METRORail North Line

[natrius]

Look at the BRT in San Francisco: http://www.sfcta.org/vanness looks more like a rail line to me than some bus on the street.

San Francisco doesn't have any BRT lines built yet. There are two in the planning stages: that Van Ness line you linked to, and a Geary line. Yes, it looks like a rail line, and that's the point. The reason why BRT is supposed to be an attractive option is that it gives you all the benefits of rail (except affluent riders like rail more) without the high cost. If you don't give BRT its own dedicated right-of-way, how is that any different from the bus lanes we already have? Please tell me METRO isn't trying to build a BRT line with buses that run in the street for the whole line.

[musicman]

...or walk and chew gum at the same time much less use caps...I'd be willing to tutor you doing the aforementioned five things at once but alas...I've not the inclination nor time...

i feel much better now like i just finished using the restroom. you should try going more often.

[ricco67]

i feel much better now like i just finished using the restroom. you should try going more often.

then you should cut down on the fiber you're eating. By the majority, quantity, and quality of the posts you have on here, you had too much.

intellectual bulemia (sp?), perhaps ?

[Gary]

citykid, no one hates you, but we do wonder where you get your "facts" from. According to DART's website, DART rail cars hold 160 people. Houston METRO's rail cars hold 200, or 25% bigger. You might also be interested in knowing that Siemans, the German company that built Houston's light rail vehicles, is also building the same vehicles for Paris, France's light rail system. Now I know Paris is no Atlanta, but it's not bad. Some people even think Paris is almost as good as Dallas.

Looking at what you consider to be "real" rail, it is clear that you prefer 70s era heavy rail. If you knew how to read government documents, I'd suggest that you look at the FTA rules for funding transit systems. You'd probably figure out why cities are doing the things they do with respect to rail systems. But, since you don't read that stuff, you will always be hopelessly out of touch with your comments. But, we still enjoy chuckling at them.

Now that was funny.

[yaga]

Light rail not buit built in its own dedicated right of way is a joke and a waste of time, traffic lanes, and $ (see main st. line).

[musicman]

then you should cut down on the fiber you're eating. By the majority, quantity, and quality of the posts you have on here, you had too much.

intellectual bulemia (sp?), perhaps ?

thank you dr welby for the recommendation.

[citykid09]

Light rail not buit built in its own dedicated right of way is a joke and a waste of time, traffic lanes, and $ (see main st. line).

Exactly my point. The Main street line is nothing more than a souped up bus ride.

[Gary]

Exactly my point. The Main street line is nothing more than a souped up bus ride.

Do you ever have any clue as to what your talking about?

Below is a nice little article about Houston's light rail passing the 25th million passenger mark.That's over 40,000 people a day on a 7.5 mile "souped up bus ride". Maybe if you take the time to read and actually think your way through this, yo might not make such comments.

8/9/2006 Ridership

Houston METRO

[TheNiche]

Do you ever have any clue as to what your talking about?

Below is a nice little article about Houston's light rail passing the 25th million passenger mark.That's over 40,000 people a day on a 7.5 mile "souped up bus ride". Maybe if you take the time to read and actually think your way through this, yo might not make such comments.

What is the significance of a 25-millionth passenger that is so much greater than the 1st passenger or 24,999,999th? They're all just numbers representing a single factor within a realm of study in which there are dozens of relevant factors. Ridership is not the end-all-be-all of transit.

It is analogous to business. Using creative accounting methods, it is easy for businesses to manipulate top-line figures to make the bottom right hand corner of a P&L statement look good. ...but that doesn't mean that the company won't go bankrupt tomorrow, and it certainly doesn't mean that it was ever financially worthwhile in the first place.

[WesternGulf]

citykid, no one hates you, but we do wonder where you get your "facts" from. According to DART's website, DART rail cars hold 160 people. Houston METRO's rail cars hold 200, or 25% bigger. You might also be interested in knowing that Siemans, the German company that built Houston's light rail vehicles, is also building the same vehicles for Paris, France's light rail system. Now I know Paris is no Atlanta, but it's not bad. Some people even think Paris is almost as good as Dallas.

Looking at what you consider to be "real" rail, it is clear that you prefer 70s era heavy rail. If you knew how to read government documents, I'd suggest that you look at the FTA rules for funding transit systems. You'd probably figure out why cities are doing the things they do with respect to rail systems. But, since you don't read that stuff, you will always be hopelessly out of touch with your comments. But, we still enjoy chuckling at them.

citykid09: You make too much sense and you are putting an end to my argument. I want to rant some more.

No but seriously, citykid is hard to take you seriously when people hear comments that seems like everything Houston does there needs to be an upgrade to the next level. Nothing wrong with with that but look what you are saying: You already showed your dissatisfaction for BRT's, and so have I in the past, but then you say there should be an effort to make them look like San Francisco's for whatever reasons. If we did, I am sure a couple of months from now, you would say METRO took the cheap route and could not even build LRT. If your statement is proven false, we can pretty much assume what your next rant would be.

