IronTiger

The Hempstead Toll Road was planned at the same time of the Northwest Freeway widening. I think there's even the appropriate connections built into the HOT lanes to allow for a connection (at least the last plans I saw, but we know those change sometimes, like the original plan to make a five-stack at Grand Parkway and Northwest Freeway). It involved ROW takeover, like it would alter the intersection where Mangum, Hempstead, and 18th all intersect with each other. I also see according to that rendering there's no overpasses or anything, it's all elevated. I seem to remember in this thread that TCR would build overpasses/underpasses for their tracks as well as the freight traffic. Guess not, but I didn't expect much out of TCR anyway, and I still suspect that this is all some sort of plan to manipulate taxpayers somehow for a profit as the economics from the last study haven't really changed in terms of how many people they need to do daily to turn a profit. (I expect that I'll receive notifications for replies telling me how wrong I am)

Having his mother be a drug-addled violent hippie may earn Lomax my sympathy, but even if that article wasn't a fluke (something about broken clocks), why are all of his other works clearly phoned in?

Nice! Though I did feel like too many of the shots felt a bit overedited in ways, like the saturation was turned up beyond what was seen in reality.

Single track or freight traffic has nothing to do with it, a properly maintained freight track owned by a major company (UP, BNSF) can go up to 60 mph. Problem is, I don't know who owns the tracks around Galveston, which is probably Class 3 (since it's no longer a main line at that point), which is capped at 40 mph. The good news for passenger trains is that they're allowed to go faster so in theory (if it is Class 3), the legal maximum is 60 mph for passenger. However, the rail being capped at 35 (not 40) sounds like it would apply to ALL trains, which would throttle passenger rail.

Well, I don't know about right of way. It's like railroad crossings, roads cross for free 99% of the time, but when a train comes, it gets to go. However, I don't know if that's the case here. Do trains wait, or does it go down for trains? These days, I go to Galveston every three years on average, which is not enough to determine if trains wait or not. However, the 35 mph speed limit also suggests the former.

The "driving down Katy Freeway" was supposed to be a slight exaggeration of what his articles often contain, and as for the latter complaint, the Texas Monthly snippets can be found on Google Books (search any of the quotes on that, you'll hit multiple 1983 volumes of Texas Monthly). It's okay to pull out these sorts of things, after all, there are whole blogs composed of newspaper clippings and others, and I know that I often use old ads and articles for discussion pieces in the Historic Houston section, but I don't pass myself off as a journalist while taking half of the content wholesale. (On the outside chance that you are John Nova Lomax under a screen name, I never said your content wasn't occasionally interesting).

I said 300 feet, and I think I did come up under 300 feet, and that was an estimate. (Yes, I do know 10 feet could make a significant difference in ship width, but the HAIF is not the best place to consult on that). Either way, the fact that the bridge favors ships by default as opposed to rail is telling.

It's the railroad bridge that parallels the causeway. The drawbridge on the rail side is up by default because of heavy ship traffic, and trains come less frequently (it is probably one of the few areas where trains don't get right of way). The reason for that is probably whatever authority is in charge of the Houston Ship Channel demands it, and they definitely have more money/political influence than whatever authority tries to do a Galveston/Houston line. The result would be that commuter trains would need to come to a full and complete stop as the bridge is lowered for them (or longer, if there's a ship coming through). The road bridges are high enough that ships pass under them, but the rail isn't.

which would be hard since the suspension part was only changed out five years ago, and even if there WAS damage, they're not going to replace the entire 2-mile span of causeway. If a terrorist wired up the entire causeway to be destroyed by a detonated explosion (a lot of work for something that would cause minimal to no loss of human life), then it would probably be replaced with a similar structure (trains don't like going up and down hills) or abandoned entirely.

