august948

College Station is a better choice than Waco, because Waco's growth patterns aren't growing much, and while College Station-Bryan is a bustling 200k area with a massive university, a growing biomedical industry, and a lot of potential.

 

What this will mean is it will probably sprout some very upscale bedroom communities for those going to Houston.

Actually, I was suggesting it go through both CS and Waco.  Not sure if that's even feasible but it might save me some driving at least once a year.

There's a higher potential for revenue I'm CS than there is for Waco, which has Baylor and Dr.Pepper and that's about it...granted one of those is very important to the state of Texas and the rest of the established world, and the other is Baylor...

Ouch.

if Dallas gets a downtown stop and Houstons stop ends up outside of the loop im going to shit a brick.

I think I'll jump for joy.  It'd be a closer ride for me to get to a Galleria area station than having to go downtown or to the airports to catch a flight.  Of course, I do my best to avoid Dallas so it might be a moot point.

ugh. no college station stop please. and if they must stop there, make at least half the trips direct Houston to Dallas, and alternate which ones stop there. i like to spend as little time in college station as possible.

I wouldn't worry about it.  Most likely there'll be plenty of not-stops to Dallas and a few that will stop in CS.  I think I heard somewhere that they may try to run departures every 30 mins.  That leaves plenty of room for non-stops as well as CS-stops.

Would it help if they shifted the alignment to go Houston, CS, Waco, Dallas?

I've heard that the vote is scheduled for 4:53am on Thursday, Jan 1.  A 30 second window will be allowed for votes to be cast.  Voting to be done in person at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Crime happens all over.  Latest case I've heard about was the guy found dead by a jogger in the Heights yesterday.

Since it will only take 30 minutes to get to College Station, it will turn A&M into another commuter school for Houston.

Ha!  Depending on where you are coming from and the time of day, it might be faster to commute to A&M than UH.  A damn sight more expensive commute, though.

Ah.  That commission!  Well, hopefully they don't have too much influence or this privately funded study and company will take its bag or tricks to route B and go forward there.

 

A stop in College Station - while someday needed, and certainly will get used on Aggie football gamedays - is not the best allocation of TCR's resources currently at least in my opinion.  Why not stop too in Huntsville and Corsicana?  I mean this thing can get dragged out by all those podunk places who want to sit at the big kids table but aren't big enough yet.

If they run both non-stops and station-hoppers, why would it really matter if they had stations in Huntsville, Corsicana or even Mexia?  Unless they shift the alignment from CS to Dallas to go via Waco, there really isn't much to warrent stops anyway so likely it'll be a couple of stops in DFW and here and a stop in CS.

I was by uh recenty that station looks nice

Yep.  Around UH it looks (to the untrained eye) ready to go.  Stations are in, concrete and track laid, wires up.

The commission has zero say. It's up to what Texas central railway wants at the end. And they've always insisted on 45

The commission, of which Ted Houghton is the chair, oversees TxDOT.  They may not have direct control, but I bet they could put up roadblocks or speed things along if they want.  This is from the TTC's website FAQ...

 

What are the commission's responsibilities?

The Texas Transportation Commission is responsible for:

• planning and making policies for the location, construction and maintenance of state highways,
• overseeing the design, construction, maintenance and operation of the state highway system,
• developing a statewide transportation plan that contains all modes of transportation, including highways and turnpikes, aviation, mass transportation, railroads, high-speed railroads and water traffic,
• awarding contracts for the improvement of the state highway system,
• encouraging, fostering and assisting in the development of public and mass transportation in the state, and
• adopting rules for the operation of the department.

A complete list of Commission duties is available in the Texas Administrative Code

Sounds like they've got pretty extensive reach.  I doubt the chair would go out on a limb about a CS station unless he's reasonably sure that's being planned.  Most likely TCR is including them in their discussions at some level.  TCR is going to be working with the state, not against it.

