Texas Transit Association

Houston METRO has revised its light rail plan to include the areas major airport, and is now considering a more rapid build out based on $1.25 billion on bonding. The new plan touts an express rail connection from the airport to major business destinations within the city.

Metro staff and consultants will formulate a final recommendation by next month. The board is scheduled to adopt the transit plan July 31, approve ballot language in August and hold the referendum Nov. 4.

*New plan would extend rail to Bush airport*
By LUCAS WALL, Houston Chronicle June 26, 2003

Light rail would run to Bush Intercontinental Airport and through southwest Houston under a revised mass-transit plan Metro released Wednesday that includes an option for taking on debt for the first time.

Those two extensions, added in response to the demands of business groups and residents, increase the proposed light rail additions to 55 miles from 41 miles. The revised 2025 system plan — which also includes a dozen new bus routes — is financially doable, according to projections made public at Wednesday’s Metropolitan Transit Authority board workshop.

“We have attempted to respond to what the public seems to want,” said Metro Chairman Arthur Schechter. “It’s the result of a lot of work and a lot of determination to do the right thing for the city.”

A large coalition of business interests had pushed for the inner southwest line. Bob Eury, director of the Houston Downtown Management District, said he’s glad Metro has been responsive to that suggestion and the thousands of other comments gathered during the past two months.

“I’m appreciative of the fact they are picking up the feedback,” Eury said. “They are reflecting some of the concerns and issues that do exist.”

Metro released the first draft of its long-range transit plan two months ago and has since held 15 public hearings and dozens of other meetings with business districts, civic groups and associations. Expanding rail to the city’s largest airport and through the southwest via Greenway Plaza and the Galleria area to the Hillcroft Transit Center were among the top two demands made.

Requests for an extension of the proposed East End rail line to the Gulfgate area and taking the proposed Interstate 10 line west past the Loop 610 toward Katy are not included in the revised draft. There is some money left over to add a few pieces, however, according to Metro’s financial statements released Wednesday.

The four plans are:

· Option 1, the first draft, could be built on a pay-as-you-go basis, meaning Metro would not borrow money to fund it. It includes eight rail segments — the 41 miles of light rail plus an eight-mile commuter rail spur to Missouri City — that would be completed between 2010 and 2024.

· Option 2 is the revised plan built without borrowing. Under this scenario, 10 rail segments would also start running between 2010 and 2024. The two new proposed spokes to Intercontinental and Hillcroft would open last.

· Option 3, now the leading contender, would accelerate construction of the revised plan by asking voters to approve $1.25 billion in bonds. It also includes seeking a $162 million credit from the federal government for half the cost of the Main Street light rail line — being built entirely with local funds — and $165 million from the Houston Airport System and Continental Airlines to help fund the rail trackway and station at Intercontinental. Under this option, the 10 rail segments would open between 2008 and 2017, completing the plan eight years earlier.

Metro has never gone into debt. But many transit projects across the country are funded by bonds, including the popular light rail extensions in Dallas.

· Option 4 includes extension of Metro’s “general mobility” program, which sends money to Harris County and Metro’s 15 member cities for road construction and maintenance. This program is scheduled to expire in 2009 and the first three options do not continue it. If Metro continues funding road work at today’s level (25 percent of its sales-tax revenue), it would still have to issue $1.28 billion of bonds and could only afford 14 miles of light rail extensions. Those would open between 2010 and 2012.

Schechter said the options make it clear that keeping road funding at 25 percent will greatly reduce future mass-transit choices.

“The reality that our community must address is at some point Metro cannot continue to use transit dollars on street maintenance. It’s as simple as that,” Schechter said, arguing voters should oppose the transit plan only “if you want to sit in your car and not move and see a city that is drowned in traffic and smothered in exhaust fumes.”

Rail opponents are not happy with any of the plans and want Metro to develop an option that would fund only buses and roads.

“When you take an existing bus system and you mix in rail, you’ve degraded transit service,” said Barry Klein with the Business Committee Against Rail. “We’ll end up with a system that is less efficient and services the transit public less well.”

A coalition of Hispanic groups pitched its East End line extension to the board at Wednesday’s workshop. Gilbert Moreno, director of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, said he is pleased with the board’s response and encouraged that the leading option has about $700 million left over that could be used to fund the extension to Gulfgate. Metro estimates that rail segment would cost $380 million.

Extending rail to Gulfgate “gives us a better long-term plan for the future that allows people to live inside the Loop and start to avoid this congestion, avoid being this massive city that’s so spread out nobody can get anywhere without a car,” Moreno said. “We appreciate the board for listening and are hopeful it’ll do the right thing.”

Any money left after building the Gulfgate extension could go toward upgrading rail service to Intercontinental Airport.

An express train would run up to 65 mph, bypassing local trains and stopping at only a couple stations between downtown and the airport terminal. Continental Airlines has said it will only help fund rail to Intercontinental if it runs as express service.