I'm saying that the actual Houston/Galveston traffic between the two isn't at all worth investing in rail. It's not like The Woodlands, where there's solid traffic on I-45 AND an auxiliary toll road out to the area. In all my trips to Galveston or parts nearby, I-45 is bad (which may or may not relate to construction) but by Texas City it's not bad at all. If road traffic was an issue then when they rebuilt the two Galveston I-45 spans (one of which partially dated back to the 1930s) they would've been much wider. The spans remained at three lanes in each direction with a very long merging lane from the entrance of Harborside Drive (TX 275)/Teichman Road and Tiki Island (and vice versa), presumably with the intent to add a fourth lane if necessary. The other reason why the bridge was rebuilt was in favor of ships. The old bridge and railroad bridge were declared a "hazard" as of 2001. The old bridge had a width of 125 feet and the rail 120 feet. The rebuilt bridge had a clearance of 300 feet, with the rebuilt rail bridge also having 300 feet. From the fact that the default bridge position is "raised", there's a clear ship bias in Galveston. The railroad in Galveston basically functions as a long rail spur, with storage, a few ports, and a few minor others (like the railroad museum). The rails east of 28th Street are also hardly used (if ever), especially since it goes through a highly tourist area. The only reason people still talk about rail to Galveston is that the infrastructure exists, but when inconvenient facts start revealing themselves (unless an entirely new bridge was built, the commuter rail will have to stop at the Causeway, which is probably why the 35 mph cap exists). And when you're talking about a new bridge, any cost-savings on the existing infrastructure vanish (even if UP was totally cool with the passenger trains being on it, which is doubtful). Since I-45 traffic on the bridge is already comparatively light, the question of how much of that traffic is originating from anywhere close to downtown Houston and not the entire region (including as far as Dallas and Louisiana).

@SpaceGhost: I looked in HCAD first, but was fruitless because as it turns out, it wasn't in Harris County. From Fort Bend County Appraisal District, it told me that it changed hands around 2002 (and the "Canopy/Slab" was built, indicating the restaurant change) and was built in 1993. The 2002 date explains why it's so hard to find, as it falls before 2005 (generally, and this may change as the years go on, but addresses prior to 2005 get very hard to find prior to that date). But On The Border WAS correct. I found this Houston Chronicle newspaper bit from 1993. And, an article from November 2002 that comes full circle....

Even older Wolfe Nursery stuff! What's strange is that most of those locations above were newer locations. The ones they had in 1988 were almost completely different. This is from Houston Post, 1988. This allows us to see some of the pre-1990s locations! There are a few overlap locations but not many, as if they completely changed their store stock. I-45 at Rayford - because of the ambiguous address, it's hard to tell even where it was 10110 Kleckley - see the photo of @torimask above, the Goodyear is still there (Wolfe is now P&S Complete Auto Repair) 6735 Larkwood - appears to be Kiva Bath & Kitchen now, but that building was around back then (it's possible it was 6734 Larkwood, now a strip center) 10814 S. Post Oak - integrated into adjacent strip center 4195 Spencer Hwy. - now Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting 9550 Hempstead Hwy. - later American Wheel & Tire, though this was demolished several years ago as part of the 290/610 project Kieth Harrow and Hwy. 6 - Later replaced by what appears to be a gas station and Houston Garden Centers (which was much smaller than Wolfe Nursery), the garden center was taken out for the parking lot to H-E-B while the gas station was later torn down and rebuilt "20305 I-10 West" - if this is Brookshire, as Google Maps tells me, this is a truck stop 11321 Northwest Freeway - later Houston Garden Centers, but for several years this was not a garden center. It was closed several years ago and demolished more recently. 1700 West Loop - possibly a typo, as by 1988 the area had become home to dense buildings 17002 North Freeway - lost in a freeway widening in the early 1990s, now Garcia's Auto Sales 10815 FM 1960 - appears to be Houston Garden Centers now (10843), note that this co-exists with 10602 FM 1960 West Corner of Richmond and Hwy. 6 - existed for sure, but a Home Depot by 1995 8707 West Loop - torn down for PACE Warehouse Club, which didn't last all that long (now Planetary Cycles, Hobby Lobby today) 5000 Westpark - this large artificial hill area later served as Houston Garden Centers before it was torn down in 2001 for the tollway, due to the hill it also served as others including an amphitheater, waterslide, artificial ski slope, and others Also note the "Wolfe Nursery at Sears" stores, these stores only lasted a brief time in the Sears garden center areas before they too were closed. (I have another thread on this).

The only way that would work (especially without some sort of guard to keep people off the tracks) is if the train went at a slow pace. What you're describing is kind of like what New Orleans does (actual U.S. example instead of, what is that, Italy?) but the trolley pokes along at an average speed of 6.1 mph (source: Washington Post), and even buses move faster than that. Either way, I still didn't get an answer to my question.

