METRO PRESENTS OPTIONS FOR UNIVERSITY LINE

By Ella Tyler

In the past ten days, METRO staff, engineers and consultants have literally rolled out aerial maps, engineering drawings, and artists’ sketches of six possible routes for the University Corridor rail line at three neighborhood meetings. The meetings have been well attended, with, according to the Houston Chronicle, about 150 people at the final meeting on July 25.

At that meeting, held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church on Main, a mixed group of people peered over maps, asked questions, and filled out comment forms. A few people wore buttons opposing rail on Richmond, but most had no obvious point of view. I witnessed a small argument between a man who claimed there are no trees on Richmond east of Shepherd and a woman who said, yes there are,­ they were planted in 1983. One map viewer told me that the route should be along Westpark and was challenged by another who asked how riders would be able to go anywhere once they got off the train. Several viewers seemed to be making plans for how they would use the train.

The proposed routes for the section of the line east of Main are along Wheeler, Alabama, or Elgin (at Main, Wheeler becomes Richmond and Elgin becomes Westheimer). These routes would end at University of Houston.

If Elgin or Alabama is chosen for the route east of Main, the rail line will curve to join Wheeler/Richmond in the vicinity of Main Street. Then the rail line will run along Richmond, but at some point, yet to be chosen, will cross the Southwest Freeway and run beside Westpark to the Hillcroft transit center, where it ends. The places under consideration for the crossing point are Shepherd, Buffalo Speedway, Plaza Drive, Timmons, the SP railroad tracks, or Sage Road.

Architect Doug Childers, chair of RichmondRail.org, a group that favors placing the rail line entirely on Richmond, says, “These documents show clearly that most of the fears about a potential Richmond alignment have been unwarranted. METRO has demonstrated that they are working hard to address the legitimate concerns of residents and businesses along Richmond.

According to Childers, concerns over rail have included “exaggerated fears over excessive use of eminent domain, loss of traffic lanes, disappearance of trees, and major disruptions of business along Richmond.”

METRO reports that, if the University Line were built straight out Richmond, little property would need to be acquired, no traffic lanes would be taken out, most left-turn opportunities would remain, neighborhoods would not be closed off, and trees and esplanades west of Kirby would remain essentially untouched; however, the esplanade east of Kirby would be impacted.

METRO also promised to reduce construction impacts by building in short segments and providing assistance to business owners, using research prepared by the Gulf Coast Institute.

Ridership must be high enough on the chosen route to satisfy federal requirements, and METRO must weigh higher ridership for a Richmond route against possibly lower construction costs on Westpark.

METRO expects to select a route by August 8. Opponents and proponents are urging supporters to make their opinions known. In the past two weeks, RichmondRail.org delivered petitions with the names of more than 1,000 supporters to the METRO Board and Houston City Council.

In the meantime, plans for the other segments of the rail/bus rapid transit program are very close to being complete. The routes for the Uptown and East End segments have been chosen and construction is expected to begin next July. Uptown will run along Post Oak and East End will run along Harrisburg. Most of the route for the North and Southeast segment has been determined. There is a decision to be made about whether one section of the North segment will run along Irvington/Cavalcade or Fulton and whether one section of the Southeast segment will follow Scott St. or MLK Blvd. METRO will be holding meetings about these routes in August. Construction of rapid transit lanes for buses is expected to be finished in 2010. The rail line is expected to be finished in 2012.

To view the maps, see Metro’s website.