Passenger Trains > Houston's transit situation - getting better?

A report from the left leaning Brookings Institute has asserted that Houston's population has increasing access to transit, with 98% of households being near bus or light rail routes. The inclusion of Sugar Land and other suburbs brought the findings down, however. The same study asserted that Dallas and Atlanta have less access to transit.

>>Houston’s METRO has been working to fill transit gaps in the city and Tomer says this shows, “If you look at the city you’ve got about 98% of no-car households with access to transit, but its Houston’s suburbs that bring the overall number down.”

The survey covered Houston, Sugar Land and Baytown. It’s those last two areas that are suffering most from lack of transit access.

Patrick Walsh, the Assistant Director of Community Development for Sugar Land, says “The zip code that has the greatest number of commuters to downtown is 77479, right here in the Sugar Land area. So we think Sugar Land is ready for some improved transit connections directly to downtown.”<<

http://transportationnation.org/2011/08/19/houston-falling-down-again-in-latest-transit-study/

http://transportationnation.org/2011/08/18/transit-options-dwindle-as-700000-americans-live-in-households-without-cars/

The study:

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0818_transportation_tomer_puentes.aspx

With mainline rail right through Sugerland enroute Houston, this may be an option with rail cars.

I live in Sugar Land, and Sugar Land opted out of the Metro system years ago, so they have no service. Personally, I use a park and ride to get to downtown Houston, but I have to drive about 10 miles to get out of Sugar Land and Ft. Bend County and into Harris County. Sure beats fighting the traffic into town every day!

There has been talk of starting a commuter train along US90, which would cut right through Sugar Land and go all the way to the county seat in Richmond. Still mostly talk, but a lot more talking is going on than used to. I think Union Pacific doesn't want to cooperate on allowing an extra track along the Sunset Route.

Southern Pacific wanting to get all traffic off the Bellaire Brach (via Wallis) was working toward putting in a second track back in 1995 to the point of installing new crossings with the second track already included. It's a shame that things could not have progressed further by then to have worked out a prior rights deal with cash strapped SP instead of ___ UP. A commuter run all the way to Rosenberg would seam quite useful.

Jim

It is very interesting that the overpasses/underpasses along US 90 were built for two tracks for SP in the 1990s (Beltway at 90), but when they got around to US 59 in the 2000s, they only built a one track overpass for UP. I think going to two tracks was just around the corner in the 1990s, but during the 2000s it was forgotten.

With the opening of the Panama Canal to wider ships in a few years, there is talk again in 2011 of making the UP two tracks in this area. There is also talk of building a freight bypass around Ft. Bend County, and use the US 90 corridor as commuter only, but that will never happen because it makes the freight trip longer. The ROW along US 90 is 100 feet wide, so it could hold two UP tracks plus a commuter track or two, but UP doesn't really want that to happen.