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07 August 2007
METRO spokesperson compares stray-current problem to graffiti
METRO spokesperson Raequel Roberts, who once tried to downplay her organization's ongoing light-rail stray-current issues with references to a nine-volt battery, has become even more entertaining on the topic. Here's a recent comment to KTRH-740 reporter Bill O'Neal:
“We consider the system safe; we consider it [stray current] a non-issue at this point," Roberts said. "You might as well ask taggers if graffiti can make a bridge fall down.”
Unfortunately, it's not a non-issue, as stakeholders such as the Medical Center discovered after spending their own money to research the matter.
Nor does it require a Ph.D. in physics to understand that stray current can cause structural damage by corroding metal.
If Ms. Roberts does not understand the science of stray-current leakage and the potential problems it poses, she and METRO would be better served if she simply defers such questions to experts instead of making a fool of herself with comparisons to nine-volt batteries and graffiti taggers.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/07/07 11:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
30 October 2009
Back to you, Raequel
YESTERDAY KEVIN WHITED NOTED that METRO VP Raequel "9-volt battery" Roberts gave a snippy response to Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles who was inquiring about media access to METRO Chairman David Wolff's upcoming speech to the Greater Houston Partnership. Roberts said that Wolff was just following the lead of other local leaders, including Mayor White and Judge Emmett. That prompted a response today from Joe Stinebaker, Judge Emmett's communications director:
As the communications director for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, I can speak only to The "State Of The County" Address. We provide a free area in the room for the public and media to hear the address (sorry, no meal), and we actively encourage both to attend through news releases and public alerts. Afterward, Judge Emmett makes himself available at a publicly accessible news conference. In addition, the entire speech is videotaped and made available for some time on the judge's Web site (and GHP's, I believe). We try to ensure that the public is not only welcome, but encouraged, to hear what the judge has to say.
The ball is back in Roberts' court. Will METRO ensure that the media has access without paying for a (discounted!) $65 ticket?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ Raequel"> 10/30/09 05:55 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (0)
09 December 2005
Metro hires Chronicle editor
A Chronicle assistant editor has moved to Metro to become its Media Relations director:
Staff Announcement
Dec. 6, 2005Please note the following new members of METRO's External Affairs team:
Raequel Roberts
Media Relations Director
Raequel comes to us from the Houston Chronicle, where she was Assistant City Editor.Sandra Aponte Salazar
Media Relations Specialist
Sandra joins us from the City of Houston's Municipal Courts, where she was Public Information Officer. Prior to that she worked in media relations for the Houston Police Department (2000 - 2004).You can reach Raequel and Sandra by calling our media hotline: (713) 739-4040.
Ken Connaughton is now Editor/Producer with responsibility for several new communication vehicles being developed.
Of course, the Chronicle is often mistaken for the media relations arm of Metro, so it's unclear why a change in jobs was needed, but whatever.
It does appear as though Metro is attempting to beef up its spin machine, which must be welcome news for the beleaguered Ken Connaughton.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/09/05 08:36 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
31 March 2006
Metro bus hits pedestrian (again) (cont'd.)
Maybe more pedestrians are wearing city camouflage:
A pedestrian was hit by a Metro bus this afternoon at the Metro Transit Center, at Fannin and Pressler. The man stepped into the pedestrian crosswalk, "so the operator will be at fault," said Raequel Roberts , a spokeswoman for Metro.
The pedestrian was taken to an area hospital, "but his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening," Roberts said.
Recent Metro bus accidents have occurred on March 23, February 13, and a fatal one on January 21. Obviously Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert needs to have a chat with Metro bus drivers about their understanding of safety.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/31/06 07:28 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
07 November 2009
Something for METRO's expensive blogger to do
HAS ANYONE seen the full text of METRO Chairman David Wolff's speech to the Greater Houston Partnership? I've looked but can't find it posted anywhere. Maybe the communications department is too busy dreaming up new bus line names or gardening themes.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/07/09 09:38 AM | General | Technorati | Comments (1)
09 August 2006
A METRO solution that doesn't affect the problem
Traffic was apparently a problem for the big soccer doubleheader at Reliant tonight:
The sold-out soccer doubleheader caused major traffic snarls on streets and freeways today near Reliant Stadium.
Although the first game kicked off at 7 p.m., a Houston Police Department dispatcher told officers at 8:26 p.m. that the 610 South Loop W. at Kirby was so backed up that drivers "are turning around and driving the other way" on the freeway.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts experienced the soccer traffic firsthand, as she tried to get home from work."Metro is definitely monitoring the traffic," Roberts said. "We will put on double trains as needed...."
Those double trains surely solved the traffic problems on 610/Kirby!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/09/06 11:42 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (3)
17 May 2008
METRO violates Clean Water Act
Well, it appears Mayor White needs to go after METRO:
The Clean Water Act is designed to clean up our waters.
Thousands of people pass through METRO Transit Centers every day, but 11 News discovered that what they’re leaving behind could end up in Galveston Bay.
One of the act’s guidelines says you must prevent dirty water from going down storm drains. Regularly scheduled pressure washing goes on at all 19 METRO transit centers throughout the county.
“It was our understanding we were in compliance,” METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.
But 11 News uncovered they aren’t in compliance.
“The rules really require us to take all available measures to protect the water around us, and the storm sewer system is how all the water gets to the bayou,” Deputy Director of Public Works Andy Icken said.
Here’s one way you can do it: Collect the potentially contaminated water.
Think it’s a lot of work for nothing? Think again. There are high levels of oil, grease, metals and bacteria polluting Galveston Bay.
Galveston Bay is the second most productive estuary for seafood in the country.
Woops! Raequel Roberts (who famously said stray current leakage was akin to what a 9-volt battery discharges) first says METRO thought it was in compliance, but later in the story says, "Now we have a better idea of exactly what is needed to follow the regulations, and we’re going to do that." Which essentially means METRO couldn't have thought it was in compliance because that would have meant METRO had done its homework, and METRO would have known what it was doing was in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Mayor White needs to get on this. This has to be right up there with refinery pollution.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/17/08 05:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)
03 February 2009
METRO: Don't call it a trend!
Tom Bazan sent out an email blast this weekend with METRO's latest ridership figures, and he noted that December's bus ridership declined a whopping 32 percent from the previous December. Add to that the previous three months'-worth of declining bus ridership numbers (a 21 percent decrease for the quarter) and you might think METRO has a trend.
Nope. You'd be wrong, as the Chron's Rosanna Ruiz found out when she decided to write a story on it and called Raequel Roberts for METRO's reaction.
Metro has reported an across-the-board drop in total ridership for a fourth consecutive month, blaming cheaper gas prices and continued blow-back from last year’s fare increases. Officials had predicted that ridership would go down, but not by this much.
In the last three months of 2008, system-wide ridership fell by 12 percent, compared to the same period the year before, to 21 million from 24 million. Metro officials are confident riders will be back after a short cooling-off period.
Although the numbers show a consistent, downward trajectory over four months, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts was reluctant to call it an outright trend.
Which raises the question: At what point does it become a trend? Six months? A year? And what, if anything, should be done about it?
Nothing will happen because it's METRO we are dealing with. Couple lower gas prices with the frustration and inconvenience of having to deal with METRO's scheduling and it's not too hard to figure out why bus ridership has declined. Just read the comments to the Chron's story.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/03/09 04:59 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
30 October 2007
METRO changes video policy, effectively smears local media
METRO's PR representative Raequel Roberts has apparently decided that real-time, independent reporting on METRO does not fit well with the public organization's PR objectives. Here is the substance of a letter emailed to various local news organizations yesterday:
Dear [Redacted by bH]:
To provide for a more accurate account of accidents and incidents on our system, METRO is changing its policy for releasing videos from facility and vehicle cameras.
METRO will no longer release tapes the day of an accident or incident, but will instead release them when its investigation is complete.
This will ensure information provided to [Redacted by bH] is complete, allowing your staff to produce more factual reporting.
We encourage you to make your reporters aware of this change of policy, and we appreciate your cooperation as we try to provide the public with accurate information about the operation of its transit system.
Sincerely,
Raequel Roberts
Sr. Director of Media Relations & Corporate Communications
Let me translate that: We at METRO really don't care for independent reporting about METRO in real time, and so we will change our policy so that our PR-department-sanitized version of the news is released to the city's journalists well after the "news" has become "olds."
Note the intimation that local news organizations have inaccurately reported on METRO, and need Ms. Roberts' help to "produce more factual reporting." Obviously, news organizations should provide news consumers with accurate, factual reporting (and also timely reporting). If Ms. Roberts can document instances of local news organizations using METRO videos in real-time to report inaccurately, she should demand corrections (and perhaps put METRO's $76,000/year blogger to work putting those corrections online, in the name of getting accurate information to the public). But to hamstring the local media with this sort of edict strikes us as insulting and reactionary, and contrary to the goal of getting taxpayers accurate information about their transit organization as quickly as possible.
