Slick Vik

It can be done but Indians don't buy business class very much.

I forgot about Pakistan!

Also, Gulf Air was the first Middle Eastern carrier at IAH but it didn't last. I think the flight had two stops between Houston and Bahrain.

I flew gulf air in 1995. Stops were in New York and Abu Dhabi. Very attractive stewardesses. They upgraded me to business class because I broke my wrist and had a large cast. Can't imagine that ever happening in this day and age.

Regarding other airlines hobby museum is a good place to see memorabilia and gather information on them.

Just spent the last week in philly and nyc and wow, it's amazing to spend significant time somewhere where having a car is a disadvantage. Grocery stores within a block, and anything else you need, plus subway to get you around town. Houston is 100 years behind. Another galaxy basically. I'm seriously considering moving to nyc in the near future.

Tear it down. It would only work if both sides were residential high rises. I just walked the high line yesterday so I am making a direct comparison.

I don't like the plan so much anymore. The whole thing looks like bowing to yuppies in the Midtown/Downtown area to remove the Pierce Elevated, all while:

- Screwing up traffic even further in the area, including adding a bunch of nasty new curves to I-45

- Cutting into less fortunate neighborhoods to appease said yuppies who don't like the Pierce Elevated (talk about robbing from the poor and giving to the rich, eh?)

- Wasting taxpayer money to build some mega-tunnel in connection with removing the Pierce Elevated (and you know, doing everything else)

- Depriving any pleasure from motorists of seeing Houston from an elevated point of view

...and then some fools have the gall to want to turn the Pierce Elevated structure into a park, completely negating the original idea of removing it.

That being said, I think *some* of the plan has merit: straightening out Interstate 10 near UH-D isn't a bad plan, really.

Yuppie must mean sensible person that cares about its city and wants progress.

Look I get it you live in college station and haven't visited more than a handful of great cities, if any. But go see some, experience them, stay a while. Then you'll understand.

I was destroyed for months saying Houston didn't need the pierce. Eat crow

This comes off like a pissing contest. Both are successful airports what's the point of this?

Why mess with what's worked for almost 20 years? We moved into that area in 1998, and nohting's really chnged since, other than the Vietnamese shops and restaurants closing as they moved out to the West side of town.

That same justification was used by the confederacy to keep slavery before the civil war. Open your mind to new ideas. Times change.

More precisely, the project is not dead yet. After reading up on it though I have a bad feeling. Let's assume optimistically that the eminent domain bill doesn't pass, or they build despite it. Metcalf's bill, without even making it out of the committee, already forced them into "utility corridor", which skips population centers between Houston and Dallas. This makes it a two big cities project, which is at best a nuisance to everybody in between, so constant pushback in the legislature. T-bone failed to materialize even in some small part, and it had Perry's support.

I am not sure about Dallas, but in Houston at the moment they do not have a viable path from Northwest TC to downtown, and there is no well connected downtown location, which is track accessible, anyway. The prices are planned to be "comparable" to airlines. In places where trains are common one of the main attractions is that they are substantially cheaper than planes, it doesn't work on pure convenience. But with the station at Northwest TC there is not even that, it is not that different from going to the Hobby airport. Except Hobby has connections to a variety of destinations, and the train is not part of any rail network, it's to Dallas only. HSR has high security risks, hence high insurance costs. Cooks do not derail freight trains often because human toll is low, but with 200 miles of track and 205 mph the bullet train is an attractive soft target. Even if just a bad accident happens and riders are scared off TCR is unlikely to survive, same as many airlines after 9/11.

TCR project is interesting as a proof of principle. Loudest objections to publicly funded passenger rail are that it is a "government boondogle". But now a private venture faces the same kind of opposition from similar sources. It is pushed into building not where people are, but where it steps the least on somebody's toes. It is deprived of benefits, like eminent domain, that pipeline, utility and road builders get as a matter of course. It is suggested to be subjected to heckler's veto. Perhaps the underlying reason is simply that Texas doesn't have sufficient population density, but it is interesting to see how it works itself through the political system. Support is more of a "sounds good" type, while opposition is intense and mobilized. I doubt that a large scale rail project has a chance in Texas until political realignment happens for some reason.

This story reminded me the fate of the Universities line in Houston. First "community preferred alternative" that made trains turn 6 times in half as many blocks, and took them away from TSU, then a ban on federal funding and local tax funding along Richmond. And along Westpark, as "suggested" by Culberson, it is largely pointless.

High speed rail is fairly expensive ticket wise regardless of where it is

Pathetic. Third world countries like Laos, Cambodia, and India are making huge investments in high speed rail but in the greatest superpower of the world short sighted selfish idiots are blocking hopes of progress

This is unfortunate

I would have not expected professional lacrosse in Houston except for the MLL's plans to bring the All-Star Game to BBVA. Lacrosse is very much an East Coast game. None of the Houston schools have much of a lacrosse tradition.

