METRO Next - 2040 Vision

[j_cuevas713]

1 hour ago, wilcal said:

 

I was at a public meeting with a senior Metro comms person last Wed and they said that they hadn't actually decided yet and that was the next step. Community involvement would help with priority. 

 

 

I asked same rep about electric buses. They said that the tech wasn't there for the distances they cover while also providing the level of A/C that they would need. They are becoming a little more prevalent outside of China though. Santiago just took a bunch of them. 

 

 

I was told by Metro that BRT would utilize same lanes as two-way HOV, at least on 45 to get to IAH. 

 

 

1000%

 

They made it sound like plans are very very very flexible going forward. 

Damn so do you know if the connection from Downtown to the NW Transit Center would do the same or would it be fully grade separated?

[paul2834]

On 11/7/2019 at 4:21 PM, X.R. said:

 

*Cries* are you saying...I can go from downtown to...UPTOWN? MY GOD IS THIS REAL. I never thought I'd see the day I could take a timely, consistent, and frequent transit option from Downtown to the Galleria. This blows my mind.

 

I'm praying that NWTC is just a stop and will keep going instead of having to get off at NWTC so you can get on another BRT that takes you to Downtown or Uptown.

[Naviguessor]

I’ve come to agree with the BRT option too. With the money that available, and the ground that we need to make up, it’s the best option imo. Also, if done right, Houston may become a roll model for the country. Are there any other US cities which use BRT as extensively as what’s Proposed in MetroNext? 

[wilcal]

On 11/8/2019 at 5:33 PM, j_cuevas713 said:

Damn so do you know if the connection from Downtown to the NW Transit Center would do the same or would it be fully grade separated?

 

That is less clear since it is funded separately from Metro Next. If I had to guess, I'm going to say not separated. 

 

On 11/8/2019 at 9:39 PM, paul2834 said:

 

I'm praying that NWTC is just a stop and will keep going instead of having to get off at NWTC so you can get on another BRT that takes you to Downtown or Uptown.

 

I've been beating this drum pretty hard. Nobody likes transfers and nobody would be backtracking, so why the hell not? It would provide a one transfer solution from IAH as well.

 

Someone (on here?) was saying that the existing light rail stations in downtown could actually be integrated as BRT stops. 

 

It would be great if the Uptown BRT routing was Westpark -> Gallera -> NWTC -> the semi-random planned stop at Shepherd @ I-10 -> Preston LRT station -> Convention District LRT station and return.

 

Do a similar thing with the IAH BRT line and have it stop at Preson/Convention as well. 

 

Edit: not sure what to do when high-speed rail launches, but it's pretty close to NWTC

Edited November 11, 2019 by wilcal

[cspwal]

I agree that the gold line should go downtown once the BRT lanes are made, but I think it can stop at Burnett TC if that is a more direct route.  The Purple/green line tracks downtown are barely better than what a regular bus would be on - having the BRT vehicles have to get to them wouldn't be great

[Houston19514]

INNER KATY BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) AND BUSWAY:

 

MULTIMODAL DEDICATED BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) BUSWAY, INCLUDING GRADE-SEPARATION AND CONNECTION TO HOV LANES AND TRANSIT CENTER.

 

http://www.h-gac.com/2018-call-for-projects/documents/Draft-Project-Ranking-TPC-1-18-19.pdf

[LBC2HTX]

On 11/6/2019 at 8:00 AM, crock said:

 

The plan quietly includes the green/purple line extending west to the Courthouse.  The lines were already built so that the trains go under i45 and then just sit there to move back to the other side of the track, so the amount of track needed to be built is literally 2-3 blocks.    

So far there haven't been any meetings or documents showing where the courthouse stop will be. hopefully it'll go up along Lubbock street to be closer for 1st ward/6th ward residents.  
 

Based on Triton's post above (https://h-gac.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f2a62060d074a5d8c3f00a40bb6b3b2) my guess is that it'll likely connect to the BRT termination, which looks to be behind the courthouse along the city owned land. So at least to Lubbock would be my guess. 