Here's hoping that reporters and news directors in town will object both to METRO's new PR policy and to Ms. Roberts' insinuations about their professional abilities to cover the organization independently and objectively.
ANNE ADDS: Hey! Recall when METRO CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson said:
We operate the METRO organization in a completely transparent manner.
Yeah, using Metro's definition of transparency: obfuscation and procrastination.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/30/07 10:21 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
12 November 2008
Another Houston driver takes on Danger Train, loses
In a rare bit of reporting on the topic, the Chron notes that a Danger Train crash took place earlier:
Three passengers on a MetroRail train were taken to a hospital this morning after the train collided with a car at a downtown intersection.
The accident occurred about 9:20 a.m. as the driver of the car attempted an illegal left turn at Main and Leeland, said Metro spoieswoman Raequel Roberts.
The passengers were taken to St. Joseph Medical Center with injuries that were deemed non-life-threatening, Roberts said.
The car was traveling on Leeland when it crossed the northbound train's path and was struck on the driver's side, Roberts said.
The driver, who was not injured, was cited by police for turning illegally, she said.
Northbound train service resumed about 10:50 a.m.
So, the Danger Train, METRO's "transit backbone," was out of service for an hour-and-a-half because at-grade light rail and bad Houston drivers continue to be a bad mix.
Imagine how well the coming at-grade rail lines in busy corridors like Richmond (which is how METRO and its sycophants translate "Westpark") will mix with Houston drivers!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/12/08 02:18 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
16 April 2008
Press: Bus Q Card loaders don't take new five dollar bills
In this week's Houston Press, Rich Connelly reports that some of METRO's Q-Card loaders aren't capable of reading the new $5 bill:
Metro's new prepaid Q Cards are supposed to be the latest thing in convenience. You can even add money to your card while you're riding on the bus!
Unless, that is, you're using one of the new five-dollar bills. The fancy Q Card machines don't take the purple-tinted currency.
Didn't anyone at Metro realize the government was changing the five? It was in all the papers.
"We're aware of this issue," says Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts. "We have software that we're about to install to process the new bills and we should have it in place by May 1, which we understand is the day the new bills will truly hit the market."
(News flash: The bills have already "truly hit the market.")
Roberts says the bus "reloaders" are custom-made; the reloaders on the light-rail platform are not custom-made, and they take the new five-dollar bills just fine.
Buses (not the 7+ mile-long train line) cover the bulk of METRO's service area, so the fact that the loaders work on the train platforms really doesn't help most transit users.
That's our favorite regional transit organization in action!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/08 11:29 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
12 February 2007
Chron: Knife fight at Main Street Station!
Reader Vernon Guy passes along a Chronicle story about a slashing that took place on the Main Street Square Danger Train station earlier:
A man was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital after being slashed in a fight about 2 p.m. today at MetroRail's Main Street Square Station in downtown Houston.
"Two males got into an argument on the platform, and one pulled a box cutter," said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts. "Then they took the fight across the tracks to the sidewalk."
[snip]
Northbound rail service was suspended and passengers were taken across the site by a "bus bridge" as Houston and Metro police investigated, Roberts said. Southbound service was not affected, she said.
I wonder if they were hobos? In any case, it doesn't seem very world class.
If only Chief Lambert had a few insecurity cameras deployed... then maybe we could have all watched!
RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13, KHOU-11.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/12/07 03:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
19 November 2006
METRO: Don't worry about stray current
Local watchdog Tom Bazan has long been warning about the still-unresolved stray-current issues along METRO's Main Street light-rail line.
On Friday, KHOU-11's Jason Whiteley reported the latest on the problem:
Metro's light rail line is leaking electricty into the ground and has been for 18 months.
The problem is stray current is corrosive. And Bazan fears it's eating up the steel rods in the concrete foundation of the I-45 Pierce Elevated bridge.
Over time, Bazan believes the freeway could collapse.
"It's inevitable. If they don't cure the problem. It will collapse," he said. "I don't know when, but it will."
TXDOT told 11 News it hasn't checked the foundation of the Pierce Elevated. There's no need to, it says, unless engineers find evidence there's a problem. But Metro was concerned enough to ask if it could take a closer look itself.
Metro hasn't done that yet, but a spokeswoman said the public shouldn't worry about the leaking electricty. [sic]
If there's nothing to worry about, then METRO ought to be happy to perform testing ASAP and reassure the public by sharing information promptly.
The video version of the story (but not the text posted online) mentions that Centerpoint Energy has been concerned enough about the problem to replace some metal gas pipes (which are susceptible to stray current) with plastic pipes near the rail line. Their engineers must not have consulted METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts on the matter, or they would have known not to worry.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/19/06 09:42 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
20 September 2006
METRO has a nice approach to customer service
On Monday, the Chronicle ran a Q&A column featuring METRO officials addressing questions about the coming changes to the fare structure.
One exchange was enlightening:
Q: Travis Chatman, interviewed at a bus stop after the changes were announced, said some of his bus rides are longer than an hour, and if the connecting bus takes more than 30 minutes to arrive, he would have to pay again under the new policy. At present, he has three hours to use a paper transfer.
A: Metro's analysis shows that most transfers occur within an hour and a half, [METRO spokesperson Raequel] Roberts said.
It's worth mentioning that transfers have been a sore point with Metro, whose officials said transfers often are sold or given to other riders instead of being used for their intended purpose.
Okay, that really wasn't a question, but a statement. Then again, Roberts didn't really answer the implied question either ("What happens if METRO screws up and I don't get my transfer in time"). But her implied answer is, "You're the exception. You pay again. So sad for you."
That's always a nice attitude from public officials at your regional mass transit agency.
RELATED COVERAGE: METRO urged to keep discounted fares (Rad Sallee, Houston Chronicle).
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/20/06 10:08 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
27 July 2009
Why won't "transparent" METRO post committee meeting times online?
The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel looked into the posting of METRO's meetings, and discovered that the organization doesn't exactly make it easy for people to attend its committee meetings:
Metro does post the time of its regular monthly board meeting on its Web site, but not for the committee meetings....
Metro's media contact, Raequel Roberts, said the only way to find out when the committees meet every month is to go to Metro headquarters downtown and check the lobby bulletin board. A meeting notice also is posted at the downtown Harris County courthouse, she said.
I asked her if there was someone I could call to find out the meeting schedule without using so much time, gasoline or Metro fare. Roberts told me no.
The notices are physically posted on the bulletin board 72 hours before meetings, as required by law. There is no good reason the meeting schedules couldn't be posted to the web (or even given to interested parties who might call). They just aren't. And for some reason, neither Raequel Roberts nor her boss answered Feibel's followup questions about posting the meeting times on the web.
Recall that two years ago, METRO chief Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson asserted "we operate the METRO organization in a completely transparent manner."
Ignoring legitimate questions from the media is not completely transparent. It would be completely transparent (not to mention convenient for METRO patrons with impaired mobility and/or means) to post the meeting times on the web, like any other major 21st century public organization. Surely an organization that can squander resources on TV documentaries and topiary bunnies could make that small, inexpensive improvement. Perhaps posting the meeting notices could even be added to Mary Sit's duties, since her blogging output is so limited!
UPDATE (07/29/09): The Chronicle's Caucasian Think Tank scolds METRO (really!) for its lack of transparency.
RELATED: Just a few tidbits on some METRO "olds" from July (bH).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/09 09:31 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)
14 January 2008
Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson will chat online Tuesday*
File this under "Short Notice" (see update below):
Got a question for Metropolitan Transit Authority president and CEO Frank Wilson?
If so, get to a computer at noon today, log onto www.ridemetro.org, then click on "chat" to take part in an hour-long once-a-month online chat room.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said in a statement Monday that Transit Chat "will give our customers an opportunity to ask Metro's top executives questions about Metro's programs and services, from the Q Card to the new light rail lines we're building."
"It will be live, but we do ask participants to exercise the same principles of politeness mandated on our blog," Roberts said. "Our guidelines: Be respectful, no name-calling, stay on topic."
Note: You can't call in to converse by voice, or send a text message by phone, or chat by e-mail.
Participants will type their messages into a window on the Metro Web bag and read the replies there.
UPDATE: As Matt Bramanti notes in the comments on the Chron.com story, this chat is scheduled for Tuesday -- tomorrow! The story is written for tomorrow, but posted on Chron.com today, not noting that the date for the chat is Tuesday. I have edited the headline and this post accordingly.
So, by all means available, head to Metro's site tomorrow and chat away with the dude. Respectfully, of course.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/14/08 03:09 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 December 2007
Metro: Bus complaints are up and we're victims of success!
