august948

If you want to do pie-in-the-sky theoretical discussions on the future of transport in Houston, you should start a new thread and set the ground rules. You can't just expect everyone to tip-toe around your opinions and then throw your hands up when you are challenged on them.

For various reasons, neither metro bus or rail service fits my needs. So, when I do take either one I have to make a specific effort to do so. That said, about a year ago I had a work day on my hands with no real work to do so I tooled around inside the loop on various buses and the llght rail. Had a good time, saw a lot of stuff, but also spent a lot of time cumulatively waiting on buses and the train and walking to and fro between stops and destinations. That's ok if I've got the day to kill, but not so much if there are things that need to be done (besides quaffing liters at Bar Munich). I'm going to try it again once the new service is implemented to see what the improvements are like.

I'd guess the ride south is safer, traffic-wise from Rogerdale @ Harwin to Bellaire than going north, although they have improved Rogerdale with sidewalks north of Harwin. Could you take 2 to the red line and then 82 back to Dunlavy?

Noooooo! Say it ain't so. All we need is better bus service and good marketing? All that money wasted on rail.../EndGloat

Metro board approves major changes to bus system... http://www.chron.com/news/transportation/article/Metro-board-approves-major-changes-to-bus-system-6075420.php

Believing that this will change the paradigm, or even anything close to it, or the current trends is just short of ludicrous. If oil goes to $300 or $400 per barrel before electric cars become a practical solution, then maybe, just maybe, you'll see a real paradigm shift. Reducing parking capacity is just going to lose ridership. There is no upside to it. A nudge in which proper direction? Toward a compact, high density city surrounded by bucolic farmland? Do you really see that happening here, in Houston? Is HSR just the thing to tip the balance? Which parking policies do you anticipate being reformed in order to make a downtown station work? If there was a real issue on space I'm sure the city would grant a waver for any particularly cumbersome requirements. I don't see that doing anything for odd parking requirements inside the loop that insist on minimum number of spaces. Is there some other parking ordinance in desperate need of reform besides that one? Constraining for pedestrian access vs vehicle access is just as much of a box as vice versa, perhaps more so. I'm not sure what you consider the suburbs, but from my perspective any location along the loop isn't really suburban in the sense we're talking about. Now if you were to put it at I10 and Grand Parkway, that would really be suburban and too far in the other direction to be optimal. It's about 5 whole miles from downtown to the loop on the west side. That's not really that far unless you are planning to walk. As for a boost, how about the boost light rail/brt plans might get if the HSR station is on the west loop? Not that it's terribly relevant, but what part of the Houston suburbs is contracting?

Agreed. I should have said "greatest economic benefit" instead of lowest cost as that doesn't capture the revenue stream. So, the question really becomes where do you get the greatest ridership since costs are relatively easier to pin down.

I'm not sure I understand why HSR would necessarily be pedestrian oriented. Light rail maybe, but not HSR. HSR is going to replace car and airline trips between Houston and Dallas. Those aren't trips that generally include a large pedestrian element, unless you coun't slogging from one side of the terminal to another. If you make it inconvienent for car commuters you are going to get less usage. If we we're a densly packed city where a majority of of the HSR users lived and worked nearby, then I could see the arguement, but that's clearly not the case here nor will it be in any conceivable future. It really isn't any different from the airport model except that an airport requires a much larger footprint so no one it their right mind would advocate putting one downtown. It is possible for HSR to have a station in downtown, but will Texas Central find it worthwhile to spend the extra dollars to get it there when a location further out works just as well? I doubt it. Also, the location of the line is limited by the practicalities of the row and engineering peculiar to rail travel and HSR travel in particular. That leaves only a few spots for a station open to valid debate. The question is, where do you get the greatest benefit for the lowest cost.

Unfortunately, getting there on those roads isn't terribly convienient for most people in the metro area. And no, the solution isn't a collapse of the suburbs forcing everyone to pack insde the loop.

That was a joke. I guess, though, it's more or less the same as folks who live inside the loop and support this or light rail or any other transit project inside the loop but who could care less about the I10 widening a few years ago or expansion of the Grand Pkwy.

I don't care either way, so I'm not rah-rah about a downtown station, per se. What I'm saying is that it makes more sense to put a station outside downtown given the realities of Houston's current and future development. Ideally, perhaps, they should have a two stations, one in downtown and one someplace like NW mall. But, since it's a private venture, cost is going to be very relevant and I'd rather they do the NW mall location than try to overextend themselves to put it downtown. That can be done later once the line proves profitable.

In 10 years there will be a new crop of top managers in place. When they see profits and bonuses go through the roof, they push it harder to make more for investors and themselves. Frequently, they are near the end of their careers and can take a cushy retirement when things eventually go south. Short-term management thinking was old news back the '80's when I was in business school.

Since most people will be driving to and from the terminal, like they do at the airports this will compete against, easy access to the segment of the population that will be using this is more important. Now if what you really meant was city center to city centre, then I'm down with that.

Of course the downside to economic chaos in a major power like Russia is that Putin may try to wag the dog by stepping up aggression against the Ukraine and others.

It doesn't have to be an either/or. The Shinkasen runs both point-to-point and station hopper services.

From the article above.... So what this tells us is that the long-term forecast is higher demand and thus prices. There will be fluctuations...there always are...and we're in one of them now. But that's short-term. Long term is bullish.

Why stop there? It's a short article. Here's the rest... As you can see, and as has been pointed out, BP has been working on a restructure for the last 18 months. Far before oil prices tanked.

Lol...is a repairman going to fly out from Las Vegas to fix the door? Or do you have to deliver it to sin city yourself?

Eartha Kitt - "Santa Baby" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMyF9fDKzE Others have done it but none can compare to the original. Worst of all is Taylor Swift's pop-isized version. It's like a girl doing a woman's job.

I heard a rumor somewhere that Victor Trevino was completely innocent...and then he pled guilty. So you never know about rumors...whether they will turn out to be true or false. Usually it's best not to pass them around because then you look like a complete fool when they turn out to not be true.

I'm sure they are. The top leadership in the oil industry were junior employees when the bottom fell out in the 80's. It's kind of like how Vietnam affects the thinking of senior military officers today.

I googled BP layoffs and came up with this... Cancellation of a maintenance contract with KBR in Decatur, Alabama, resulting in 131 KBR employees cut. http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2014/11/post_205.html Sale of some assets to another oil company in Alaska, 275 jobs cut. Mind you this was announced in September and it'd be my guess negotiations on the sale had been going for some time. http://www.alaskapublic.org/2014/09/15/bp-plans-alaska-layoffs/ and this... "BP expects to downsize as it creates new U.S. onshore business"...but, it's from MARCH (well before the price drop) and mentions how BP was hurt by the Horizon disaster. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/03/bp-expects-to-downsize-as-it-creates-new-u-s.html?page=all For a company with 84,000 employees worldwide, the above are just normal business fluctuations.

It's certainly not the greatest, or even as good as it once was, but it's still the best way I've found to scan local headlines so far. Anyone have other recommendations?