlines Newsroom (aa.com) VER also added, I think in this case it is a resumption, which is a good time to highlight the fact that IAH isn't even number 1 to Mexico anymore and hasn't been since 2019: Seats to Mexico by calendar year IAH/DFW, in millions: 2010: 1.906 / 1.309 2015: 2.095 / 1.808 2019: 2.091 / 2.066 2023: 2.510 / 2.825 Destinations served CY 2023: IAH 22 / DFW 24 No unique destinations are served from HOU. You can't blame that on ORD, EWR, and IAD being more geographically convenient to Mexico. Granted, the majority of HOU's international service is to Mexico, albeit to beach destinations. For reference, HOU had 0.371MM seats to Mexico in CY 2023, which means IAH and HOU combined was only 2% higher than DFW alone. The air traffic statistics for Houston have been comparatively awful for quite some time, but considering since Houston can be so famously insular, it's understandably easy to have one's head in the sand.

You beat me to it 🤣 I was waiting for the press release to abide by the "rules." (I'm afraid we actually may not be able to count it as "actual growth" until the first flight flies, however.) American Airlines to launch Brisbane-Dallas flights - Executive Traveller So that's the fifth long-haul route announced for DFW since COVID (excluding HND, which replaced an NRT flight). The last long-haul route announced for IAH was SYD in 2018 (excluding HND, which was a transfer from NRT). That is now a seasonal flight. Nonstop long haul destinations IAH/DFW Europe: 7 / 11 South America: 5 / 3 Asia: 3 / 4 (counting HND and NRT separately) Oceania: 2 / 4 Total: 17 / 22 Seems IAH is essentially being consigned to a Latin American hub. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with AA's poor route network, but that doesn't stop the negative effects for IAH (think gravity model of economics).

Yep, that's definitely the main takeaway in all of the above. Thanks for reinforcing my point 👍

Maybe it's because all of these absolutely dwarf what has been proposed for MMP! 🤣

@Houston19514, the seats are loaded into computer reservation systems and are for sale as we speak. Trust me, you won't have to wait long. And, if you're in the market for "actual growth" and not "imagined or projected growth," consider the following: Percent change in international enplanements (one-way, not two-way) per U.S. DoT (these exclude nonrevenue passengers so are lower than the numbers reported by the airports) IAH/DFW (in millions) 2019: 5.4 / 4.6 2020: 1.7 / 1.6 2021: 3.2 / 2.9 2022: 4.6 / 4.7 That means in 2022, DFW was 2.2% ahead of where it was pre-COVID while IAH was 14.8% behind. If we assume the YTD percentages you posted above hold (+22.4% for IAH and +14.3% for DFW), that would make for 2023: 2023: 5.6 / 5.4 So, yes, IAH will emerge CY 2023 as marginally busier than DFW, which seems to be your biggest yardstick. However, from a long-term perspective, it means IAH will be 3.7% higher than where it was pre-COVID, while DFW will be a whopping 17.4% higher. That is "actual growth." I ask you again, who would you rather be? IAH grew faster in 2023 than DFW is because it had a lot of ground to make up. And it's increasingly clear to me the competitive landscape has likely changed permanently. This longer-term trend is THE trend. DFW continues to get more long-haul service this summer while IAH gets none. AUS getting European service certainly hasn't helped, either. As for the route map, well, that shouldn't take much mental effort to understand. If you could go back in a time machine on January 10, you would see what they were seeing. There were schedules leaked by reputable sources, as happens with these things quite often (e.g., the same group of people who knew about Ethiopian coming here before the world did). Maybe it will pan out, maybe it won't. The point is DFW is likely in AI's network plan for the near term and IAH isn't. The fact is that Houston has not been in the mind of long-haul international network planners in the way it had been in the past since 2015, which admittedly makes perfect sense because Houston's economy has not performed comparatively well since then when compared to the prior decade. One needs to follow the industry as a whole, instead of Houston's participation in the industry at a single point in time in order to notice the abundant evidence and ensure one's head is not in the proverbial sand. I hope to be wrong, but the "actual growth" data, when presented in a manner that allows people to see the real long-term trends, tells otherwise.