KHOU-11 tells a tale of Metro's fine customer service:
As the workday ends, the adventure begins for Veronica Young. She is not a fan of the bus system, but a passenger anyway.
“They run stupid. I hate the way they run,” said Young. "You'd rather ride a car than take a bus."
This year there are more people like her than ever before.
According to METRO's year-end report, customers are losing patience with Houston’s public transportation system.
Complaints about buses being late are up 39-percent. Complaints about bus driver behavior are up nearly 43-percent.
Metro's excuse?
"We're almost a victim of our own success,” said METRO’s Raequel Roberts. “We have a much better call system now, so the wait time is less than a minute on most calls.
“So, people realize if I do call, I will get somebody that'll take my complaint. And if you realize you're going to get somebody you're more likely to call."
"We're almost a victim of our own success." I think we've heard that before out of a Metro official -- maybe Frank Wilson. Ms. Roberts is keeping up with the talking points!
So, Metro's customer service problems are because it has a better complaint call system now? It couldn't possibly because Metro has put so much emphasis on light rail that it has shortchanged bus service, now could it?
After a wave of retirements, 310 new bus drivers were behind the wheel this year. Roland Perez is sure he's been a passenger with one of them.
"I've been on one bus where everybody had to tell (the driver) where the route was,” said Perez. “He skipped like three or four stops and went the wrong way."
Maybe there's a hint in there!
METRO tells 11 News it's looking into why complaints are up.
Metro needs to commission a study.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/21/07 04:53 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (21)
26 February 2007
METRO still hopes to collect from Siemens for stray current expenses
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee today reports METRO's response to a letter from Siemens (noted in this post from last week) rejecting METRO's insistence that the contractor reimburse METRO work related to the ongoing stray-current problem:
Despite receiving a refusal letter, Metro says it still intends to collect from the prime contractor on its MetroRail Red Line for the cost of efforts to prevent electrical current from leaking into the ground from the tracks.
In August, the Metropolitan Transit Authority billed Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. $917,400 for monitoring by Metro staff, pay to consultants and various tests related to the stray current problem from May 2005 to June 2006.
[snip]
As for who pays, Siemens spokeswoman Xanthi Pinkerton said, "Basically we are still in negotiations with Metro," and Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said the talks "aren't even close to being final."
"To say they are not paying based on one letter is like calling a baseball game in the middle of the fifth inning," Roberts said.
Perhaps, but that letter from Siemens suggests that METRO is about as likely to receive full payment of $900,000 from the "bill" it sent Siemens as Wayne Graham's Rice Owls giving up a nine-run lead in the ninth inning to Sam Houston State! It's probably not going to happen (but if it does, we'll admit we were wrong).
Still, it's nice that the transit organization's PR pro could respond so rapidly to press/blog questions about that letter. It would be great if they could respond to public information requests so enthusiastically!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/26/07 10:24 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
18 August 2008
Frank Wilson: Go for the greed
As he was speaking to the Asian Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce last week, Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson tried to encourage Asian business owners to get some of the $2 billion worth of business five new light rail lines are generating:
"If you've never ridden the train in your life, or if you don't even like the train, look at this from self-interest and greed," said Wilson. "This program is as real as it gets. It's the time for you to start focusing on how to get involved, not just as users."
Sheesh. Between Frank Wilson and Raequel "9-volt battery" Roberts, METRO sure has picked some winners.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/18/08 04:41 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
10 March 2009
At least the METRO blog's comments are entertaining
We previously noted that METRO's vice-president of PR something-or-another (sorry, we aren't going to look it up -- blogger's prerogative) Raequel Roberts sent a letter to the Chronicle expressing displeasure with the newspaper's recent coverage of METRO.
Apparently, the letter was edited to save space (or perhaps as a courtesy, to save the eyes and brain cells of readers), so METRO's expensive blogger posted the overly long, overly defensive letter in its full, umm, glory on the transit/land-development organization's blog.
That prompted some interesting comments from one reader of the blog. Since few people read METRO's very expensive taxpayer-funded blog (but many people read our small, privately funded blog), we thought we'd reproduce Don G's comments here:
Rosanna Ruiz was apparently correct in her statement about using the trip planner. It flunked my several attempts when I placed my house address and Ben Taub for a trip tomorrow. It correctly inserted my total address and after selecting the correct choice for Ben Taub, it inserted that data. I then clicked on the "Get Trip Plan" button and zip, natta, nothing happened. All it did was refresh the screen.
Prior attempts (before I read the story) required me to tell it the intersections where a bus might be.
What "SHOULD" happen is for it to tell you first, how far you have to walk and an estimated walk time, followed by the scheduled trips and the walk at the other end.
I seriously doubt Metro will every do that because it would show you how long it's going to take from your door step to the destination door step.
and
I use the Net all the time to locate and get to places.
I just now decided to try the Goggle Transit deal and lo and behold, it provided me with directions, total distance and the total travel time!
Of course...that was NOT using 'public transit'!
It showed me that to get from Beaujolais Lane (with exact address entered) to Maroneal :ane (with exact address entered) as a 15.7 mile trip taking 28 minutes.
Now, when I changed it to 'public transit' with the exact same parameters (and I used tomorrow morning at 8 AM BTW) it gave me this glorious statement:
"Sorry, we don't have transit schedule data for a trip from 1359 Beaujolais Ln, Houston, Texas 77077 to 2508 Maroneal St, Houston, Texas 77030 at the time and date you specified."
Now I want to ask, who should we believe? Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts who has a vested interest in selling Metro as a gospel? Or should we accept Rosanna Ruiz,who tried it and surely is a skilled user of the net?
Metro continually seems to sell puff stories rather than providing truth to the tax payers who make it what it is.
Remember, Raequel is the one who compared stray current to a nine volt battery1 Insanely depressing comment that time.
PS: I even tried Raequel's address...to my same destination and it worked PERFECTLY for car but failed to recognize public transit. And, FYI, her address failed also using their own "trip planner"
I would like for Mary to tell Raequel to write a apology correction to the Houston Chronicle to be published as a Letter to the Editor as well as a letter of apology to the author.
We won't be holding our breath for that to happen!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/09 09:30 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (0)
10 August 2008
Chron offers underrepresented view on METRO service; METRO complains
Several days ago, the Chronicle ran a surprising article by Leslie Casimir on the challenges faced by some named commuters who do not have cars, and who must rely upon METRO to get to/from various points that do not always include downtown or the Medical Center.
Various complaints raised by real METRO customers in the story include:
* Slow commute times (10 minute drives by private car can take 2 hours using METRO)
* Lack of service outside the loop
* Multiple transfers
* "Service improvements" that mean discontinuation of bus routes crucial to some customers
None of these complaints will be new to blogHOUSTON readers, as we have regularly questioned METRO's increasing focus on expensive light rail in our spread-out, low-density city, as well as its focus on inner-loop real-estate development -- and whether there are enough resources to build the sorts of world-class trinkets favored by comparatively affluent activists/bloggers and people in the industry while still serving the transportation needs of less affluent people spread all over the city who rely on transit to get to work and the doctor and the grocery store and elsewhere, and can't just hop in the minivan to pick up some veggies from the Discovery Green farmer's market when the whim strikes on any given Saturday.
Generally, however, that perspective is NOT one that we see in Rad Sallee's stories, or that we generally have seen from many of his colleagues at the Chronicle, who have generally been cheerleaders for expensive light rail that may not be in the best interests of many people who rely upon METRO. So the Chronicle deserves credit for finally presenting the perspective of real users of METRO that have long been underrepresented in Chron transit stories.
Interestingly, METRO media relations official Raequel Roberts is not at all pleased at this underrepresented perspective getting the play it did this one time in the newspaper. Her letter to the editor is reproduced below the [Read More] link (since it may disappear). If the Chronicle hadn't been a METRO cheerleader for so long, Roberts' concerns about balance might resonate more. However, given the frequency with which the Chronicle uncritically reports on METRO -- almost sounding as if Ms. Roberts is providing the copy -- and the fact that one rarely hears from everyday users of METRO and their problems with the service -- it's harder to take Ms. Roberts complaints about balance seriously. In a sense, Casimir's story is some needed, and overdue, balance.
Around the local blogosphere, Cory Crow has posted some sensible thoughts on METRO's core mission failures, Tory Gattis questions whether Houston has its transit priorities in order, and Neal Meyer suggests that jitneys could be one solution to some of our transit woes (if they were not so heavily regulated -- good luck getting Yellow Cab, er, Council to ease up on that). Please feel free to add your thoughts to the discussion.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/08 10:22 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (12)
13 February 2008
"Simple human error" shortchanges METRO customers
Did you see this KHOU-11 story earlier in the week, about METRO's fare boxes overcharging customers?
