The Overhead Wire: Heeey!!! Houston Gets a FONSI

The Overhead Wire: Heeey!!! Houston Gets a FONSI

"Houston gets into the final design phase for two of its five light rail lines and gets development codes changed to promote pedestrian access to the stations. Not bad for the Texas home of oil industry giants."

Welcome To The Woooorld of Tomooorrrow

METRO APPROVES HISTORIC CONTRACT TO BUILD MORE LIGHT RAIL/CONSTRUCTION BRINGS JOBS TO HOUSTON :

Date: March 4, 2009

METRO's Board of Directors adopted an historic contract today with Parsons Transportation Group to build four more light-rail lines for Houston.

The contract, worth $1.4645 billion, will create 60,000 jobs before the approximately 20 additional miles of light rail are completed.

"These light rail lines, along with the highly successful Main Street line, will serve as the backbone for a regional system that will serve commuters across the entire Metropolitan area, and across county lines, for generations to come," said METRO Board Chairman David S. Wolff. "We are building not just a better transportation system; we are building a better future for all our citizens"

Apprentice to Darth Holden : "Please, please tell me these rail lines are being built over the dead body of Tom DeLay."


By definition. These projects could never had gone forward if he had anything to say about it. I've long been convinced that he got a cut of the highway money.

Increasing Service, Part 2

More on this...

Chronicle Article yesterday.

Atrios notices today.

It's important to realize that it took the better part of 30 years to get the first rail line, only seven miles long, built. It was put on the ballot more times than I can count and the people voted for it every single time, but DeLay, et al, managed to stall it every single time.

It took DeLay getting wacked politically on the state and federal levels to get the project moving forward. Since Mayor White, who is a hugely popular Clintonista, BTW, has been pushing mobility, we've seen a lot of progress. He's also fond of sidewalks, apparently, and changed the city's rules so that new street repairs INCLUDE new sidewalks!

Increasing Service

Houston METRO announced last week that due to increased ridership, they are increasing frequency on the most traveled routes.

They also expect to have FIVE light rail lines in operation by 2012.

Color me impressed at their rapid adaptation to our changing situation.