It can't go through the median because that's designated as parkland. Dedicating one lane as rail might work but I have yet to see an example in Houston where METRO hasn't taken up more than one road lane (in a given direction) or required permanent additional right of way.

I still really doubt that rail to Galveston has a positive cost/benefit ratio, and "I-45 being congested" is mostly in the parts under construction closer to Beltway 8. The bridge to the island isn't that congested, otherwise the bridge rebuild from about 2004 to 2009 would've been wider, and the reason why TxDOT is footing the bill for this by now is because there's no authority that will connect Galveston to Harris due to the county line differences.

Well, which is it? That rail to Houston would provide "tremendous economic growth" (presumably that only rail could really satiate), or that the old train was just before its time? It can't be played both ways.

According to the records I have 6806 Highway 6 was #15 which closed in 2005, and probably opened (just on style of numbering) in 1980.

There's no need to shuffle around freight spurs especially if they're being used to some extent. For Hobby, just having a dedicated shuttle line (possibly elevated) would be more efficient, and likewise for IAH (maybe hook in with their own shuttle rail?). There would also be the issue of the drawbridge between Galveston and the mainline, and building a dedicated new bridge for the line would add tremendously to the cost especially if you going to argue the "existing infrastructure" part.

If rail to Galveston was as much of an economic boon as you think it is, then it would've grown Galveston dramatically in the early 1990s and taking out the service would be unthinkable. The success of Midtown and it happening right around the time rail was built helped create/perpetuate the myth of "instant economy just add rail" but the reality is that same sort of growth has been happening all over the Inner Loop rail or not.

The other problem, and I think this has been mentioned, is that even if rail was able to go on the same track of freight (which would dramatically lower infrastructure costs), freight traffic is capped to about 35 mph, which would really screw up any time savings over road. The amount of people that live in Galveston (or would like to live in Galveston, and I don't think Galveston has especially cheap housing) and work in downtown Houston (or parts around it) is going to be a small minority, and putting the station in downtown Houston would render it fairly useless for tourism purposes as well. If you wanted a viable commuter corridor in Houston, do The Woodlands as both have major industries located there, the Hardy Toll Road rail corridor is faster, and it can even hook up to the airport. While the Hardy Toll Road is not rail nor an equivalent, it does prove that people are willing to pay to avoid I-45 North to downtown, and it comes with another advantage that Galveston/Houston would have to deal with...the train would not get stopped at the drawbridge as a ship passes under it (and based on observations of aerial imagery, it looks like having the drawbridge "up" is the default position).

I seem to recall an article where someone had wanted to put in rail at the new baseball stadium ("baseball fans arriving by rail") but realistically, there was no way that could work. The block where Union Station was, directly south of it had been the platforms for the trains but even by the 1980s where the rails were had become a parking lot (the rails may have been intact, but they weren't functioning). To have rail at Minute Maid, it would have to run along Texas Avenue (with all necessary signage required for an active rail) AND the tracks connecting it would have to be kept open. There was a crossing directly through Bastrop and Rusk, that would've had to have been maintained as an active crossing (with signals on all four sides), and seven more crossings before hooking into the mainline at Sampson Street. With the railroad still at Bastrop and Rusk that means that the BBVA Compass Stadium wouldn't happen at that location, and that has benefitted EaDo greatly. So then either the rail gets abandoned (again) or BBVA Compass Stadium moves, or Houston Dynamo leaves. But the train from Houston to Galveston just doesn't seem anymore than a novelty. It's not a major commuter center, and even if you were going to classes at UTMB, the only reason you would take a train is for purposes related to housing, and it sure isn't going to be cheaper to live in Houston to commute, and commuting from Galveston to Houston for work makes just as little sense. The thing is that the Interurban was that roads really did render it obsolete back in the mid-1930s (just like many other interurbans across Texas) and nostalgia isn't a compelling reason for keeping something high-maintenance like that on taxpayer dollars (that's why the revival line died...and notice that I'm trying to compare rail to rail, like the Houston METRO or eastern seaboard cities).