Anita Hamilton said her Q card was getting charged double to ride the 108 North Shepherd Park-and-Ride. She said she pays $1 in the morning, but then she noticed in evening commute that she was being charged $3.
"I was told that there were other people who were experiencing the same problem, the same bus I was riding, they were also being charged three dollars," Hamilton said.
Hamilton contacted Metro, and she said they're refunding the overcharges and giving her an extra $5 for her troubles.
"What we discovered is it wasn't actually her Q card that was the problem -- it was that the fare box hadn't been reset, which was simple human error," Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.
As usual, Laurence Simon called it perfectly: Bandit boxes on the buses.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/13/08 08:22 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
22 November 2006
Medical Center investigating "9-volt battery" leakage
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts may not be concerned with stray current, but Texas Medical Center officials are concerned enough that the foundations of several hospitals and related buildings are being checked for damage (in a KHOU-11 follow-up story):
“The thing is it’s relentless,” said Stephen Swinson, President of Thermal Energy Corporation. “It’s like shore erosion. It’s like every day. Every wave.”
Since Metro revealed its electrical problem 18 months ago, the Texas Medical Center is conducting its first comprehensive test to see if hospital foundations are now in trouble.
Swinson and the Thermal Energy Corporation are leading this investigation for a number of clients in the Medical Center. He says tests show above average levels of stray current in the area when Metro’s light rail is in operation.
Over the last couple weeks Swinson says engineers have tested almost a dozen medical buildings including foundations of the Texas Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Tower, and the University of Texas Health Science Center among others.
“Today there’s not danger of a building collapsing,” Swinson said, “But is there going to be future significant cost associated with having to reinforce structural members and things like that? It’s a possibility.”
And then Roberts' dismissive quote is used again, about the electricity leakage being akin to what a 9-volt battery would discharge. Uh huh. If that were true, Centerpoint Energy wouldn't be spending money replacing metal pipes near the Danger Train line, and Metro wouldn't have already spent close to $1 million trying to determine the extent of the problem.
And now the TMC is having a look at its buildings' foundations.
PREVIOUSLY: TMC: Metro needs to fix "stray current" problem
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/22/06 04:35 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (11)
29 January 2007
Chron: METRO cuts bus service six days, claims net weekly increase
In an article about rider complaints over METRO's latest "service adjustments," the Chronicle's Rad Sallee takes a closer look at the recent changes:
Ever since the massive 2004 revamping to coordinate bus service with the new MetroRail — which replaced all the buses on Main Street — critics have accused the agency of cutting bus service and forcing riders onto the light rail to boost its ridership.
At first glance, the current changes do look like a cut in bus service. As Metro describes them in capsule summaries, 18 say "discontinue trip" and another 10 say "remove service."
On the plus side, seven of the changes "add a trip," two "extend trips" and one will "increase frequency."
Another 10 are described with the neutral term "adjust." The reasons given include "to match ridership demand," "for more effective service," "to eliminate passenger overloads," "to operate directly to downtown," and — yes — "to allow connection with MetroRail."
Overall, there will be fewer bus hours on weekdays and Sundays and more on Saturdays, for a modest net increase of 20 hours a week, [METRO spokeswoman and former Chron staffer Raequel] Roberts said. The sum includes the new Cypress Park & Ride.
Those numbers seem a bit unusual, since Roberts is effectively saying METRO has cut bus hours systemwide six days of the week, but has increased bus hours systemwide enough on one day (Saturdays) for an overall weekly increase.
In any case, it seems far short of METRO's promise in the 2003 referendum to boost bus service by 50%. Of course, METRO doesn't always see the need to stand by its promises to voters, instead letting real-estate developers and other special interests drive the area's transit policymaking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/29/07 10:28 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
05 August 2009
Just a few tidbits on some METRO "olds" from July...
Turning to a bit of "olds" that has been in the bH blogging queue for a while now...
Readers probably will recall the story that Stephen Dean broke for KPRC-2 a couple of Fridays ago (July 24), on the indicted METRO VP. Here is an excerpt:
A Fort Bend County grand jury indicted William Murphy Madison, 44, of Houston, on charges of online solicitation of a minor, and he was arraigned before a district judge in Richmond this week.
[snip]
Metro has suspended Madison without pay from his $136,000 per year job, where was hired in 2007 as Associate Vice President of Infrastructure and New Initiatives.
The Chronicle finally managed to cover this story the following Monday (July 27). Here is an excerpt from Dale Lezon's reporting:
William Murphy Madison recently was indicted by a Fort Bend County grand jury for online solicitation of a minor, said Sgt. Dwayne Williams, of the Missouri City Police Department.
Williams said the department began investigating the case in September 2007 after a woman alerted authorities that she had found inappropriate images in e-mails on her 16-year-old son's computer.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said that Madison, who had worked for the agency since September 2007 and had the title of associate vice president, was suspended without pay the day he was arrested pending the outcome of the investigation.
Notice anything missing? Okay, the bolded text gives it away: Neither of these two stories, several days apart, gave hard dates.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/05/09 12:46 PM | Houston Media | Technorati | Comments (10)
10 July 2008
METRO: Why waste the brain cells?
This week's "Move It!" column in the Chronicle concluded with more useless filler than usual:
It's hard to get answers to some perfectly reasonable questions.
"I was wondering," writes Joel Santos Shepherd, "if Metro is denied federal funding to build a few of their next light rail lines, will they still continue with construction of the East End line, since they had planned to pay for that one out-of-pocket anyway?"
That a reasonable inference, but in such dire straits, Metro may re-evaluate its overall plan, compare the five planned lines against each other for costs and benefits, and rank them by priority. We asked, of course.
"Why speculate on something that likely won't happen? Waste of brain cells," Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said. "Plus, the variations on the question are endless."
It's always nice when public representatives blow off legitimate questions from the public about the organization they represent.
One Chron.com commenter did have a nice response, though:
Perfect.
"Why waste the brain cells", needs to be adopted as Metro's Mission Statement. It is the attitude. Might as well be the logo. HAHAHA
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 10:01 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
29 October 2009
State of METRO
STATE OF METRO: METRO's expensive blogger notes that Chairman David Wolff will be speaking at the Greater Houston Partnership next week:
If you want to find out exactly what's going on at METRO, our current condition and where we're headed, come listen to METRO Chairman David S. Wolff.
We highly doubt the TRUE state of METRO will be presented.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The address will set you back $65 if you want to attend, which is outrageous. Check out the testy exchange Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles had with METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts on this topic. It says a great deal about that organization's arrogance and unprofessionalism. Some mayoral candidates have promised to fire METRO bigwigs. We'd suggest there are some more good candidates in the organization's bloated media shop.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/29/09 06:09 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (0)
17 March 2009
METRO: Our performance levels aren't bad!
METRO's expensive blogger has posted the organization's latest "web chat," this time with Andy Skabowski, associate vice president of operations (long titles and bureaucratic bloat are fun!). We didn't sit through it, but we think one exchange is representative:
Q : Why is METRO Houston's service so bad compared to other cities' mass transport systems?
A : Houston METRO's service performance levels are measured by industry standards, and our service levels and perfomance are equal to, if not better, than other major cities.
That is disappointing. We expected more exciting rhetoric, like "Our performance is world class!" Maybe Raequel "Nine Volt" Roberts can coach him up with more exciting talking points next time.
PREVIOUSLY: Area transit agency manipulating statistics? Just call it The Houston Way (blogHOUSTON).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/09 09:20 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (6)
20 June 2006
The worst is over as the cleanup begins
The Chronicle's Eric Berger has the latest information on our weather and recovery:
The good news, Blood said, is that the storms appear to be moving and not stalling over a single area to provide significant localized flooding.
In many areas, life was beginning to normalize. The Houston Independent School District will open for normal summer-school classes today except for Hartman Middle School, 7111 Westover in southeast Houston, where there is water remaining today from Monday's storms.
Pasadena ISD schools will also be open, district officials said.
Metropolitan Transit Authority buses and MetroRail were operating on their normal routes and schedules this morning, and the Travis Street entrance to the North Freeway HOV lane has reopened after being closed Monday by high water, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.
The Houston TranStar traffic control center reported area freeways running smoothly at 6 a.m. except for a segment of the Katy Freeway at the West Loop where a 4-vehicle accident had shut down the inbound lanes. The wreck had recently been cleared.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/20/06 08:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
14 February 2006
METRO's planning a celebration
The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman reports that METRO is planning a big celebration:
METRO is throwing an outdoor 7 1/2 -mile-long party Feb. 27 to celebrate the 20-millionth passenger climbing aboard its light-rail train. METRO stat freaks say that'll be the day it happens.
The lucky passenger will receive two tickets on a Continental flight. If Victoria Osteen wins, there could be trouble.
