Very interesting and challenging
letter from Congressman John Culberson.
Dec. 17, 2007, 7:42PM
Our missing mobility piece is commuter rail
By REP. JOHN CULBERSON
Time is our most precious commodity. Whether we spend it with family and friends, at work, or just relaxing, time allows us to do the things that we enjoy. But unlike other commodities, time is finite and irreplaceable.
Every day we drive to work in the morning and sit in traffic on our crowded freeways, we lose time. Houston drivers lose an estimated 56 hours every year because of traffic. The reason is simple: The number of cars and trucks on the road has gone up faster than new roads are built.
The solution to our traffic problems involves a combination of freeways, toll roads and mass transit. It can be seen partly in the record-setting reconstruction of the Katy Freeway with its signature toll lanes and express commuter bus service. This model freeway is being completely rebuilt in half the time originally planned. Despite the collapse of federal and state dollars for new highway construction, it is fully funded. When it is finished within the next eight months, it will cut your travel time in half.
The only piece missing from the new Katy Freeway is high speed commuter rail. I encouraged the Metropolitan Transit Authority to include a commuter rail line and Metro had plenty of chances to reserve space for it, but they couldn't make up their minds and we couldn't delay construction waiting for them.
For all of the glowing publicity the Main Street Line in downtown Houston receives, it doesn't make our morning commutes any easier because it isn't taking cars off our freeways.
For mass transit to ease congestion, it must be designed as an integrated system. The Metro Solutions plan that voters approved in 2003 was presented as an integrated transit system with a 50 percent increase in bus service, and 64 miles of light rail, but it included only 8 miles of commuter rail. I would be hard pressed to find a single commuter from the suburbs who thinks that 8 miles of commuter rail is sufficient for an area with a population approaching 5 million people.
Cynics complain that Houston is years behind other cities in the development of our transit system because voters didn't approve a light rail plan until 2003, but we have had the benefit of learning from the transit successes and failures of other major cities.
The most important lesson from the transit experiment is that light rail cannot survive without commuter rail, which cannot survive without buses. Houston has always had a renowned and successful bus service, but the lack of progress on expanding our rail system and attracting new riders has led to cutbacks in bus service.
Our own city within a city, the Texas Medical Center, is a case in point. Measured by commercial space, the Texas Medical Center is bigger than downtown Denver and about the same size as downtown Pittsburgh. Both Denver and Pittsburgh have direct light rail service from the suburbs into their downtown areas. Denver has 31 local buses, 21 express buses and 9 regional buses with service into downtown. Pittsburgh has 100 local buses and 60 express buses with service into downtown. The Medical Center has only three Metro buses with direct service and four with local service for the 160,000 people who enter and exit its campus every day.
Since voters approved the Metro Solutions plan in 2003, Metro has switched modes from light rail, to bus rapid transit, back to light rail. This frequent and sudden gear shifting has thoroughly confused the public, elected officials, and now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), as evidenced by their recent response letter to Metro President Frank Wilson.
What some see as a rebuke of Metro's plans by FTA I see as an opportunity for Metro to work with FTA and local stakeholders to develop a new and improved, comprehensive transit system that includes a major expansion of local and regional bus service, and high-speed commuter rail to our airports and busiest suburbs, all tying directly into a light rail network inside the 610 Loop.
Houston is growing outward in all directions, and the time is right for Metro to rethink the outdated 2003 Metro Solutions plan and articulate a bold, but realistic plan that will help us reclaim some of the time we spend trapped in traffic.
Culberson, a Republican, represents Texas' 7th U.S. Congressional District, which is west Houston. He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee (www.culberson.house.gov ).
Photo by Mimi Kuo-Deemer for The New York Times - Vehicles jammed a road as a thick morning haze covered Beijing during a recent morning rush hour.
