A rail impasse
The Chron's Rad Sallee notes there seems to be a bit of a problem with METRO's East End light rail line:
Metro board chairman David Wolff said Thursday that the roadblock is the former Houston Belt & Terminal Railway tracks, now owned by Union Pacific Railroad. The crossing, on Harrisburg between 65th and Oldham, is familiar to motorists and pedestrians delayed by freight trains.
Wolff said Metro had considered crossing the double tracks at street level.
"But it doesn't seem the railroad is too enthusiastic about that."
Metro spokeswoman Sandra Salazar later said UP would not agree to share its right of way with Metro trains.
UP officials could not be reached for comment, but the railroad often has cited the dangers of mixing freight operations with street traffic and pedestrians.
A Danger Train and a freight train...hard to figure out why Union Pacific is queasy about that pairing.
Sallee asked METRO why this problem was just now coming to light. METRO's answer is classic METRO:
Metro has been planning the line almost since voters approved it in a 2003 referendum. Asked why the issue is surfacing now, Salazar said Metro initially hoped to obtain permission from the railroad for a street-level crossing.
In 2003, when Metro changed its plans from light rail to Bus Rapid Transit, thinking that was necessary to qualify for federal funding, the issue was moot because the buses would cross the tracks with other street traffic.
"The issue became critical again in 2007 when we changed back to light rail," Salazar said.
Because METRO's plans are ever-changing! But METRO chairman David Wolff has a plan -- Houston taxpayers will help bail out the transit agency:
Wolff said he hoped the city of Houston would build an overpass at the tracks. That may enable Metro to extend the line to the transit center within two to four years after its scheduled completion in 2012. Until then, he said, Metro would bridge the gap with a bus shuttle.
An overpass for street traffic is recommended in the Texas Department of Transportation's Houston Region Freight Rail Study, which estimates the cost at $14 million.
However, the study does not mention light rail sharing the crossing, which could require a longer and stronger span, raising the cost sharply.
That's no problem for METRO -- it's flush these days.
Wolff said he thought the city will build an overpass "at some point" and added, "We'd rather go over the bridge with the city than build our own bridge."
Frank Michel, spokesman for Mayor Bill White, said the city and Metro have not discussed an overpass yet, nor is funding for such a project in the city's current five-year capital improvement plan. "But shortly, we are going to start a major mobility study and we could consider a grade separation at that point," Michel said.
There's hope!
And then the most revealing part of the story is one sentence toward the end:
Wolff revealed the possible change after Thursday's monthly board meeting.
That's the METRO-way. Just ask Tom Bazan.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Intermodality, Houston Politics.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/28/08 04:52 AM | Print |
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