METRORail - Route and Infrastructure

Route and Infrastructure

The route is a 7.5 mile (12 km) double-tracked, standard gauge line with 16 stations approximately a half-mile apart, running from UH–Downtown to Fannin South. The entire route is at grade and on city streets. Power supply is from 600/750DC volt overhead wires with 9 substations. The line follows Main Street for 8 stations from UH–Downtown to Wheeler Station, then follows Fannin Street for the remainder of the route until Fannin South. However, northbound trains run on San Jacinto Street (rather than Fannin) for a small section of the route between the Wheeler and Museum District stations. The tracks are usually in the center of the street; however, the southbound tracks between the Wheeler and Museum District stations "hug the left curb" according to one source.

Significant businesses and institutions along this route include the University of Houston–Downtown, Houston's restaurant district near Preston Station, the Downtown Transit Center, Houston's museum district, Rice University, Memorial Hermann Hospital, the Texas Medical Center, and Reliant Astrodome.

A Park and Ride parking lot is available at one station: Fannin South. It has approximately 1,200 parking spaces. Parking fees included a daily rate of $3 and a monthly hangtag contract of $40.

Architectural firm Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville of Houston, Texas, was in charge of the final architectural/engineering design and design support, with a $2.3million contract. However, the line's 16 stations were designed by the Houston office of St. Louis-based architectural firm Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. All the stations are of similar design, are 250-feet long, and are partially covered by glass roofs. Station length was constrained by the distance between crosswalks in downtown city blocks; station platforms are low-floor and 350mm high.

The right-of-way and the stations were built by three contractors for approximately $115 million: Texas Sterling Construction Co. of Houston, Bencon Management of Houston, and Beers Construction Co. of Atlanta. The line construction was divided into 5 sections, with a resident engineer for each section, to speed up construction.

The route can handle 3 minute headways during peak hours and has a design capacity of 8,000 people/hour in each direction while using 2-car trains with such a headway.

The line has a yard and a maintenance facility connected by loop track to the south of the Fannin South station.