There will be bands playing on all the train platforms between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Local pro athletes and media superstars will hand out scratch-off cards to hordes of METRO riders and fans. Prizes include a $500 gift certificate at Foley's, Houston Texans tickets, Houston Comets tickets and museum passes.
I've agreed to do this on one condition: The train operator promises not to hit me.
Good luck!
This self-congratulatory celebration sounds expensive. It's nice to see METRO being such a mindful steward of the public's transit money.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
UPDATE (02-16-2006): METRO's Raequel Roberts informs us that the various prizes were donated, and that no public funding was involved.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/06 08:11 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
28 December 2005
A world-class transit agency needs a world-class website
Following up on Monday's post about Metro's incorrect Holiday Schedule press release, I received an email from Raequel Roberts, Director of Media Relations for Metro and former Assistant City Editor at the Chron, who said that the press release sent out to local news outlets DID include the schedule for December 26:
As Director of Media Relations, I'd like to point out, in fact, that our news release did include our Monday, Dec. 26 schedule. And it appeared in both the Houston Chronicle and Rumbo. Several television stations also noted our holiday schedule.
I appreciate the email from Ms. Roberts, but I pointed out that the information on Metro's own site does not include December 26. She agreed that it was an oversight and added that it would be corrected. I don't know why it should be corrected at this point, since we are past the 26th, but whatever.
All of this illustrates a critical error in thinking: many people don't look to Old Media any longer for information. We don't read newspapers or little flyers and often can't work our schedules around to catch the evening news. We go online to get information and we expect online information to be correct and up-to-date.
And speaking of online information, why is it that when one goes to Metro's site, one cannot easily find the information about the January 23rd public meeting on bus route changes? I have to go to an old bH post to find a link to get to the press release that has the info. If there is an easier way to find the link, please let me know, but should it really be that hard to find public meeting information, for un-techy people like me? Shouldn't it be listed under Metro Meetings?
Perhaps Metro should consider hiring Laurence Simon to run their website. He's about as techy as they come, he's very innovative in his thinking, AND he actually depends on Metro to get around. How many Metro higher-ups can say that?
RELATED: The inadequacy of public notices in newspaper classified sections (bH)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/28/05 09:22 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
28 November 2006
Park and Pillage lots get security cams and call boxes
Yesterday Rad Sallee gave us new details of Metro's Park and Pillage security system. Whereas the Metro Police Chief said he ended the security guard program because the $1 million price tag was too steep, almost two years later he's coughing up $16 million to put state-of-the-art security cams, call boxes, and remote controlled gates in the lots. So state-of-the-art, in fact, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts notes that spare parts can be bought "off-the-shelf, making repair easier," presumably in case someone decides to disable the surveillance cameras.
Amusingly, less than two months ago, Chief Lambert repeated his assertion that the security guards were cost-prohibitive. Let's see: $1 million vs. $16 million. I dunno. That government math is sure different.
Anyway, I'm late to the story, but Laurence Simon and Matt Bramanti tackled it yesterday, so go read their takes if you haven't already.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 11/28/06 03:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
04 February 2006
Is "unsafe and careless action" a fireable offense?
In METRO news related to Anne Linehan's earlier post, the Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that the driver involved in the accident that killed a pedestrian was fired on Friday:
A Metropolitan Transit Authority bus driver was fired Friday for "unsafe and careless action and disregard for established safety procedures" in a fatal accident with a pedestrian, Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.
Metro also revealed Friday, with the permission of the driver, Romain Alexandre, 56, that drug and alcohol tests he took after the Jan. 20 accident that killed Domitila Leon, 43, were negative.
[snip]
Alexandre, who had only minor infractions on his record since being hired in 1993, was cited for failure to yield right-of-way to a pedestrian and had been suspended with pay during the investigation.
Witnesses said his bus, westbound on Hogan, turned south on Main and struck Leon in the crosswalk, dragging her about 20 feet and running over her.
Have we finally seen a fireable offense at a local public entity? Or will a civil service commission insist on the reinstatement of the driver at some point?
Stay tuned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/04/06 07:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
22 August 2008
This week at METRO: Frank Wilson gets a raise; bad bus drivers keep on driving
KPRC-2 has a story posted about how METRO's "Three Strikes, You're Out" rule for bus drivers is just more hot air from the transit agency that could power its own wind farm:
Motorists reported some startling behavior by bus drivers, including road rage, speeding through school zones, cutting off other drivers by swerving into lanes, aggressive lane changes, and nearly running people over in crosswalks.
"We play just like baseball," said METRO Vice President of Operations David Feeley. "Three strikes and you're out. If you have a particularly egregious situation, we say goodbye pretty quick."
Despite that policy, Local 2 Investigates found some drivers remaining behind the wheel with as many as nine or 12 strikes, including numerous complaints alleging the same sort of dangerous driving behavior.
Here's the best part:
Overall, [VP Feeley] said dangerous driving complaints are down 23.9 percent from last year.
"We're doing something right," he said.
And:
Hers was among 7,236 pages of complaints reviewed by Local 2 Investigates, starting from July 2007 and continuing through July of this year.
The 7,200 complaints is a declining trend -- woo!
In completely unrelated news, Rad Sallee reports METRO CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson is getting a retroactive pay raise:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority board approved a 10 percent raise Thursday for president and CEO Frank Wilson, bringing his total compensation to more than $340,000.
Board member George DeMontrond said Wilson's annual performance review was "most satisfactory" and noted that he did not receive raises in 2005 or 2007. Wilson's new base pay will be $307,340.
DeMontrond said the increase in base pay — 21 percent since Wilson was hired May 3, 2004 — was "nominal" in view of inflation. The raise will be retroactive to May 3, 2008, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.
[snip]
Although his new contract details were not immediately available, Wilson in 2006 also received $20,000 per year in salary deferred until retirement, a car allowance of $12,600 and membership in the Houston Club. Roberts said those items have not increased.
He still has his car allowance. Because he's too important to ride public transportation.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/22/08 06:11 AM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (10)
27 October 2006
METRO hopes to spread message via new blog
The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports that METRO is about to enter the local blogosphere:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority is hoping for heavy traffic — to its blog.
The agency plans to unveil a Web site before the end of the year to communicate directly with the public and has hired a full-time blogger, former Houston Chronicle reporter Mary Sit.
"Communication is something we're always striving to improve on," said Raequel Roberts, spokeswoman for Metro. "A free-ranging dialogue is important, and we're hoping that we can establish this through a blog site."
Roberts said Sit just started developing the blog, so it's unclear what features it will include.
If the blog includes robust commenting functionality and METRO's leadership actually reads/responds to it, then a METRO blog could be a very useful tool for METRO riders with complaints/concerns.
The bolded excerpt, however, implies that METRO views its blog as simply another PR outlet, and that somehow the current outlets (the current website, the local media) aren't sufficient to get METRO's message out. We'd suggest that METRO's bigger problem is that it isn't sufficiently responsive/accountable to the public and to its users, not that it can't get its "message" out to the public. Here's hoping the blog helps with the former. METRO doesn't really need another outlet to issue misleading press releases on Friday nights!
On a purely self-referential note, we were amused that Grant worked in a reference to the "Danger Train." It greatly amuses me that the term was actually coined by my good, pro-rail friend John Vaughn one night after we saw some music at the Continental Club (along the rail line).
UPDATE: Grant's story also mentions HPD has looked into a blog. Maybe Chief Hurtt could post photos and stories from Phoenix on the weekends! And when spring training starts in the Phoenix 'burbs, he could even post baseball updates from the Cactus League!
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, On Message, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/27/06 08:00 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (19)
16 January 2008
Leaving town stirs up the news
Whenever I leave town for a few days, interesting news seems to break.
Two such items popped up while I was away this time.
First, reports surfaced of allegations of some boorish behavior by state representative Borris Miles (D) at a party:
The Harris County District Attorney's Office is investigating a complaint that state Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston, made threats and brandished a gun at a holiday party last month.
According to witnesses, Miles entered a St. Regis Hotel ballroom uninvited, confronting guests, displaying a pistol and forcibly kissing another man's wife.
David Harris, who threw the party for his property management company, said he believes Miles, an insurance agent, was angry at him for investing in a rival business."He was saying things such as, 'I told you to get out of the insurance business. There ain't room in this town for the two of us. I'm going to come after you and take you down,' " Harris said.
[snip]
Rumors about the incident have swirled for weeks in both Houston and Austin. Harris agreed to speak publicly about it last month only after being contacted by the Houston Chronicle. It was not until Friday, however, that the District Attorney's Office confirmed the investigation.
[snip]
Last July, Miles shot and wounded a burglar who police said was trying to steal copper from the lawmaker's 9,000- square-foot Third Ward home. Miles, who had a concealed handgun permit and was not charged in the incident, said the shooting was self-defense.