That commission is not the actual rail developer, is it?  Doesn't read or sound like it.  If that's the case then this thing could get muddled as everyone's going to want a piece of the pie.  Houston-CS-Dallas is not as attractive as being Houston-Dallas.  The stop at College Station/Bryan would likely only be 5-8 minutes, but it would require a slow-down and start-up for that location dragging the overall time well north of 90 minutes.

 

Also mentioned in that article was the need for federal funding for the Fort Worth - Dallas part of the line, which was not mentioned by the developers as a part of the first scope.  Unless I missed something?

Likely there'd be two services...one non-stop to Dallas and one a puddle jumper.  That's how it works in Japan and the Tokyo to Osaka line has something like 17 stops for the slower train.  Could be we'll eventually see a couple of stops in our area, maybe the Woodlands area and then Galleria/Northwest Transit Center area.

True that not everyone is going to be going downtown.  Current travelers go to IAH or Hobby, but both of those are hindered by lack of light rail connections, forcing visitors to take cars.  Maybe more important than the specific location of the terminal is that it is somehow integrated into the light rail network.  In a perfect world one should be able to get from the train to downtown to the airports without having to get in a car.

Looking at the P&R buses that run through the northwest transit center, the schedule says 10 mins between there and downtown.  That's not too bad.

I certainly hope that is the case.  It would be a shame to see a huge project like this terminate at Northwest Mall, and then force people to sit in traffic on cheap shuttle buses to get to downtown.

That might not be the greatest site in the world, but they will no doubt be constrained by feasibility and cost.  There's an assumtion, though, that everyone or even a majority riding the hsr in from Dallas is going downtown.  Since they're targeting the air travelers between here and Dallas I think you need to look at it from the perspective of what those travelers currently do (go to IAH or Hobby) and where they come from/are going.

Plus, if this is a success, might it not eventually drive a light rail line in the northwest corridor or at least an upgrade to the uptown line and a hard shove to the university line, if it's not already built by that time?

Here you go IronTiger!  A stop in College Station.

 

That initial line would also include a stop in College Station, said Ted Houghton, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission.

“The Houston-to-Dallas connection is going to happen,” Houghton told the Star-Telegram. “It will have one stop, in College Station. It will be just east of Highway 6.”

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/27/6072469/high-speed-rail-gaining-steam.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

 

And protected bike lanes on Alabama all the way from UH to ...wherever Alabama ends on the west side.

That would be in a neighborhood just past Weslayan where the railroad track are.  If they could work out a tunnel or bridge across the railroad tracks you could continue on to the loop.

Good idea, but best be aware it's going to take drivers a while to get used to the lane.  Took awhile to get used to metrorail and in the meantime there were a lot of accidents.

Except that the alleged brochure (has anyone actually seen and read this alleged brochure?) was, by the "reporter's" own statement, printed after the bond vote was passed.   That's a pretty odd way to pull off a scam.  Another fundamentally dishonest, incompetent piece of trash journalism.

A good point.  So why would someone at HCTRA write and have printed a brochure with that language, especially after the vote?  There certainly has been a persistant rumor/ubran myth for years that the toll roads were to be free after they were paid off.  I don't think that came from nowhere.

A brochure is not a credible source though.

Even if put out by the government agency in question?  What happened then, a rouge secretary somewhere decided to write and print it?

Drivers go to places of employment. If rail went to galleria, downtown, greenway plaza, medical center on our current rail system, hook that with a commuter rail and I'm confident that would help reduce congestion.

Better to just run more commuter buses in the HOV/HOT lanes.  Establish a network of interconnected HOV/HOT lanes on all the area freeways and run buses to and from major employment centers/edge cities and then let local transport take them to the final destinations if not nearby the park & ride station.

Where have I seen this concept b/f........

 

 

Eureka!

 

What to call them?.... Drive-blinders? 

Call it GoJo...

That's a brochure. Id like to see a direct quote from a HCTRA official. If this WAS true it would've been advertised a lot more than a simple brochure.