[Avossos]

54 minutes ago, LBC2HTX said:

Based on Triton's post above (https://h-gac.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f2a62060d074a5d8c3f00a40bb6b3b2) my guess is that it'll likely connect to the BRT termination, which looks to be behind the courthouse along the city owned land. So at least to Lubbock would be my guess. 

 

The plans for the court complex land have not been finalized. There is a good chance the court will not be here when the land is redeveloped. If it does stay, the thought is that it will be re-positioned to face Washington Ave where the current police garage is. With that, and the positioning of the LR station, it makes most sense to go due North up Reisner...

 

I believe the city wants to recreate a street grid here for mix-use.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Avossos

[j_cuevas713]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Metro-board-members-hold-huge-sway-in-bus-and-14821324.php?utm_source=desktop&utm_medium=collection&utm_campaign=hcpromomod#photo-18581176

 

It amazes me that we have transit officials making transit decisions for the next 20 years and they don't even take transit anywhere! WTH!

 

[LBC2HTX]

18 minutes ago, Avossos said:

 

The plans for the court complex land have not been finalized. There is a good chance the court will not be here when the land is redeveloped. If it does stay, the thought is that it will be re-positioned to face Washington Ave where the current police garage is. With that, and the positioning of the LR station, it makes most sense to go due west up Reisner...

 

I believe the city wants to recreate a street grid here for mix-use.

Good point. I remembered there being some discussions on revamping the city court. A lot of newly constructed town homes along hickory are going to be subject to eminent domain

[Houston19514]

29 minutes ago, Avossos said:

 

The plans for the court complex land have not been finalized. There is a good chance the court will not be here when the land is redeveloped. If it does stay, the thought is that it will be re-positioned to face Washington Ave where the current police garage is. With that, and the positioning of the LR station, it makes most sense to go due west up Reisner...

 

 

Due west up Reisner?

[Avossos]

Just now, Houston19514 said:

 

Due west up Reisner?

 meant North! sorry.

[Some one]

Did Metro actually say anything about upgrading the brt to light rail in the near future? I heard people say that's partly why they're building brt but I never actually heard Metro say it. The closest I heard them talk about it was when they said they plan on upgrading uptown brt to light rail in the future.

[j_cuevas713]

2 hours ago, Some one said:

Did Metro actually say anything about upgrading the brt to light rail in the near future? I heard people say that's partly why they're building brt but I never actually heard Metro say it. The closest I heard them talk about it was when they said they plan on upgrading uptown brt to light rail in the future.

They aren’t going to bring up something like that this early after they just barely passed one of the biggest transit initiatives this city has seen in over a decade. But yes they will surely have another referendum in a few years and a few of those routes will be converted. It’s a win win for Metro. 

[j_cuevas713]

10 hours ago, LBC2HTX said:

Based on Triton's post above (https://h-gac.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f2a62060d074a5d8c3f00a40bb6b3b2) my guess is that it'll likely connect to the BRT termination, which looks to be behind the courthouse along the city owned land. So at least to Lubbock would be my guess. 

I think it was the HGAC map where I saw it basically coming up to where the BRT line starts on Houston Ave. Maybe I’m wrong and that’s just in my head lol idk

Edited November 12, 2019 by j_cuevas713

[Houston19514]

17 hours ago, Some one said:

Did Metro actually say anything about upgrading the brt to light rail in the near future? I heard people say that's partly why they're building brt but I never actually heard Metro say it. The closest I heard them talk about it was when they said they plan on upgrading uptown brt to light rail in the future.

 

When has Metro ever said anything about planning to upgrade the uptown BRT to light rail?

[cspwal]

I think the federal funding for the bus lane down 610 had language that strictly prohibited it from being upgrade to light rail.  I think that was part of a double bank shot to try to prevent the entire project - make the bus lanes non-upgrade-able, and then say the whole project is illegal because the voters voted for rail.  It got struck down and they built the project anyway, but the bus lanes are still only up to bus spec not train spec

[mollusk]

33 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

God forbid that Houston ever gets federal funding for light rail (even though EVERY OTHER major city in the nation has gotten federal funding for it).  Why do Republicans hate Houston so much?