Women, liquor, and guns! The stories may not be true (although the use of the plural term "witnesses" could suggest trouble for Mr. Miles), but they are certainly entertaining.
Less entertaining, but still worth noting, is the news that METRO's transit backbone requires more repairs because of shoddy construction. Here's the Chron reporting/METRO press release (who can really tell the difference any more?):
The downtown and Midtown segments of Metro's light rail line will be closed during parts of the next two weekends to fix problems the transit agency blames on faulty construction.
In December, Metro's board of directors authorized KBR Inc. to repair the problem at a cost of up to $812,000.
The closures will last from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and on Jan. 19-20. Buses will shuttle passengers in the closed segments at 12-minute intervals, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said.
Roberts said the work is to fix persistent trouble with the cables that carry current from power stations along the route to the rails. Metro says the problem caused parts of the line to shut down on three occasions.
The cables, enclosed in boxes between the rails, expand during power surges, which causes them to rub against each other and the boxes, Roberts said. Metro contends the cables were not properly suspended inside the boxes to prevent chafing.
METRO should serenade inconvenienced customers with mariachi bands and provide scratch-off cards.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/16/08 11:16 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
13 May 2009
Chron revisits downtown HOV lane question
Roughly four years ago, the Chron's transit columnist at the time was asked about downtown HOV/"Diamond" bus and carpool lanes, and basically told readers that the regulations are not enforced, and indeed would be nearly impossible to enforce.
In this week's transit column, the question returns, but the newspaper ran the more "official" answer:
The diamond lanes in downtown Houston and Midtown run along Smith, Louisiana, Milam, Travis, Fannin and San Jacinto. During certain hours—which vary and are marked by signs—only “mass transit vehicles” or vehicles making right turns can use the lanes, said Raequel Roberts, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Any type of peace officer can enforce the law, including Houston police, Metro police and Harris County deputies.
The maximum fine for a violation is $200, says Randy Zamora, senior assistant city attorney. Usually, the ticket is $170 with court costs. Zamora said he couldn’t calculate how many bus lane violations had been issued in the past five years because the tickets are lumped together with violations for “failure to obey an official traffic control device.”
Hmm, our best guess is that the regulations still are not enforced, because they still are nearly impossible to enforce. But if you do get a ticket, please don't blame us. It would hardly be shocking if city officials started working a Downtown HOV/Diamond-Lane Violators revenue stream!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/13/09 10:09 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)
12 December 2006
Metro advises rider to board bus that doesn't exist
Three years ago Kevin Whited began noting that Metro planned to cut bus routes as part of its plan to feed riders onto the Danger Train.
Monday's Move It! column reminded us of it:
"I bought a Metro stored value card thinking it was a better deal than carrying cash," says investments executive Mark Vance, who knows good deals.
"But something's wrong," Vance said. "Seems it is only good for one-way travel."
Vance takes a morning bus to the Texas Medical Center and gets a transfer to MetroRail to reach his office downtown.
"The problem is the return trip," he said. "There is no way to use the card at the rail platform ticket dispenser." Metro advised him to board a bus downtown just to get a transfer, and then hop on the train for his outbound trip.
But since MetroRail began operating, Vance said, there are no longer buses on Main. Catch-22. We've written variations on this theme before.
Gosh, that's mighty inconvenient, isn't it? And what's Metro's response?
"There is no solution at this time to the problem, which is one of many reasons why we are going to the 'smart' Q Card," said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts. Q Cards will be loaded up with value like a toll road EZ Tag, then tapped against card readers on the rail platforms to deduct the fare.
Yeah, Metro's losing sleep over this rider's predicament, but it fits Metro's pattern of customer service. By the way, the Q card system won't be operational until February 4th. Unless it gets postponed again.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/06 06:34 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)
10 June 2008
METRO's consent agreement sidesteps committee vote
Following up on this post which noted that the City's proposed consent agreement with METRO had moved out of committee and onto City Council's agenda, Councilwoman Melissa Noriega emails that the consent agreement did NOT get voted out of the Transportation Committee. It was placed on the agenda without the committee vote ever taking place.
Hmmmm. How exactly does that work? Did committee-members' questions make some folks uncomfortable? Who might have pushed that item onto the agenda?
Curiouser and curiouser!
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The mayor controls the agenda, so this looks like an example of Mayor White micromanaging once again, but doing it in a way so that if this latest example of Ready-Fire-Aim governance goes awry, he doesn't have direct ownership of any resulting mess.
Maybe our intrepid local media will comment on the political maneuvering (and bypassing of Council's role in vetting this important policy decision). In fairness, though, it's probably not something that Raequel Roberts has emailed to anyone at 801 Texas Avenue for consideration.
UPDATE: KRIV-26's Isiah Carey reports that Councilmember Ron Green has blasted the arrogance of METRO's management, and has called on Frank Wilson to step down.
Obviously, METRO's recent dealings with Council haven't exactly impressed some Councilmembers. Mayor White's answer? Bypass a Council Committee -- Ready-Fire-Aim!
BLOGVERSATION: ABC13.com Political Blog.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/10/08 08:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)
08 March 2009
Ruffled feathers: Recent Chron METRO, county coverage prompts responses from public officials
Chron transit reporter Rosanna Ruiz is shaping up so far to be much more diligent and probing than her two most recent predecessors on the beat. METRO isn't quite used to the local newspaper being anything but a PR outlet for its proclamations, and one official apparently wasn't too happy with a recent headline. Spokesperson Raequel Roberts also felt the need to write to the Chronicle recently to clarify some matters:
Houston Metro encourages everyone to ride Metro, including Chronicle reporters. (Please see “An inside look at Metro bus commute,” Monday.) To neophytes, riding transit can take some time to master. We have a project under way to straighten out routes that have evolved over the years into zigzag patterns. Any visitor to New York City finds venturing into the subway system a bit daunting, but a day or two of experience leaves many singing the praises of the system. It’s a maturation we often observe with first-time riders to MetroRail.
We are glad the reporter noticed Metro’s buses are clean. We were, however, perplexed by the statement that one must input intersections, not addresses, to use our trip planner. The trip planner works with addresses, as it does with landmarks. We recently added Google Transit to our site as an added form of assistance.
On the matter of fares and our operators: Operators monitor fares to look for abuses of the system, but their primary responsibility is to drive buses safely and adhere to schedules. Buses lurching and creaking? Well, they’re buses, not limousines. Metro isn’t perfect — we’ve fixed a clogged drain that caused leaking on the bus the reporter rode — but we provide a valuable, clean and safe service for one of the lowest fares in the U.S.
These points merited a letter taking issue with the newspaper's coverage? The skin seems to be pretty thin at METRO headquarters these days. As for the bolded comment, one can only wonder what has taken so long, as METRO's route system has long needed a makeover beyond the usual "service improvements" we've discussed before.
Elsewhere on the Chron metro/state pages, Liz Austin Peterson has apparently ruffled some feathers in Harris County government (another beat that hasn't been covered all that well in the past by the Chronicle) with a recent report on drivers for the Sheriff and County Judge. Like many commenters, bloggers, and even our friend Chris Baker, we aren't that bothered by the notion that the Harris County Sheriff and Harris County Judge might need a professional driver/security detail from time to time. On its face, it doesn't necessarily seem like an unwise or inappropriate use of tax dollars, although Commissioner's Court probably would like to be kept better informed on these matters. (Then again, if he were being fully honest, one quoted commissioner might admit that it's a LOT more fun talking about this kinda-not-really "scandal" than his own).
Still, we were a little surprised to see Sheriff Garcia and Judge Emmett's office react so strongly to the story, in terms of this letter to the editor and various comments on local blogs. We're always interested in seeing facts reported accurately and different perspectives represented in stories, but we're also interested in reporters getting stories out there and letting readers/voters decide how important they are. So we hope Peterson isn't dissuaded by the strong reaction from public officials.
What say you?
UPDATE (03-09-2009): METRO is even more thin-skinned than we thought. The Chron apparently cut Raequel Roberts much-too-lengthy letter, so it has been reposted by METRO's very expensive blogger Mary Sit on their blog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/09 09:25 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
08 September 2008
METRO's not-yet-express bus service
Seems there's been a bit of a delay in rolling out METRO's much-anticipated Signature/Express/Quickline/Whatever bus service. You may recall back in January METRO's expensive blogger announced the exciting new transit offering:
METRO's Board of Directors approved last month a contract that calls for Signature Bus Service to be on our roads by mid-August. You may be noticing enhanced bus shelters and furnishings, which we're installing this month.
We'll initially offer this Quickline Signature Bus Service on three routes, totaling 18 miles: Bellaire,Texas Medical Center/Palm and Tidwell. Future plans call for 28 miles of Signature service on Westheimer and Gessner.
