City Building Connector To Link White Oak Bayou Greenway Trail With MKT Trail By The Heights

[TXK]

On 10/6/2022 at 7:07 PM, bookey23 said:

Anyone know if there's a plan for the huge swath of dirt alongside the MTK trail, which I assume is currently being used as a path for heavy machinery? I don't expect anything too groundbreaking there, but it would be great if they added some benches and some trees, since they have a lot of room to work with. I walked on the MTK trail the other day at peak heat and it was scorching without any trees on that side of the path.

They've planted several trees along the trail at the end closest to the bridge, but the end closer to Frasier was still dirt when I went by last weekend. If there wasn't a parking lot on Studemont, I would've thought it'd be a good place for neighborhood trailhead parking.

[Texasota]

4 hours ago, TXK said:

They've planted several trees along the trail at the end closest to the bridge, but the end closer to Frasier was still dirt when I went by last weekend. If there wasn't a parking lot on Studemont, I would've thought it'd be a good place for neighborhood trailhead parking.

More trees before parking please.

[sapo2367]

I've biked it a few times now -- really great in terms of what it does for the bike network!! However the actual construction kinda sucks. The concrete segments are much more uneven than both the white oak and heights trails on either side. Its a pity they couldn't have at least matched the quality of the existing trail.

[august948]

On 10/18/2022 at 6:48 AM, Texasota said:

More trees before parking please.

Why not both?  One of the things I have to (begrudgingly) praise Austin for is that they tend to plant and/or leave trees scattered through their parking lots.  We have that some here but I seem to see more of it in Austin.  We should especially be doing that in our parks.

[BEES?!]

4 hours ago, august948 said:

Why not both?  One of the things I have to (begrudgingly) praise Austin for is that they tend to plant and/or leave trees scattered through their parking lots.  We have that some here but I seem to see more of it in Austin.  We should especially be doing that in our parks.

For real I’m always blown away at how much less crappy our surface lots could be if they just planted more trees in them.

[hbg.50]

On 10/11/2022 at 8:07 AM, TacoDog said:

Can a railing be built that is strong enough to stop a bicyclist from knocking it over but light enough for debris to knock it over in a flood? And cheap enough to replace it 🙃

Guard rails were added a few days ago... open enough to allow debris to flow in the event of a flood.

[urbanize713]

@JClark54 posted below ono the hardy extension thread. 

This may be a dumb question but how active is this section of rail?

   

Not may warehouses I can think off that need immediate rail access. I've seen the proposals to extend this trail along the rail corridor but has there even been any discussions or proposals to eliminate the rail line all together? Seem like pretty handy way to bring memorial park and uptown into the bayou greenways system. 

[JClark54]

The highlighted area is comprised of the Eureka switching yard and the Bellaire Rail Line, or Houston Rail Line depending on what map you pull up. Both are UP property today. UP classifies that line as a minor connector to the Sunset Route, its main connector serving the southern United States that spans from California to New Orleans. 

UP states the primary benefit of the line is yard and rail customer access. It lists aggregates manufacturers as the customer base. Since through carriage isn't the stated primary use, it's likely the line and yard will lose appeal when customers move out.

UP acquired the yard and what we know as the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Line, or MKT Line, after buying up the trackage of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company, also called The Katy, after its collapse. UP changed the line's name to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas subdivision, but would abandon it east of the yard as the Terminal Line behind Washington Avenue gained prominence. Terminal is double track, whereas MKT was not. The abandoned MKT line would later become the MKT hike and bike trail. TxDOT purchased MKT line right of way west of the yard for the I-10 expansion. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by JClark54

[JClark54]

UP has increased usage of the section of line through Memorial Park as a parking lot in recent months as east end communities had success drawing attention to the uptick in hours-long stopped trains at city intersections. It's more than two miles long, so it can support modern, PSR-era length trains. I would think this luxury alone will ensure the line is active for quite some time moving forward. 

The FRA recently named the Houston complex as a whole, but more specifically the east subdivisions, as the most congested and underinvested rail corridors in United States of America. It had more than double the number of stoppages in excess of 15 minutes -- the federally mandated maximum time a train can stop at an intersection without movement -- than the second worst complex in the nation in 2021. 

FRA Administrator Amit Bose recently visited the east end for a second time in three months and specifically mentioned the so-called Eastwood Triangle (west belt, east belt and galv sub) and Clinton as examples of excessive railroad company abuse of authority. He said fines are on the table when asked by residents whether he'd break from FRA tradition and actually penalize railroads for excessive sits.

For context, the FRA fined all railroads (short lines and Class IV through I) a total of $17 million in 2021 for all types of violations, not just excessively long stoppages. Fines are few and far between, so his comment speaks volumes. 

With the spotlight on, I would think UP is looking for storage locations away from the noisy communities. All major Class Is have adopted an operating model of longer trains without investing in yard infrastructure to support them.

Edited March 10, 2023 by JClark54