 

And specifically, Rs who represented parts of the Houston area.

[j_cuevas713]

I thought Fletcher released that ban???

 

[cspwal]

If the fly over was designed to only hold buses (and it looks like it - the cantilevered sections don't look like they are train ready) then it doesn't matter if they are legally allowed to transition it to light rail - they'd have to build a new flyover bridge 

[j_cuevas713]

19 hours ago, Toopicky said:

 

God forbid that Houston ever gets federal funding for light rail (even though EVERY OTHER major city in the nation has gotten federal funding for it).  Why do Republicans hate Houston so much?

It’s not that we never received funding. It’s politicians like Culberson who prevented rail in their district and the feds eventually pulled the funding because it wasn’t being used. Houston isn’t somehow being singled out unfairly.

[cspwal]

Slightly different topic: has anyone seen any serious proposals for heavy rail along Westheimer?  

The 82 bus has such high ridership, a Metro line under Westheimer would get high ridership every day

[j_cuevas713]

27 minutes ago, cspwal said:

Slightly different topic: has anyone seen any serious proposals for heavy rail along Westheimer?  

The 82 bus has such high ridership, a Metro line under Westheimer would get high ridership every day

I think it would be cooler as an elevated line along Westheimer.

[cspwal]

Elevated line might be harder to sell, especially in the River oaks area.  In lower westheimer, there's really not that much room for anything - the support structure would have to be a lot of really skinny poles or else you're going to be taking ROW that is at a premium

 

I think you would have to have at least 5.5 miles of underground tunnel between Main st and Sage road.  The eastern terminus might have to go further east than Main - I'm not sure how you'd connect it to the current and proposed LRT network.  The western end could go at grade in the median after Sage street - there's wide enough medians there and so many lanes that at grade light rail could work.  You'd want the rail to go all the way to Gessner (probably a little further to beltway 8 to hit that proposed BRT line), so that's another 5 miles of surface rail.

 

Assuming that a subway tunnel could be dug under westheimer for the same cost as Seattle's new tunnel (it is using light rail vehicles similar to MetroRail), it's $600 million/mi

The metro next plan is to build 16 miles of new light rail for $2.1 billion, so its about $131 million/mi for the light rail portion

 

That means the line would cost $4 billion, if prices can be kept similar to Seattle's new downtown tunnel. 

[mfastx]

I've long maintained that Westheimer is the most suitable corridor in Houston for rail.  Too bad it won't happen in my lifetime. 

[H-Town Man]

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 5:42 PM, Ross said:

 

Development related to LRT takes a long time Main took something like 10 years, and in the meantime it was completely screwed up by rail.

 

It took either 2 or 3 years. It started in either 2001 or 2002 when Metro decided it would use its own funds to build it after Tom DeLay blocked federal funds. It opened for service in January 2004.

 

[j_cuevas713]

22 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

Obviously you never heard of Rep. Tom Delay (R.-TX) of Sugar Land

Him too. What I'm saying is that it's been the people in charge politically. It's not just some conspiracy against our city. 

[Triton]

3 hours ago, mfastx said:

I've long maintained that Westheimer is the most suitable corridor in Houston for rail.  Too bad it won't happen in my lifetime. 

Really wish we could have the Boring Company come in and build something down Westheimer.

[Ross]

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

It took either 2 or 3 years. It started in either 2001 or 2002 when Metro decided it would use its own funds to build it after Tom DeLay blocked federal funds. It opened for service in January 2004.

 

Light rail construction had started before mid-2001, as that was when I injured my knee crossing the construction to get to the other side of Main from Tuam. The development referred to was for property along the rail, which didn't really start for a number of years.

[Ross]

30 minutes ago, Triton said:

Really wish we could have the Boring Company come in and build something down Westheimer.

I;'m not sure there's enough room to run a train under Westheimer. The width inside the Loop is a little as 35 feet, which means it would be tough to fit the tunnels underneath without encroaching on someone's subsurface rights. There's also the issue that no one has a clue as to what's underground in much of Houston. Boring through old water or oil wells could cause some real issues.