Fast forward past August, into September, and the Examiner's Michael Reed reports:
Metro had been advertising the Aug. 25 launch — and painted large, circular logos into the pavement along the Bellaire Boulevard route.
There was no notification, though, of the delays (see accompanying story).
One Metro spokeswoman Carolina Mendoza said the delay involved “development issues” involving elements of the special stops and not separate road construction along the roadway, which planners knew about in advance.
She said the line would be running “as soon as some of those issues are resolved.”
Another Metro spokeswoman, Raequel Roberts, also indicated the new bus service had been delayed by “some final construction work and tweaks to the system.
“Once we are satisfied everything is working to our satisfaction we’ll announce the start. Nothing major — just want to make sure it’s providing the service we want and that people understand completely how it works,” Roberts said in an e-mail.
But Bellaire City Manager Bernie Satterwhite received a timetable and a different reason from Metro.
“They say start will be in 30-60 days depending on the progress on Bellaire Boulevard in Southside Place,” said Satterwhite in an e-mail response to an Examiner query about what Metro was telling the city.
Typical METRO. METRO is so unburdened by having to provide quality customer service, the agency couldn't be bothered to notify riders:
Bellaire City Councilman Will Hickman was one Bellaire rider who tried to use the new service. Instead, Hickman complained at last week’s City Council meeting, he ended up on the old Bellaire No. 2 bus to the Medical Center.
It wasn’t the sleek, swift ride he had expected. Hickman complained that it took him more than an hour to get to work.
When he finally got to his office, Hickman said he checked Metro’s website. Sure enough, it said the Quickline service was scheduled to fly.
Metro updated its website Tuesday morning, announcing the new service was “coming soon.”
Good grief! All those handsomely paid people inside the Lee P. Brown Administration Building, and no one thought to update the website??!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 09/08/08 07:09 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 March 2007
Murders surging (again); Lambert downplays danger
Various media outlets are reporting that a man was shot to death on a METRO bus earlier today.
Here are some key excerpts from Kevin Moran's reporting on Chron.com:
A man was shot to death today on a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus in west Houston after he apparently got into an argument with a man he may have touched or bumped while trying to get off the bus.
The alleged gunman was in custody and a passenger was taken to a hospital complaining of chest pains after the incident, which occurred about 11:30 a.m. on the 82 Westheimer route on Westheimer between Wilcrest and Kirkwood, said Metro spokeswoman Rosio Torres.
[snip]
Authorities estimate some 30 people were on the bus. "This is a rare occurrence,'' said Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert. He noted that Metro carries 330,000 passengers daily on 1,300 buses.
Homicide detectives arrived at the scene shortly after 1:30 p.m. Some witnesses were taken in a separate bus to give statements to police.
Observation #1: METRO spokesperson Raequel Roberts should never, ever let Chief Lambert speak to the press without supervision. The implication that METRO carries a lot of passengers daily without many deaths probably isn't very reassuring to the family of the man who was killed, to riders on the bus, or to anyone really.
Observation #2: Homicide detectives arrived two hours after the shooting? That isn't very reassuring either.
On the topic of murder and mayhem, KTRH-740 just noted that this murder was Houston's eleventh since Friday. The Mayor's PR operation is really going to be earning its keep if it figures out a way to spin this one. Or maybe they've figured out there is no good way to spin it, and that's why we keep hearing comments instead from Councilmember Adrian Garcia.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, On Message, The American Thinker.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/28/07 04:17 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (20)
11 February 2007
Light rail stray current raises concerns in San Francisco
Don Gallagher posts a San Francisco story of some local interest to the MET Yahoo Group. Here's a snippet from the reporting from San Francisco's CBS television affiliate:
Help is on the way for residents of a San Francisco neighborhood, as a CBS 5 investigation gets results. The question: Whether Muni's light rail lines could be the cause of damaged water pipes in the West Portal area. Muni now says the investigation has prompted them to take action.
Here’s what Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch had to say just days ago, talking about the phenomenon known as 'stray current': "We’ve had rail for 100 years and never heard of it," Lynch said.
Stray current that our experts said might be responsible for corroding water pipes. It’s something we wanted to ask her more questions about, but Lynch cut the interview short and walked out on us.
Now Muni is changing its tune: "Yes, Muni does know about stray current," engineer Bill Neilson told us.
Why the flip-flop? Neilsen said it was miscommunication. "To that I would say we're sorry that we came across as not being aware of stray current," he said.
This all sounds a little familiar. Recall that just a few months ago, METRO trotted out its (non-engineer) spokeswoman Raequel Roberts to respond to a story on stray current by KHOU-11 (Houston's CBS affiliate). She downplayed the problem, making reference to a nine-volt battery. Since then, METRO apparently has installed additional stray-current monitors, and apparently still does not have the problem under control.
Tom Bazan has kept the pressure on METRO for full disclosure of its stray current issues (and corrective action), although the organization has frequently stonewalled his efforts.
RELATED: SF muni blamed for leaking underground water pipes (KPIX-5), Stray current archives (bH).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/07 02:13 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
09 June 2008
METRO's man at the Chron spins dismal ridership statistics
Rad Sallee, METRO's man at 801 Texas Avenue, had this interesting bit of spin in Monday's transportation column:
At the same City Council committee meeting, one speaker claimed loudly that Metro has "decimated" its bus system. You decide.
Local bus boardings for October through April were up 4.2 percent from a year earlier, rail boardings were up 6.3 percent and Park & Ride boardings up 13.1 percent.
Boardings are a rough gauge of ridership, because each transfer is counted as a boarding, so let's look at other measures.
From April 2006 to January 2008, Metro says, it increased the number of bus trips 4.6 percent, bus miles traveled 2 percent and bus hours of operation 2.6 percent.
Metro also says it has increased weekday bus service in each of six consecutive route revisions since August 2006.
Before applauding too loudly, remember that bus boardings were 98 million in 1999 compared to bus and rail boardings of 101 million in 2007.
That's a puny increase of 2 percent in eight years, several of which brought spiraling gasoline costs.
Still, the bus system is a long way from decimated.
Raequel Roberts had to smile after reading that. Perhaps she even supplied the statistics!
Pedantic debates over the verb "decimate" aside, however, the fact is that Harris County's population has surged over a period of years, gasoline prices have surged more recently, and neither METRO system ridership nor METRO bus "service improvements" have come close to matching either. Quite the contrary!
And of course METRO's man at 801 Texas Avenue neglected to mention that the 2003 referendum promised a 50% increase in bus service that has failed to materialize (and, in fact, that broken promise has even disappeared from METRO's website). Apparently that wasn't germane to the dissection of the verb "decimate."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/09/08 10:54 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (8)
04 June 2007
METRO in the news
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports on preliminary findings from the panel asked to look into METRO's problems last month with routing trains onto the same track:
Although a final report may be weeks away, Reginald Mason, Metro's chief safety officer, presented preliminary findings to the Metro board last week.
Besides having more control staff at TranStar, the panel suggested installing an "audible alarm" there to sound when a switch is in a dangerous position. The situation is displayed visually now but might not be noticed in time to prevent an accident.
The panel also found Metro's light rail rules are unclear in assigning safety responsibilities, leading to confusion among those involved in the incident.
"It was very unclear who had control of the mainline operations," Mason said, referring to the train operator and her superiors, the maintenance staff or the controllers at TranStar.
The panel said the MetroRail rule book should be revised "to ensure clear responsibility and accountability," and Metro should hold daily meetings among personnel of the three rail divisions to coordinate their activities safely.
Since the incident, Metro has begun retraining its light rail operators and conducting all track maintenance at night, after the line shuts down, president and CEO Frank Wilson said. For several months, the agency has been installing signals that show rail operators the position of a switch long before the train is close enough for observation of the switch itself.
It sounds as if METRO is taking these incidents seriously, despite John Sedlak's spin a few weeks ago.
In a separate story, Sallee reports good and bad news for METRO. The good news is that Danger Train collisions are down:
[B]oth bus and rail accidents are tracking far below the levels needed to reach Metro's "goal" for the year in both categories.
It may seem odd to have a collision goal of anything but zero, but you have to be realistic.
Yes, when you build rail at street level in an already congested corridor, you have to expect problems. It's nice to see METRO finally accepting reality. Or being "realistic," as Sallee put it.
The bad news, as reported by Sallee, is that paid system ridership is declining (or flat, at best). METRO critic Tom Bazan makes an appearance in the story, causing METRO's PR staff to swing into action:
Finally, regular Metro critic Tom Bazan asked the board how its statistics could show revenue from MetroRail ticket vending machines remaining flat from 2004 to 2007 while rail boardings doubled.
Bazan said he thinks most of the increase in rail boardings increase came from bus riders who now transfer to rail because their old bus routes were altered to connect with it.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said it doesn't make sense that a bus system with declining ridership would generate enough transfers to cause a doubling of rail riders.
