mfastx

Looks gorgeous... NNOOOTTTT 

Do we know if anything will become of those huge parking lots in front? 

Looks fantastic from street/sidewalk level. 

Too good to be true. I'll believe it once construction starts. 

21 hours ago, gmac said:

I have to believe that everyone pulling for this thing to be rammed through is also fine with the I-45 expansion. I mean it's just people's land, right?

I mean, everyone was apparently fine with building highways to no end that take up way more property/homes than a rail line ever would (and continue to take up more even after they are built!), so I see it as a bit hypocritical to be staunchly opposed to a rail line for these reasons. 

Perfect timing with another hurricane on the way.. 

Quick, someone go ride this thing! 

This man (or lady) hindesky is the MVP of HAIF.  Thanks! 

Wait, this actually happening?  Trying not to get my hopes up lol. 

Houston's big dig

14 hours ago, gmac said:

Just as most of you love skyscrapers, a concept I find to be outmoded (I'm more of a low-rise architecture fan), you appear to love this fantastical train idea. I would prefer public investments go to designing and implementing highway changes/upgrades to safely handle autonomous vehicles.

 

Let's see what happens. I'm willing to bet that if this thing does come to fruition it will cost north of $40 billion and a large chunk of that will be taken from the public wallet.

People want alternatives.  All over the world, when given the option, HSR wins against airlines for distances such as Dallas - Houston.  We already invest plenty in highways.  

Obviously BRT in a vacuum isn't as good as light rail (and by that same token, light rail isn't nearly as good as heavy rail), but it's still an improvement over what we have and given that Metro has apparently given up on building the University Line as rail, it wouldn't make as much sense to build a rail section on Post Oak without connecting it to the network. 

Looks very European.  Love it. 

I've long maintained that Westheimer is the most suitable corridor in Houston for rail.  Too bad it won't happen in my lifetime. 

Amazing.  Had no idea how beautiful the original facade was underneath that awful cladding.  Classic Houston. 

14 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

Sliding though isn't on the Private end, but the Public end. You can imagine why it would take even longer if this was an all government job. They still need a couple more approvals to finally get this going. I'm sure if there wasn't this many hops to jump through they probably would have started a couple years ago.

I thought the timeline was sliding because of NIMBYs and lawsuits? 

Good to hear.  I see the timeline is sliding a bit, hopefully they can actually start construction in 2020, and that it is successful and inspires other projects. 

Great street level design, nicely done. 

Lookin' spiffy! 

Direct result of Culberson being voted out lol.  Too little, too late though, too bad this didn't happen 10 years earlier. 

Richmond is one of the few corridors in Houston that absolutely warrants rail. 

21 hours ago, wilcal said:

 

Definitely not enough room on Westheimer. Their "premier westheimer bus" is going to skip Westheimer in Montrose and utilize the 59 HOV and head into Greenspoint.

 

Additionally, I wonder what BRT even looks like in some of these examples. 

 

I do agree that you dump Purple Line to Hobby extension. Utilize those funds to convert UH to Bellaire/Uptown transit to LRT. You can keep the outer bits as BRT. 

For Westheimer, a subway would be optimal which is what I had in mind.  Yes it'd be a lot of money but well worth it in the long run, next 100 years or so.  The ridership numbers in the plan are just backwards, putting LRT (or optimally, HRT but I understand that is not realistic at this point) in those higher ridership corridors would bring even more ridership than BRT.  

The orignal plan on Richmond would work well too, that's wide enough for a surface line. 

I'll always support transit improvements of any kind so on principal I do support this plan, but it's truly baffling the decisions they're making on where to put rail vs. BRT corridors.  They're doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing, which is focusing rail on more dense corridors with higher ridership potential and BRT on less dense areas.  It's truly mystifying and would be a massive misuse of money.  What is the use of having TWO lines going to Hobby, take one of those lines and the north line extension and make it an east-west route along Westheimer or Richmond.  Just makes too much sense I suppose. 

18 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

BRT is a solid investment right now for the city. It’s cheaper and just as asthetically pleasing as light rail. There are a few success stories in SF and Chicago. I think the best option right now for Richmond is BRT. And we can focus our energy on getting the airports connected to light rail. 

I agree that it looks like it will end up being BRT, but if there's any corridor in Houston that's more appropriate for rail than BRT, it's the western corridors such as Richmond and Westheimer connecting Downtown and Uptown.  Not at least trying for rail on these corridors would be a mistake as opting for BRT vs rail would limit transit ridership potential in the area.  

Such a shame this never got built.  There are highrises all over Houston right next to single family homes.  Beautiful building.