Why Is Houston So Slow In Building

[111486]

Why is Houston so slow in building the new light rail lines?

[westguy]

Mostly it's the lack of $$.

[Talbot]

The economiy isn't so great right now.

[ssullivan]

Don't forget that Metro really couldn't begin any work toward expanding the light rail system until this year. In order to qualify for federal funds for the expansion, Metro had to put it to a vote (again) last year thanks to the likes of Tom DeLay and his anti-mass transit cronies. Fortunately the Metro Solutions plan passed last November, giving Metro the green light to continue planning expansions to the starter line and start the process of applying for the federal money that is necessary to implement the plan the voters approved. Given the circumstances, I don't think a two year delay between the opening of the first light rail line and the start of construction on the next segment is that bad. Sure, I wish they were able to have the extension to Northline under construction already, but the ridiculous restrictions Metro has had to put up with because of Tom DeLay and John Culberson have made that impossible. Hopefully now everything will stay on the schedule Metro has outlined, and within 10 years we should have a fairly decent rail system inside the loop. I still lament the fact that it took Metro over 20 years to actually get a rail line under construction, considering the fact that the agency had solid plans for a rail system in the early 1980s and in the early 1990s was very close to starting construction on a system. Houston might be a very different place today if the original heavy rail transit system, which included a downtown subway, had been approved and built. By now we'd probably have high speed rail access to both airports, and possibly places like Katy, Spring, Missouri City, Kingwood, and Clear Lake. Unfortunately voters in 1983 didn't like that plan and it would be another twenty years before rail transit returned to the streets of Houston.