TVM receipts don't tell the whole story, she said, since many MetroRail riders use time-activated and stored-value cards.
"We are still studying what is going on," Roberts said.
We're sure they'll get right to the bottom of it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/07 11:08 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (9)
10 January 2006
METRO advertises for safety specialists
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that METRO is now advertising for safety specialists.
The timing is completely coincidental, METRO officials say, and has nothing to do with recent collisions involving vehicles or the blind man. *wink* *wink*
We can only imagine that METRO must be a pretty great place to work. It draws Chronicle editors, after all. And it seems to promote from within, as Sallee reports:
[Former Chronicle editor and METRO PR person Raequel] Roberts said one of the job slots, with the title of rail safety manager, would be filled by a replacement for Reginald Mason, who has been promoted to director of system safety over bus and rail operations.
The other three positions — rail safety specialist, system safety manager and system safety officer — are new.
Qualifications (described online at www.ridemetro.org) are the ability to drive the trains or buses, investigate accidents, evaluate operator performance and recommend changes in policies and procedures.
The pay ranges from $52,000 to $82,000.
Isn't it heartening to know that the light rail train can suffer over 100 collisions since beginning operation (four of which METRO actually admits were because of driver error), AND the rail safety manager earns himself a promotion to director of system safety? Ah, what opportunities our transit organization offers for those who aspire to great things!
All derision aside, this sounds kind of serious:
Attorney Dan Lundeen, an advocate for pedestrians and cyclists, says guidelines for enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act call for audible and vibrating signals for pedestrians.
People with impaired vision rely on traffic sounds to safely cross a street, but these cues can be compromised by increasingly quiet vehicles and other factors, the guidelines say.
"I think it (audible signals) is something that should be looked at," said Shelagh Moran, a vice president of Lighthouse of Houston, which aids the blind.
These are not unprecedented in Houston, she said, since there are bell signals at pedestrian crossings on Dallas at Dunlavy and at Shepherd, near the agency's facility.
"Those are helpful," she said.
They aren't just helpful, ma'am. They're the law. At least according to Attorney Dan Lundeen. And if he's right, we suspect some attorney in this litigious town will be letting METRO know about it soon enough.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/06 09:43 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
17 July 2009
Hair Balls on METRO's "civil rights trainwreck" (updated)
The Houston Press Hairballs blog takes a break momentarily from amateurish, incomprehensible rambling to post actual work from a professional journalist* related to METRO. Here's a snippet from Paul Knight, commenting on METRO's adventures with civil-rights laws:
A couple months back, we wrote about Metro receiving notification from the Federal Transit Administration, saying Metro had violated federal civil rights laws, but we hadn't seen a draft of the preliminary report. Now we have, and, apparently, Metro hasn't been too concerned with the federal laws.
According to the report, "the general consensus among the staff was that there was little to no awareness of METRO's Title VI Program," a program designed to ensure that Metro doesn't discriminate based on race, color, or national origin, and it evaluates the "social and economic effects of programs and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."
Furthermore, the report says, no one on staff interviewed by the FTA even knew that there was a person or department where Title VI complaints should be directed.
Tom Bazan, a Houston resident whose name should be familiar to people who follow Metro, obtained the report from the FTA, but since a lot of information has been redacted from the draft, he feels that the agency is still stonewalling him.
"For all their transparency, they still seem to be reluctant to talk about unpleasant topics," Bazan tell Hair Balls.
Our METRO?
Surely not.
* Yes, apparently there are a few such creatures left at the place.
ANNE LINEHAN ADDS: Paul Knight's post includes an update:
Raequel Roberts, a Metro spokeswoman, responded to our questions about the report and said that Metro has responded to the FTA report, adding that the agency's final report is complete. (The FTA hasn't responded to Hair Balls.)
Since Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson insists that METRO operates in a "completely transparent manner," METRO should encourage the release of the final report so we can all see METRO's response.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/17/09 11:33 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (1)
25 August 2007
Whimsical transit policy: Left hand, right hand, what hand?
On Thursday, the Chronicle's Rad Sallee reported that METRO's real-estate division was about to spring into action:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority board today will consider the purchase of a former rail bed between downtown and the 610 North Loop, as well as sites for new Park & Ride lots in Katy and Pearland.
Metro plans a commuter rail line from near U.S. 290 and Hempstead Highway to a future terminal for trains and buses north of downtown, although an exact route has not been announced.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts refused Wednesday to discuss the transit agency's interest in the property or provide a map of it before today's meeting, set for 1 p.m. at 1900 Main.
On Friday, Sallee reported that METRO decided it might be worthwhile to think over the matter and talk to other local actors before barreling ahead:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority shelved a planned vote Thursday to buy a former freight rail bed for commuter rail, after learning - to board members' surprise - that the city plans a bike trail there.
Board member Rafael Ortega said news that Metro is interested in the route had "created some concern in the community." He suggested that Metro should "communicate our regret to the city of Houston and TxDOT for jumping the gun."
Chairman David Wolff said that was not necessary, but agreed that the agenda item had been premature. Metro staff will discuss the proposal with Houston officials before a vote is rescheduled, he said.
Wolff said the property, now owned by the Texas Department of Transportation and formerly by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, was considered as a possible route from the northwest area to a planned terminal north of downtown for buses, light rail and commuter trains.
Whoops!
As noted in an earlier post, transit policy in Houston certainly does have its whimsical aspects, and this is a nice example.
We're fairly sure this planned acquisition will return to the agenda at some point, however. METRO usually is persistent about pursuing what it wants.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/07 01:23 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)
10 August 2009
The arrogance of METRO (cont'd)
The poor Chron.com metro/state editors have been having a time of it lately.
The Chron.com edition of a weekend story by Bradley Olson on the mayoral candidates' timid approach to crime repeated grafs, which nobody caught*.
The Chron.com edition of today's column by Carolyn Feibel omitted a graf (the lede!). We'll just paste that in below as an image, in case the Chron.com editors are too busy to fix it.
For that matter, we'll also post a correction, since Chron editors don't always get around to them any more: The Texas Watchdog story referenced in the column ran on Friday, not Thursday (as Feibel wrote).
The rest of the column is here.
Recall that METRO spokeswoman Raequel Roberts lashed out over Feibel's previous criticism of the inadequate notice of meetings, ranting that Chron reporters never attend the meetings in question, and METRO would basically continue to decide what is best in terms of notification. METRO board chair David Wolff offered Feibel yet another lame excuse for the ongoing lack of transparency regarding meetings:
Wolff contends that any reticence has developed defensively, after years of being under fierce attack by anti-rail political foes, notably former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Sugar Land Republican.
Translation: Screw transparency for the taxpayers AND for legislators responsible for our funding -- especially the ones who look at what we are doing closely.
Is there a more arrogant public organization in Texas?
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Watchdog.
* Frequently when the little un-blog points out such errors, they are quickly corrected. But not this time. [UPDATE (08/11/09): All three errors have now been corrected. Glad the un-blog could help!]
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/09 09:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 January 2006
METRO commemorates Braille Day
METRO received criticism on the fiftieth anniversary of Rosa Parks' famous act of civil rights activism on a Montgomery bus for not doing enough to commemorate the act.
Perhaps civil rights activists should be thankful, if METRO's response to Louis Braille's birthday is any indication:
A blind man walking downtown was struck by a passing Metro rail train shortly before noon Wednesday.
The man was struck by the train at the intersection of Main and Lamar.
The man was walking with his cane at the intersection of Main and Lamar when he apparently became confused and stepped into the train’s path.
The driver of the train allegedly blew the whistle to warn the victim, but he did not get out of the way in time.
The victim was transported to Ben Taub Hospital with head trauma.
I wonder if Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert and his Elite Jaywalking/Counterterror Squad will deliver the poor blind man a Braille citation at Ben Taub?
(Hat tip to Laurence Simon for the links and unfortunate imagery).
UPDATE: The initial Chron.com reporting (since updated) did not mention the man was blind. Now it does, and adds the following:
Bob Broxson, who works downtown, said he was standing on the east side of Main at Lamar when the man attempted to cross toward him.
"There was a lady ... yelling for him to stop, and the train was blowing its whistle,'' Broxson said. ``He started feeling around urgently with his cane trying to figure out where he was.''
Broxson said the train operator apparently hit the brakes, bringing the train to a stop about 15 feet past the collision site. "It wasn't the train's fault,'' he said.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said witnesses told police the train operator sounded the horn in warning, but the man was apparently disoriented. It was not immediately known how fast the train was moving.
I've seen the train moving at a speed I would guess is above the speed limits. It would be interesting to know the train's rate of speed, and without having to file a Freedom of Information request to get the information. Perhaps one of METRO's PR people who read the blog could help us out with that?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/06 02:01 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (4)
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