As for hockey, Quebec had a team and it left for bigger gates elsewhere.

It's interesting that ACBJ rated all the possible cities for the NHL and put Houston on top of the list. Happenstance?

The list was missing Seattle which has the backing of billionaires. That is definitely the next city to get a team.

Quebec has an arena and badly wants another team.

Seattle is the next American city to get a team, and Quebec city for Canada. No chance here.

I've been told journalists have been "encouraged" to paint the picture rosier than it really is by the real estate and commercial real estate market, it's "in their best interests" to do so.

Well, the Galveston train certainly is interesting, admittedly, and of course, no thread is complete without the whole "vast anti-rail conspiracy" thing Slick likes to hawk.

Anyway, it is true that the "road to rail" is littered with many, many failures.

Not a conspiracy. It's all about bribery. This is oil country.

I've read that article, and it's different than your re-interpretation. Sounds like he wanted the Union Station for rail use, was out-bid by Enron, briefly enthused by the idea of a hybrid baseball stadium/train station (done by someone at the architect's team and probably not representative of the final product), and then was disappointed when the rail component was dropped (which would've been a bit more complicated if it were serving dual uses from an engineering/pedestrian accessibility standpoint), that is if it ever existed and wasn't just a pipe dream by him and some folks at HOK Architects. Even then, it's just him talking (no one else's side of the story), complicated by the fact that this "Mike Surface" guy was a criminal, too.

Some of these "What Could Have Been" discussions in terms of unbuilt projects, we don't have a real idea of how close to a reality it would've been. For example, the full-scale Star Trek Enterprise attraction at Las Vegas in the early 1990s was killed by a Paramount exec, but only five months of preliminary planning had gone into it and could've been stymied or killed by a variety of other factors.

Rail at a stadium site is not a difficult concept at all. Look at Barclays center which has subway lines and the LIRR all stop underneath it. Also Franklin got government money which takes a lot of time to apply for and win and was on the same page with the architects. If you can't see the obvious corruption of Lanier to purposely block rail you have rose colored glasses. He went out of his way to do it even though rail easily could have been part of the configuration. It's part of the anti rail sentiment him and his buddies delay and Culberson and some at TxDOT have as well. And it's putting us 50 years behind the rest of the civilized world.

About this time, the Harris County Sports Authority was created with Jack Rains and Billy Burge running it. They advised my attorney, Roland Chamberlin, and me that, in order to pursue our project, we should work with a pair of attorneys the authority had retained. After several meetings with them it was clear that nobody at the authority had any interest in trying to help preserve rail at Union Station.

This was driven home after I met with Mike Surface, who worked for Harris County. During a meeting with him, he told me that in order to effect a multi-million-dollar construction cost savings the footprint of the stadium was going to be moved south all the way to Texas Avenue, thereby covering the space where tracks could be laid. I did not believe him. I called the lead architect at HOK, with whom I had had previous discussions, and asked if this was true. He told me he had never heard of such a thing.

After I finished, Todd canvassed the other council members and came back to tell me that we had a very strong majority. I came back the following Wednesday when they voted. Todd canvassed them again before the vote and this time told me that all of our support had evaporated overnight. Mayor Lanier was there one of the days but I don't remember which. Go figure.

I'd take all that with a grain of salt, of course.

You can go talk to the guy that ran texas limited and find out for yourself.

http://m.chron.com/opinion/article/Houston-deserves-better-rail-service-4337295.php

I wasn't following the topic closely, so my question is how likely is this TCR project to be implemented? As I recall there were lots of rail projects in recent years: T-bone, intermodal terminal, commuter trains around Houston, something federally funded, Houston-Galveston 2.0, etc., all had support and enthusiasm, but nothing ever came of them except studies and more studies. I appreciate that TCR is private, but there used to be a private Houston-Galveston train in 1990-s, and it didn't work out either. I think they were trying to have the city take it over, but it fell through. I am just not sure that public transportation can be made to work for profit long term, and there seems to be a lot of ideological opposition in Texas to trains specifically for some reason. Some politicians are already talking against TCR. So given all that are there any particular reasons to believe that this time will be different?

And my second question is, assuming it happens, where will be the terminus in Houston? They are saying "near downtown", but I am not sure what that means. I think somebody wanted to buy the USPS building near the current Amtrak station, was it them? Why can't they use the place under the Burnett light rail station, where intermodal terminal was supposed to be?

Houston to galveston railroad was hoping Union station would be downtown terminus. But Lanier and his cronies changed the baseball stadium plans to hit Union station specifically so trains didn't have a downtown station, particularly a grand one such as that. So texas limited had no hope with a station in the heights. Also insurance costs were sky high but if Union station was available that cost could be eaten as the benefits would be greater.

You can't judge a person's intelligence based on their level of education.

