Rail makes records in Houston

[JeffreyS]

Posted by: News  on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - 08:00 AM
By Tom Kline
TRAINS magazine, August 2009

Houston was the largest city in the U.S. without a light rail system until 2004. Prior to Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County’s opening the Red Line, the city had been without light rail service since it eliminated streetcars in 1940.

Houston’s 7.5-mile line ranks as the 11th most traveled system in the U.S., according to the American Public Transportation Association, but holds the second-highest ridership-per-track-mile title in the country, following Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

With a city population of 2.2 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Houston has plenty of reasons to expand and soon. The agency’s board in March approved a $1.46 billion contract for four new light rail lines to be added to the city’s existing line through downtown. The new additions will add 20 miles to the current system extending service to the East End, Southeast, North, and Uptown areas of the city. Initial plans called for three of the four routes to be served by rapid transit buses, but high ridership possibilities caused the decision to switch to light rail for all.

The agency has targeted a completion date of 2012 and the new trackage will cost $73 million per mile. The Parsons Transportation Group will design, build, operate, and maintain the four new lines. Some construction will be subcontracted out, and Veolia Transportation will handle operations and maintenance duties. The total cost of the contract is well below the original $1.57 billion estimate submitted to the Federal Transit Administration in 2008, and the scope of this project prompted agency President and CEO Frank Wilson to call this the largest public works infrastructure contract in the city’s history.

The agency planned to spend $632 million at the start of the project, which began in June 2009, with the first phase of construction at the East End line down Harrisburg Boulevard since it is further along in the design process. Cost for this segment will be $390 million and includes a light rail vehicle shop on this corridor augmenting the main shop located at the Red Line’s southern terminus. As other lines are prepared for construction, the agency will spend $93 million on utility diversion work for the Southeast, North, and Uptown corridors.

Ranked as the second-largest system in the state following the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, light rail in Houston got off to a slow start due to political maneuvering and critical outcry by residents. Voters approved the expansion by a narrow margin - 52 percent - in November 2003. Since then, the city’s traffic congestion problems have expanded exponentially, along with its population.

The Red Line’s 16 stations host a weekly ridership average of about 40,000, and in November 2007, the agency exceeded the 40 million passenger-boarding mark, a figure it did not expect to achieve until 2020.

The equipment roster includes 18 Siemens-built dual articulated Avanto light rail vehicles powered by overhead catenary. The 96-foot-long vehicles have low platforms and a capacity of 72 seated and 148 standing passengers. The cars will m.u. but consists are limited to two units due to platform length restrictions. As part of the initial $632 million spending, $118 million will be used to purchase 29 new low-floor light rail vehicles from CAF USA Inc., 19 will run on the Red Line, and the remaining 10 will operate on the East End line.

The agency has more plans for expansion including an additional 45 miles of light rail, 28 miles of commuter heavy rail, 50 additional stations, and service to both major airports with planned completion in 2020.

TOM KLINE is a broadcast engineer for an ABC News station in Houston.
http://www.floridabullettrain.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1160&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[Lucasjj]

Initial plans called for three of the four routes to be served by rapid transit buses, but high ridership possibilities caused the decision to switch to light rail for all.

Even more evidence to show JTA which way we need to go when it comes to public transportation.

[JeffreyS]

That progress only started in 2004.  What a great time during the boom to improve your city.  They did this before gas went crazy.  While we where finishing our decades long project of circling the city with an interstate and spending 10 times the money on interchanges just so we could bear the full brunt of the gas costs way to go Jax.

[thelakelander]

The city also had to go at it alone.  The federal and state governments were against the initial light rail plan.  Kudos to sunbelt sprawlers like Houston, Charlotte, Salt Lake City and Phoenix.  As long as you can design a transit line that is efficient, reliable, attractive and goes where people want to go, it can be successful.  These things are more critical than whether a community has the density of NYC, Chicago, DC or not.

[tufsu1]

I agree Lake....but it was an entertaining debate nonetheless

[thelakelander]

^They always are!