You're probably not ever going to see one as holding onto the revenue stream was their real intention.  The existence of the brochure, though, is pretty good evidence someone was trying to mislead the public at the time.

Actually no, HCTRA is a business and builds these roads to serve two purposes; relieve congestion AND make money.

 

Actually, HCTRA is part of the Harris County Government.  It's not a business.

 

The Toll Road Authority was created by Harris County Commissioners Court in 1983 after Harris County voters approved a referendum to release $900 million in bonds to construct toll roads in the rapidly growing Greater Houston Metropolitan area. The Toll Road Authority, a division of Harris County's Public Infrastructure Department, is an Enterprise Fund of Harris County and relies on charges from users of the toll road system to fund operations, debt service, and future projects. Organized under the Public Infrastructure Department's Executive Director, Arthur L. Storey, Jr., the Toll Road Authority is led by its Director, Gary K.Trietsch

https://www.hctra.org/about/?CSRT=1906192185674684023

As is so often the case, you misunderstand the situation (or are simply making it up).  There was never a pledge or plan to make the Harris County toll roads toll-free.  Ever. 

 

It should also be noted that the excess money the toll road authority receives from tolls has been used to fund other (non-toll) projects in Harris County.

Apparently at the time there was some literature put out that led people to believe the roads would be toll-free once they were paid off.

 

Steve Malouf now pays close to $200 a month in tolls.

"Makes me angry, really angry," he said.

Because Steve knows what we found downtown inside a building that looks on the outside like it should be torn down; newspaper accounts of the nasty political fight three decades ago over the idea of selling bonds to build toll roads. Seventy percent of you said OK, but all those cheering people...wonder if they'd be so excited today if they knew they had been scammed?

"You feel scammed?" we asked toll road driver David Sartis.

"Oh sure, of course," he said.

We found this brochure from the early days of the Toll Road Authority, printed just after we OKed building the West Belt and the Hardy Toll Road. The promise was simple: "When both roads combined have covered their costs, the roads will become free public highways."

"What'd you think would happen when we paid the roads off?" we asked Sartis.

"Well, you would think they'd take the toll booths away, right?" he replied.

Well, if you used the toll road today, you already know that didn't happen.

But the promise is there in black and white. They used it get us to vote.

http://abc13.com/archive/8671067/

Another possible wild card in the Houston Mayor's race could be U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX).

I don't think she would give up her current cushy job for one that has a max duration of 6 years unless the voters in her district finally decide to cut her fed career short.

I was very disappointed when I saw this, but you know something....I'm pretty optimistic about the future. It seems like a lot of these big box stores are really rushing in trying to grab whatever they can because they know this kind of attitude won't be tolerated in the next decade (this area of the galleria, Costco near greenway, redevelopment along heights and montrose). Let the last vestiges of a bye gone era of suburbanism have the moment in the twilight because maybe 5-10 years from now we will all have a good laugh when we drive the bulldozers ourselves demolishing a generations foolish ideals of city building to replace it with our own vision. Give it time. We are riding the edge of two different ideologies. I'm no longer getting pissed off by developments like these because I know they won't last and won't define the Houston of the future. I think all of us here should do the same. Yeah it's a bummer, but lets not lose sight of what possibilities a site like this could hold in the future.

Ah, the unbridled optimism of youth.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but that walmart will still be there in 50 years.  At best, in 5 to 10 years they'll be going through a normal remodeling cycle.  Paint and patch...that sort of thing.  It's not a last-gasp land grab that's going on here.  They're just looking for new markets.  There's a trend on of reverse flight of wealthier households from the suburbs to the city core, here and elsewhere.  Walmart, costco and others see that as an opportunity to grow sales.  Unfortunately, the reality is that it's dollars that drive development, not a wider cohesive vision.  A Haussmann won't be visiting us anytime soon, no matter how much you might wish for one.