wakester

I saw a poster of it once at a "Chinese vegetarian buffet" on Westheimer, so it is some kind of Eastern religious temple. I use to live in Mission Bend (down the street) until like 1998 and I always wondered what the heck that was.

That would be fantastic. Whenever I take my kids to the zoo, we always take the Metro train. Then it is a long walk to the zoo entrance. They even have a station by the playground but it does not stop there anymore. Now they just need to get it to use the Q-card!

Trip times are important, but the convenience may overcome the possibility of a slower trip.

This is a point that a lot of people miss. I commute from Cypress to Uptown. Sometimes riding the bus may actually take longer than driving because I have to transfer (if they added diamond lanes on 290 it would not). But the fact that I can do work on the way ( or relax ) is the real reason I take transit. Now if you add WiFi access to the train, then that hour and 15 minutes becomes very productive.

Which recent rail line was a private company?

I was replying to post #13, talking about the Texas Limited. I thought that was a private company (I could be wrong).

Unfortunately, those justifications for rail aren't as supportive as you might think. ...

I guess you are right. We should just "Katy Freeway" the rest of the highways into town.

My point was that the recent rail line was a private company and that as a commuter line it can succeed even if it does not make a profit. I think the biggest negative would be that it would encourage more people to move to an area that is vulnerable to Hurricanes.

And don't forget that the pollution emitted in the name of transit has to be thought of not only in terms of operation, but also for construction of the systems and vehicles.

If the trains are made in Germany then they get that pollution

Is this the same project reported on in January?

I remember the Texas Limited venture in '89-'94, which is mentioned in the Chron article. They seemed to try various scheduling/pricing combinations over the course of the time they operated - but my recollection was that it was priced too high (and thus marketed for special occasions), and that the ride took longer than you would think it would. The railroad museum website says "track speed restrictions and liability insurance costs ended operations."

They mention that the tracks will be updated to allow for higher speeds. Also, this will not be a private business, so it does not need to make a profit. They can justify the cost in other ways : less road maintenance/expansion, less pollution, increased tax revenue from station locations, ...

Hopefully Metro and the other regions can work together on a common payment system. So I can use my Qcard to get on the 290 Commuter train, then swipe it on the Galveston train, and then use it on the trolley/bus when I get to Galveston.

Or better yet...how about these big developers paying their fair share of the highway improvements!

After all, isn't it their developments that are causing all the freeway capacity issues?!? Why does the general public need to pay for freeway improvements to serve developments that are NOT profiting the general public?!?

I won't cry if the developers pay their share of freeway improvements and only get filthy rich, instead of filthy STINKING rich!!!

Of course, the cost of the freeway improvements would have to be passed on to the homebuyer, but isn't that fair? After all, those homebuyers are the ones who need the freeway improvements, so why shouldn't they pay the bulk of the costs of improvement?

Do you want the big developers to have more say in how the freeways should be built?

I live out by Fairfield ( or as I learned later Farfield) and as the 290 corridor stands now, this is going to destroy it. 290 is already the worst hwy into town, the major park n ride at 290/hyw6 is already over crowded, at peak rush hour the HOV lane is almost as bad as the regular lanes. I use Metro to commute to the Uptown area and one of the worst stretches of 290 is now before hwy-6/1960. This is just going to add to the mess.

There is some hope. A new park n ride is being built right now in Cypress (down the street from Bridgelands, in fact they will have a shuttle service to it). This station is to be a future commuter rail stop into the downtown metro station with a stop to catch the Uptown line. Hempstead tollway is already in the planning process and that is to be followed by the 290 improvements.

The bad part is that the only thing that is being built right now is the park n ride. Even thats impact will be small since I doubt they will put a diamond lane from the end of the 290 HOV lane out to it. So in the morning it will be stuck in the same traffic on 290 to 1960. I just hope that these big developers will be able to apply pressure to get some of these improvements moved up. Otherwise they better hope the people that go out to see the community only go out on the weekend when 290 is a dream.

They are the 2nd or 3rd largest school district in the State. I'm sure that Cypress #11 and Cypress #12 are already in the planning phase.