METRORail - History

History

This line was built after an approximately 20-year battle, starting in 1983 when voters rejected a rail plan by referendum. Voter referendum in 1988 approved a 20 mile light rail plan; however, Bob Lanier was elected mayor in 1992 and stopped the plan. In 1991, U.S. Rep. Tom Delay, removed $65 million in federal funding for the rail line. Then, Houston drew up a rail plan with entirely local funding. In 2001, several groups sued to stop construction, claiming that the METRO organization was a "private business" and subject to Houston City Charter provisions regulating business use of its streets; they obtained 2 temporary injunctions in January 2001, which were reversed by appeals court on March 9, 2001.

Ground was broken on this line on March 13, 2001. The opening of METRORail on January 1, 2004, came 64 years after the previous streetcar system had been shut down. The cost was $325 million Houston was the largest city in the United States without a rail system after the 1990 opening of the Blue Line in Los Angeles.

Tom Delay strongly opposed construction of the METRORAIL line and twice blocked federal funding for the system in the United States House of Representatives. Thus the Metrorail was built without any federal funding until November 2011 when a $900 million grant was approved for expansions.

In spite of the opposition of some groups to the Metrorail, surveys conducted by Stephen Klineberg and Rice University have shown consistent increases in support of rail transport and decreases in support for bigger and better roads/highways in the Houston metropolitan area in recent years. Klineberg considers these changes a "paradigm shift" or "sea change" on attitudes towards mass transit.