An "expected" move may have been delayed. I found a reference in the Chronicle about Continental closing 3 ticketing offices in Houston, and one of them was explicitly "Oshman's on Gessner" and this was September 2004. By May 2005, the Oshman's store on Gessner had been leveled. According to the Chronicle, it was announced that all nine Oshman's sporting goods stores in Houston (likely all SuperSports by this point) will be rebranded as The Sports Authority. So opening in "2004 or 2005" seems definitely likely, especially if they waited until after the Christmas season to move. Regardless, since Wilson's was there prior to Service Merchandise and we know of the merchandise incompatibility problem, that's the theory I'm running with, but it still begs the question if they opened as early as the early 1970s.

Globe (later FedMart) was just on the other side at the southwest corner of Gessner and Katy Freeway. Sage was at the southwest of Beltway 8 and I-10. I don't think Gibson's ever operated in Houston. It is too bad the Houston 1970s papers are not easily online, I'm sure it has answers.

Did it even have a time when it wasn't covered in ads? I have a copy from early June (a bit of a keepsake now I guess) and 16 pages (including half-pages of ads) were just advertisements out of 32 pages total. Inside was two "local Houston" articles, neither of which really had to do with Houston (stolen research and an auction of a bag of moon rocks), the front page article on nightclubs (Numbers, Neon Boots, Barberella, Dean's on Main, Boondocks, Alley Kat Lounge, Stereo Live) which was kind of interesting in a "reading about the lives of others" way though I think HP's demographics actually go to nightclubs rather than see them as some of exotic culture, some listings of local shows and other "arts and culture" events, a review of Wonder Woman that appears to be written by a radical feminist (though not without merit--her disappointment with it convinced me to see it with friends in a reverse psychology sort of way), a smaller review of a TV show, a full page on a review of a stage production of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a small section on bar food, local openings and closings (boring but good from a historical point of view), an article on the suicide of a local musician, a few listings for concerts, and a small section called "Ask Willie D", which given the fact that it turned out that the Wonder Woman review was actually syndicated from Village Voice, I assumed that the small column was (I was wrong, it turns out that Willie D is sourced out of Houston). Like others, the "advice column" reads like its parodying daytime television (scanning a cursory Google search has the questions of "I'm in love with a stripper!" and "How do I tell my co-worker he has terrible breath"), with this one starting out as "Dear Willie D: I'm into S&M, whips, chains, latex, everything..." (the question was I guess a common problem where one partner wants to do kinkier stuff than the other, but it just seemed to come off as so over-the-top that it sounds like they made it up). Finally, there's the listings of some nightclubs, and after the infamous sex ads, there were some classifieds in tiny text. I'm pretty sure no one reads that. I like print publications, but it just felt like HP was obsolete, and even the "front page" content amounted to little more than travel guide material. I read it as one would read an old issue of National Geographic where I could learn about and experience different cultures without being there or participating, but that wasn't the point. From what I guess of the readers that HP tries to attract, telling them about nightclubs they already go to just seems like filler. Even the "Houston News" just sounds like they pulled the most boring, most generic stuff you can imagine. Why not create original content, something no one else would report on, or at least go for interesting content? When watching national news, I want to give myself a lobotomy with a power drill, but local news tends to be interesting. Back when I worked in Houston, there was a good chance there would be something weird on the local news, like traffic stopped on Northwest Freeway as a woman danced naked on top of an 18-wheeler. A city of millions of people with untold stories and you went with moon rocks going on auction. Hurricane Harvey was devastating, and it was expected that ad revenue would shrink (temporarily). But it honestly sounds to me like Voice Media Group took that as an opportunity to kill HP and deprive it of even the chance to cover the Astros World Series win (wouldn't that have made a bittersweet end).

One of the things not covered in the weeping over Houston Press was how hacky the writing had become. John Nova Lomax stands out, half of his stuff is just stolen content ("hey, let me make commentary on this old article from 1982 I found") and the other half is just fluff ("hey, I'm going to drive down Katy Freeway, write an article, and make it sound really profound and unique to Houston").* * A slight exaggeration, but not that far off. The articles below show what I'm talking about. http://swamplot.com/one-of-houstons-keenest-witted-local-explorers-once-rated-houstons-top-convenience-stores-and-heres-what-became-of-them/2014-12-05/ https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2013/8/7/houston-by-night-1983-style-august-2013 www.houstonpress.com/news/the-sole-of-houston-6545147 www.houstonpress.com/music/houston-radio-still-sucks-6543898