By the way, most of San Francisco's buses are already on guided overhead cables for energy purposes although they are incredibly aged. I would assume they are also used because they do not cause pollution, they have low operating/maintenance cost, longer lifespan, and hell they're quiet. With that said, the new Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit is just a bus on the street, but I understand you do not care and you place "aesthetics", totally subjective, over sustainability.

[Ethanra]

It was my understanding that most of the four BRT will have its own lane to drive on. Is this true? I read an article today on how BRT is becoming more popular aroung the nation because it is cheaper and better for the enviroment. If our four inner loop BRT lines do have their own lane majority of the route, it is smart, it may mean more money for other lines.

[Trae]

I think the inner lines should be light rail no matter what. Then as you get farther out, they go to BRT.

[ricco67]

It would be interesting to see if they use the current Main line ridership numbers to help justify their case for additional funds?

If it reached 40K daily riders a day at this stage, I wonder how it will develop in the future.

one thing I'm rather curious about is the number of riders along the line itself.

I wonder where what the numbers break down as far as origin and final destinations.

Meaning, how many people ride from the south station to Med Center or other locations. How how many people end one part of their commute, park near the HCC station and go to other areas and the like.

THOSE numbers to me would be rather interesting to look at as to how light rail is used.

[citykid09]

I think the inner lines should be light rail no matter what. Then as you get farther out, they go to BRT.

Thats a solution! But certain main lines that go to major places such as the airport, should be light rail or commuter rail.

[CDeb]

I think the inner lines should be light rail no matter what. Then as you get farther out, they go to BRT.

I think each line should have a consistent vehicle. Isn't it rather inconvenient to take an LRT vehicle to one point, then have to transfer to a BRT vehicle to continue down the same line?

[plumber2]

citykid, no one hates you, but we do wonder where you get your "facts" from. According to DART's website, DART rail cars hold 160 people. Houston METRO's rail cars hold 200, or 25% bigger. You might also be interested in knowing that Siemans, the German company that built Houston's light rail vehicles, is also building the same vehicles for Paris, France's light rail system. Now I know Paris is no Atlanta, but it's not bad. Some people even think Paris is almost as good as Dallas.

Looking at what you consider to be "real" rail, it is clear that you prefer 70s era heavy rail. If you knew how to read government documents, I'd suggest that you look at the FTA rules for funding transit systems. You'd probably figure out why cities are doing the things they do with respect to rail systems. But, since you don't read that stuff, you will always be hopelessly out of touch with your comments. But, we still enjoy chuckling at them.

So the stains on these seats will be called Siemen's stains?

[woolie]

I don't think the Red line is a toy at all, I take it every day. It works very well. Of course I'd like to see better light synchronization and elimination of _ALL_ left hand turns, though. That could shave a few minutes off the trip.

[Trae]

This line is confirmed LRT now.

[Serrano]

thats good. I think this is a better thing for houston. Maybe later it would connect to the woodlands with maybe one or two stops on the way over their. Imaging this during the rodeo the people from the woodlands(and surronding areas) can take the light rail all the way to the rodeo without exchanging trains. This could be good for Houston.

[Trae]

Light rail would be too slow. Commuter rail is better for them.

[Houston19514]

Light rail would be too slow. Commuter rail is better for them.

Not necessarily. Light rail is only slow (compared to commuter rail) in the inner city context where it is running in the streets making frequent stops. If it were to be extended out to Greenspoint/IAH and/or The Woodlands, there would probably be less frequent stops, it would probably be in a more-exclusive r-o-w. Houston's current light rail trains can go at least 60 MPH.

[Serrano]

60 mph and no stops and no traffic in the way. I think it will still be great. Everybody else would be stuck on 45 traffic while you're sitting on the train on your wi-fi.

[Jax]

I remember the train between downtown Toronto and downtown Montreal had Wifi, and that was awesome. I always got so much work done on the train! It wasn't exactly commuter rail though.

It made what would normally be a 6-7 hour drive (depending on traffic and weather - we have icy highways up north) a 4 hour train ride if you took the one non-stop express train that left at 5 pm. You could fly the same distance in an hour but it always cost more and when you added all of the additional times up (two taxi rides, walking through the terminal, security etc.), the train was actually pretty competitive.

Anyways, my point is, wifi on a train = awesome.

[ricco67]

Can't believe we haven't even talked about this line in awhile, but here is a little good news on the topic:

From the Chron.

Today, much of the retail along the route where light-rail cars will travel includes tire shops, mom and pop Mexican restaurants, hair salons and check-cashing stores.

But national chains like Walgreens, Auto Zone, Family Dollar, Rent A Center and Payless all have relocated existing outlets within the Fulton Corridor.

