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METRORail Green Line


Guest danax

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Sadly, I'd be surprised if either airport gets rail service within the next 30-40 years or so, METRO seems to be abandoning their rail plans.  Or they've kept quiet about any long range plans at least.  

 

I doubt that 2007 master plan is still in play. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

And that, friends, is about the most basic stop possible - no ticket machine, no canopy, no benches, nada.

 

Which makes sense when one realizes that it is at the end of that particular line, and is on the wrong side of the street to double up with busses. 

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My guess is that it's a temporary stop until the line extends westward.

 

Or perhaps just temporarily barren 'til then.  On the next block of Rusk, across from the Federal Building, is a full fledged, canopied, benched, ticket machined stop.  

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This turn won't be made often once daily service starts, no? I would assume only to move trains from one line to another.

 

That's my understanding of the current reason for the switches.  However, if there is some future need or desire for direct, no transfer service from the Northside down towards, say Hobby (when/if that extension gets built), there's no reason why we couldn't have a Magenta Line making the turn from Red to Purple there.

 

 

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Thanks for the photo updates guys. Quick question from an out-of-towner, is the lane the train is on separated from traffic at all like the Main street line, or can you drive on the tracks when the train isn't there?

Nah, you can drive all up in dem tracks.... Edited by Howard Huge
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Thanks for the photo updates guys. Quick question from an out-of-towner, is the lane the train is on separated from traffic at all like the Main street line, or can you drive on the tracks when the train isn't there?

Wide open to drive on.

As such, I think that metros biggest challenge to running the trains on time will initially be the number of car-train collisions. I expect the learning curve for houston drivers will be higher than on main (which, as I understand, had a "lot" of accidents initially).

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I haven't paid attention to the signage, but I would assume it's going to be the same as for the buses where the lanes are shared.

 

Diamond lane markers. no vehicles in lane unless turning. I would be strange if they don't do the same for the rail as they do for buses.

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While diamond lanes for the tracks would make tons of sense, there's no sign of that yet - and no reason not to already have it in place.  

 

Intuitively it seems like having the trains follow the same signals as the rest of traffic ought to integrate them a bit better.  The conflict I foresee is at the parking garage exits - some of them have pretty crummy sight lines.  

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Metro is about to award the $30m contract for the Hughes overpass to McCarthy. The company is being given 18 months to build it with incentives to finish earlier. At some point, Harrisburg (from Caylor to 66th) will need to be closed for 4 months. Traffic will be routed to Navigation.

http://blog.chron.com/thehighwayman/2015/01/harrisburg-overpass-construction-pending-along-with-painful-closures/?cmpid=houmhcat

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I disagree.  I think having the red line street level, semi separated, and juggling up the traffic light timing likely adds to the mayhem.  Without doing a study on my own, the perception I have is that the bulk of the incidents have been at intersections - either people making an already illegal left across the front of the train coming up behind them, or blowing a light.  One of the more recent was a METRO bus blowing a light approaching the bloomin' transit center, with a clear view of the train from blocks away.  I'd welcome correction or confirmation by someone who can drill down to the statistics, but my perception is that there haven't been nearly as many incidents in the Med Center, which has denser traffic (both foot and motorized) and private vehicles driving on the tracks.

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I have a feeling that even though there aren't diamonds painted on the lanes, the tracks will probably scare most drivers away from being in those lanes unless they are turning. However, I've seen no end of people who turn (for whatever reason) from the second most left lane, rather than getting in the left lane. It's obvious they don't pay attention, first, because they are turning from the wrong lane, and second, because they've cut right across me and I've had to stand on my brakes (which has the unintended consequence of standing on the horn).

 

I imagine the first accident on these lines will be a car turning left from the second most left lane, and not seeing the huge train in the left lane.

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I have a feeling that even though there aren't diamonds painted on the lanes, the tracks will probably scare most drivers away from being in those lanes unless they are turning. However, I've seen no end of people who turn (for whatever reason) from the second most left lane, rather than getting in the left lane. It's obvious they don't pay attention, first, because they are turning from the wrong lane, and second, because they've cut right across me and I've had to stand on my brakes (which has the unintended consequence of standing on the horn).

 

I imagine the first accident on these lines will be a car turning left from the second most left lane, and not seeing the huge train in the left lane.

 

Sounds about right... though that can't really be blamed on the train being there.  Such yahoos people who have neither mirrors nor heads that turn would also cut across in front of a truck or bus.

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Sounds about right... though that can't really be blamed on the train being there. Such yahoos people who have neither mirrors nor heads that turn would also cut across in front of a truck or bus.

There's a great video on YouTube called "Metro's Greatest Hits" from testing the line back in 2003. The number of people who made illegal left turns into the train is mindboggling.

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