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Is connecting downtown & Clear Lake on METRO's agenda?
By JOHN ENNIS (Published 10/03)
The chances for connecting Houston and Clear Lake via some kind of rail appeared good in 1988 when three-fifths of voters endorsed a Metropolitan Transit Authority transit plan that included $1 billion of light rail. In 1991 the METRO board voted to amend the plan to a monorail system.
However, then Metro Board Chairman Bob Lanier resigned in disgust and ran for mayor, promising to kill the monorail plan which he did after gaining office in 1992 and stacking the board with monorail opponents.
Lanier preferred a 50-mile commuter rail plan connecting downtown Houston with Katy in the west and Webster (Clear Lake) in the south. The plan would have utilized existing Union Pacific tracks and would have cost between $4 million and $7 million a mile, roughly one-tenth the cost of the METRO monorail plan.
Now, more than 10 years later Metro plans to open Houston's first light rail line on its 25th birthday, Jan. 1, 2004, with a widely criticized 7.5-mile Main Street line connecting downtown, the Texas Medical Center and Reliant Park.
But before voters get to test-ride the Main Street line, Metro is requesting a show of confidence and a "yes" vote in the Nov. 4 transit referendum (see sidebar on opposite page).
Clear Lake has been "front and center" in a number of proposed rail plans over the years. But most current plans focus more along the lines of what mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner referred to as an inner-city "circulator system" during his run-off against Lanier in 1991 and still favors today. Turner puts priority on linking downtown, the Texas Medical Center, Galleria, Rice University, Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, Gulfgate and both Hobby and Bush Airports. Only after that would expansion head into the suburbs starting with the opportunity to use existing tracks to connect Hobby with the Clear Lake area.
METRO also appears to put top rail priority in and around downtown with a large portion of proposed rail concentrated inside the loop. Additional lines spreading out to Clear Lake, Kingwood, Katy and The Woodlands are illustrated on the METRO Solutions Rail Component Map, but only as "Future Rail Extensions."
Continued from previous page
Although also only referred to as a "Future Rail Extension," Fort Bend leaders are already at work on a commuter rail project that would connect the county with METRO's soon-to-be completed Main Street line using the U.S.90A rail corridor to deliver riders from Rosenberg, Richmond, Sugar Land, Missouri City and Stafford to METRO's light rail station at Fannin and Loop 610. Riders would then have access to downtown and eventually more as METRO's light rail expands. METRO has agreed to fund a stretch of rail within its service area from the station at Loop 610 to Missouri City, roughly eight miles. But a yet-to-be-established Fort Bend transit authority would then have the task of funding the remaining 17 miles.
The Fort Bend plan has significant backing including that of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is based in Sugar Land, but still lacks the completion of a lengthy study to ensure it makes sense. Also critical is the support of Union Pacific because any plan would have to work along side UP's freight operation. No matter what, no one believes such a rail could be fully operational in less than 10 years.
If officials in Fort Bend are already preparing for a rail line connecting their communities to Houston, what is being done in the Clear Lake area which would appear to be a more important and desirable area to connect to downtown, the Medical Center and Reliant Park?
What are the politics? And does the Clear Lake area's status as a tourism attraction come into play?
Find out in the next issue of the Bay Runner.
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A closer look at "Metro Solutions"
The November 4th ballot will include a measure for the METRO Solutions Transit System Plan which includes construction of extensions and new segments of METRORail.
Voters will be asked to approve a $640 million bond issue for 22 miles of light rail by 2012. Also on the ballot, the authority pledges $774 million for road projects from 2009 to 2014 and a 50 percent increase in bus routes by 2025.
The issue is a hot one and only getting hotter. Rail plan opponent and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels recently held a press conference claiming the plan's "financing is more questionable at every turn." Only minutes later Metro chairman Arthur Schechter held his own press conference and claimed Eckels' doubts about the plan were "pure politics" and "an effort to be disingenuous and play political football."
According to METRO, the plan will provide an economic benefit of billions in transit capital and operating dollars to the Houston area. METRO also claims the plan will create jobs, hold METRO accountable to the voters and provide transportation with no tax increase.
Critics are split into two camps. Some support rail but just not the current plan because they believe it overestimates financial projections from sales tax income and federal funding from the FTA (Federal Transit Administration). Others believe Houston is too spread out with only 7% of existing jobs located downtown for a plan that in its current form really only feeds people into the city center. The belief among this camp is that highways must be built to accommodate the diverse demands of commuters.
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