When that happens, Freedman said, it's a sign of the stores' success and projected growth in the area.

Working families in the Near Northside strongly support basic retail businesses.

“You're not going to find a lot of cupcake places or tanning salons,” Freedman said. “When people go to spend their money, it's on the necessities.”

This is pretty much what I expect from the east side and south east lines. The only difference is that the Mexican bus lines might actually get a slight boost if they are close to a station as it would make it easier for customers go to to their stations.

[TheNiche]

This is pretty much what I expect from the east side and south east lines. The only difference is that the Mexican bus lines might actually get a slight boost if they are close to a station as it would make it easier for customers go to to their stations.

That comment sparked a thought.

I wonder if there would be any merit to having the City or METRO fund construction of a central 'Bus-port'. By that, I'm thinking of a facility that might be integrated into the Hardy Yards intermodal station, where a large number of slots could be leased to the highest bidder just as is typically done at an airport. There'd be no expectation of profitability from the real estate side of things, but there would be benefits insofar as that 1) increased capacity utilization of transit at all hours of the day and night would result in higher fare revenues, 2) concession revenue could be significant, 3) it'd displace unsavory characters from neighborhoods to centralized facilities with a constant law enforcement presence, 4) direct competition between bus operators could serve to reduce ticket prices, and 5) a high-profile high-volume operation could be more effectively marketed to a wider audience and possibly allow for charter bus operators to provide more consistent and lower-cost services to niche market segments.

[jdbaker]

That comment sparked a thought.

I wonder if there would be any merit to having the City or METRO fund construction of a central 'Bus-port'. By that, I'm thinking of a facility that might be integrated into the Hardy Yards intermodal station, where a large number of slots could be leased to the highest bidder just as is typically done at an airport. There'd be no expectation of profitability from the real estate side of things, but there would be benefits insofar as that 1) increased capacity utilization of transit at all hours of the day and night would result in higher fare revenues, 2) concession revenue could be significant, 3) it'd displace unsavory characters from neighborhoods to centralized facilities with a constant law enforcement presence, 4) direct competition between bus operators could serve to reduce ticket prices, and 5) a high-profile high-volume operation could be more effectively marketed to a wider audience and possibly allow for charter bus operators to provide more consistent and lower-cost services to niche market segments.

I have heard unconfirmed rumors that the Greyhound station may in fact move to the intermodal terminal as you have described.

[TheNiche]

I have heard unconfirmed rumors that the Greyhound station may in fact move to the intermodal terminal as you have described.

Me too, but that doesn't really compare to what I'm suggesting.

[ricco67]

That comment sparked a thought.

I wonder if there would be any merit to having the City or METRO fund construction of a central 'Bus-port'. By that, I'm thinking of a facility that might be integrated into the Hardy Yards intermodal station, where a large number of slots could be leased to the highest bidder just as is typically done at an airport. There'd be no expectation of profitability from the real estate side of things, but there would be benefits insofar as that 1) increased capacity utilization of transit at all hours of the day and night would result in higher fare revenues, 2) concession revenue could be significant, 3) it'd displace unsavory characters from neighborhoods to centralized facilities with a constant law enforcement presence, 4) direct competition between bus operators could serve to reduce ticket prices, and 5) a high-profile high-volume operation could be more effectively marketed to a wider audience and possibly allow for charter bus operators to provide more consistent and lower-cost services to niche market segments.

That would be interesting, but I think Greyhound would have an unfair advantage in the bidding wars. I don't know what kind of profit structure they currently have, but I'm sure the various locations might spur them to put a more "modern" look into their operations. The facility across from Greyhound is a good example of how at least the appearance of being successful (or professional) and located on a line might offer them an advantage.

The "Mexican" bus stations are generally located in the communities they serve and you can find them in unexpected places. In one case, there is/was one located in the heights just inside the loop and another located quite close to the Whataburger on North Main at 45.

I have heard unconfirmed rumors that the Greyhound station may in fact move to the intermodal terminal as you have described.

Tell you what, if Greyhound DOES move into intermodal station, they really need to clean up what goes on around it.

[TheNiche]

That would be interesting, but I think Greyhound would have an unfair advantage in the bidding wars. I don't know what kind of profit structure they currently have, but I'm sure the various locations might spur them to put a more "modern" look into their operations. The facility across from Greyhound is a good example of how at least the appearance of being successful (or professional) and located on a line might offer them an advantage.

It'd all look the same; nobody would get the advantage. That is...unless they switch out their local livery. And if they do...seriously, what's the problem if their customers like it and are constituents. Also, the next lowest bidder for slots isn't going to bid on slots until the price is low enough that they can compete with Greyhound, but with the goal being maximal capacity utilization, the price of slots would probably be reasonably low.

[LTAWACS]

I think the inner lines should be light rail no matter what. Then as you get farther out, they go to BRT.

This is the best idea.