MetroRail's not getting federal funding -- for now
Lucas Wall, in today's Chronicle, reports that Metro has been denied federal funding for 2006, which will impede Metro's planned expansion:
In a report to Congress released on Tuesday, the Federal Transit Administration details rail and bus projects that it believes should get funding assistance for the fiscal year 2006. Houston MetroRail appears in a 55-page appendix listing hundreds of pending projects across the United States not ready for grants.
Of course, Metro is not happy:
"For people who really care about Houston and believe, as I think every intelligent person does, that transit is a necessary part of the solution to our mobility problems, it is frustrating to see the money for transit going to these other cities," said Metro board Chairman David Wolff. "It's not like the money is going to come to this city instead for highways or parks or health care."
Blogger Chris Elam takes exception with Wolff's assertion that if you don't support Metro, you are not intelligent; and with Metro President Frank Wilson's complaint that this potential delay in funding throws Metro off its schedule.
In our forum recently, we batted around the idea that Metro might have been better off starting with commuter rail, rather than what we currently have.
And, out in Orange County, CA, light rail plans are being put on the back burner, if not scrapped entirely, and a new bus rapid transit system will be probably be considered instead.
RELATED: Rode out on a rail (Laurence Simon), Metro funding in doubt again (Charles Kuffner), Feds decline to fund MetroRail expansion (Matt Bramanti at Lone Star Times)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/09/05 11:58 AM | Print |
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