I hope this gets split off into off topic, cause I'm genuinely intrigued to see if you can come up with something that is a real answer, because this ain't it.

Maybe not but you can judge a level of knowledge (usually)

Those are two of the more offensive comments I've seen in a while. Especially coming from someone who apparently has some level of college education. You obviously don't get out much in rural areas. Those folks aren't stupid, many of them are better educated than you, and they all have far more class. They do tend to see things from their own perspective, which is reasonable, but they are willing to listen, and will change their minds when the arguments are convincing. However, they are never happy when they are told "suck it up, that's how it will be".

Please don't get sanctimonious with me. You are evidently unaware of the statistical facts.

Rural college-enrollment rates are an often-reported problem, one that periodically yields recommendations from the field on ways this issue could be addressed. Only 17 percent of rural adults 25 or older have a college degree, which is about half the percentage of urban adults. About 31 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in rural areas were enrolled in higher education in 2009, compared with about 46 percent in urban areas and 42 percent in suburban areas.

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?DISPATCHED=true&cid=25983841&item=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.edweek.org%2Fedweek%2Frural_education%2F2013%2F10%2Frural_students_lag_urban_peers_on_college_enrollment_persistence.html

In 1970, there was a 6-point difference between urban and rural counties in the percent of people over 25 years of age who had college degrees. (Rural stood at 5.7 percent; urban was 11.6 percent.)

By 2010, the gap was nearly 15 points, as shown in the chart above.

http://www.dailyyonder.com/college-degree-gap-widens/2012/03/26/3828

Part of my argument was that it seems to me that in terms of time and distance (and maybe there's differences here in stations that would account for this, it isn't an airtight comparison) that a fully-grade-separated heavy rail system like the Washington DC Metro isn't a whole lot different than a partially grade-separated system like DART, and granted, in the Red Line, there is a significant portion of elevated and below-ground. Personally, I'd love to see light rail go out to FM 1960 on the Northwest portion, as well as paralleling Westpark Tollway (which METRO took half of the ROW of for that very purpose).

As for commuter rail, the Northern Virginia Commuter Rail that connects the suburbs to Washington DC's Union Station is 90 miles long. Guess what's also 90 miles? Downtown to College Station. Connecting CS to Houston makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways, but there's not enough dense stuff between that to make it worthwhile. I imagine even you hardcore railfans will find the prospect of linking College Station to commuter rail dubious, but for what it's worth, I think it's a nice thought, just not an economical one.

Lol. Dart usually has 2 train cars while DC has 6-8 (my unofficial observation). Also dc metro runs WAY more often. I didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for a single train while there. I agree from a distance perspective maybe timing is the same but ridership is much higher on DC metro because it goes where people want to go frequently and is a underground so no worries of traffic lights or crossings.

And please stop bringing up college station every other argument. I get that you live there but it's so irrelevant to this argument and I don't think it's nearly as important as you think it is.

Bigot Much?

No. Farmers serve a purpose but I wouldn't call them extraordinarily educated.

I don't know what you're trying to stir up, but HOV/HOT lanes are completely different than commuter rail service, and that's akin to saying that roads are just "inferior, cheaper" versions of highways, which they aren't. Anyone can tell you that.

That said, the big problem with most of the HOV/HOT lanes is that it's only one lane, which is not effective in any case (after all, can you imagine a single-track commuter rail?), and no, it's not the same thing as a dedicated bus lane (like a BRT lane). I do know that in parts of the Museum District, the outermost lane is reserved for buses (unless you're turning right), which would cut down on some of the problems I imagine.

Furthermore, DART's mistake was going out to places that aren't really conducive to where people want to go, and part of that is the fact that not everyone wants to go downtown, and part of that is the fact that Dallas isn't dense enough to reach critical mass on rail service (though that isn't necessarily a bad thing, nobody really likes packed train cars). But the DC Metro and DART are both comparable in total travel times (or at least with my rough calculations), and anyone concerned about total travel times shouldn't be talking about commuter rail as that would drag out the commute even longer (transfers too).

1. The reserved right lanes are full of cars day and night.

2. DART used available ROW because it was fastest and cheapest.

read the post where I put up the link to the Madisonville Meteor where in a Letter to the Editor it addresses this. I have also meet with TCR along with a few others on here where this was discussed and eminent domain will be avoided at all costs and they will instead seek free market alternatives because it both benefits them financial and legally and it benefits private citizens financially and legally. They have it written on their website. They have said this in numerous other articles. Please give me one statement from TCR or TCP where an individual has stated that eminent domain will be their weapon of choice. Please supply this evidence. What I stated isn't just some idea....it's stated fact and people should stop letting their emotions sway their understanding about this issue and seek information from the people who are running the show themselves. Not politicans. Not Newspapers. I get this information from TCR themselves and until they say otherwise in a published or open forum then it is what they will do.

If people are against selling then eminent domain is the only way