Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County - Expansion

Expansion

Additional rail will be laid as approved by a 52% yes to 48% no margin in the November 2003 election. Critics have alleged the existence of a conflict of interest in the planned expansion. Major contractors including Siemens AG, which constructs the train vehicles, contributed substantial amounts of money to the Political Action Committee promoting the expansion referendum. Supporters of an expanded rail system in Houston have leveled similar charges against opponents of the referendum, noting that suburban development interests largely bankrolled the PAC opposing the referendum.

In June 2005, METRO announced a revised plan for expansion of the METRORail system. The plan included four new corridors, consisting of both light rail and bus rapid transit. The bus rapid transit lines would have later been converted into light rail when ridership warranted the conversion.

On October 18, 2007, the plan was revised to allow for the possibility of more federal funding. METRO decided to go ahead and have all the lines consist of light rail from the start.

The planned expansions are within the city of Houston and will eventually reach the two major Houston airports, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport. METRO is planning service to suburbs in Houston, as well as other parts of Houston. Alternatives Analysis and Draft Environmental Impact Analysis studies are currently underway on four extensions.

METRO is also planning a commuter rail system in conjunction with the light rail system, pending feasibility of the plan. In addition, METRO wants to link up with a planned Commuter Rail line traveling from Fort Bend County to just south of Reliant Stadium, which would use an existing Union Pacific railroad, as well as an additional line branching out along the U.S. Highway 290 corridor to Hempstead, TX, and possibly further. A recent entrance by the Gulf Coast Freight Rail District may make the 290 corridor and the Galveston corridor possible by 2012, again pending feasibility. While heavy rail would not be a possibility to serve Fort Bend County, recent approval has been given to study an extension of the Red Line to Fort Bend from the Fannin South Station. Furthermore, Representative Gene Greene has issued a statement regarding a preliminary acquisition of funds for Houston projects, amongst them one million dollars to move forward and extend the Red Line south to Missouri City.

The passed voter referendum included:

• Additional 64.8 miles (104.3 km) of light rail
• Commuter rail service (28 miles)
• Increased access to activity centers
• Rail service to both airports
• More than 50 new rail stations
• 50% increase in bus service

The following lines and services were planned to be up and running by 2012, but various circumstances have changed the overall timing. According a statement by Annise Parker, Houston's mayor, both the University Line and the Uptown Line would be delayed until a future date when funding could be secured. According to construction details from the GO METRORail website, construction was moving slowly. Further delays to the construction were also a possibility pending the FTA investigation METRO (which began in April 2010) for possible "Buy America" violations by building new prototype cars in Spain. Another obstacle surfaced in August 2010 when METRO officially announced that it had fallen short $49 million on its budget, but insisted that the current dates for completion (Red Line Extension by 2013 and East End/Green Line by 2014) would not be affected. However, such was not the case, after the decision handed down by the FTA on September 8, 2010, that stated that METRO was in violation of "Buy America" rules - after talking with the board, on September 9, 2010, all progress for the three light rail lines under construction was to be slowed and a new (generic) date of 2014 was set.

The current plans to date are as follows:

• The Red Line Extension from UH–Downtown to the Northline Transit Center that will run 5.3 miles (9 km).

• The East End/Green Line will extend east 3.3 miles (5 km) from Downtown Houston to the Magnolia Transit Center.

• The Southeast/Purple Line will extend 6.1 miles (10 km) from downtown at Smith Street (near the Main Street line) and terminate at Palm Center around MLK and Griggs Street.

• The University/Blue Line (according to Go METRORail) will extend 11.3 miles (18 km) from the Hillcroft Transit Center to the Eastwood Transit Center, and follow the Richmond/Wheeler and Westpark corridors with transfers to the Red Line at Wheeler Station and the Uptown/Gold Line at Bellaire/South Rice. According to what METRO reported to the local station, KRIV 26, this line has received a federal Record of Decision, what it calls the final step necessary to build this line.

• The Uptown/Gold Line (according to Go METRORail) will run from Bellaire/South Rice Station on Westpark through Uptown to the Northwest Transit Center for a total distance of 4.4 miles (7 km). This route possibly may be extended another 1.1 miles (2 km) to Northwest Mall. Also, another map shows that this line will be extended to the Hillcroft Transit Center, and furthermore it appears a duplicate line will make its way from the Northwest Transit Center to the Eastwood Transit Center. METRO was promised by the Uptown Management District that $70 million of infrastructure improvements would be implemented in order to allow METRO to build this line; however, this has not come to pass, and therefore METRO appears to keep the construction of the line in limbo for the present.

Countering the bad news regarding METRO's light rail expansion, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed bills allotting $150 million to the Red Line Extension and Southeast/Green Line light rail projects for fiscal year 2011. Added to the previous $150 million allotted fiscal year 2010, the total amount given to these projects is $300 million. However, according to the FTA, this will not be available to METRO unless they rebid the contract to build the new light rail cars. In light of this, METRO decided to build light rail only according to the funds they have while waiting to see if they will receive federal funds. Thus in late September 2010 METRO only came up with a figure of $143 million in funds available for construction.