In the United States, BRT has often been sold as being nearly as good as rail. The new BRT lines will be doing exactly what the Red Line rail does today. But if this system is what METRO aspires for it to be, that’s not what will define the rider experience.
#METRO RAIL ROUTE HOUSTON UPGRADE#
In some cases, this upgrade will come in the form of light rail. The high ridership routes on Gessner, Richmond, Lockwood and Broadway will be upgraded with faster, more reliable, more comfortable and more convenient service. What METRONext proposed - and what METRO will now build - is not a new system it is a transformational upgrade of the current bus network. The Red Line is the most important route in Houston’s bus network. That connection was only strengthened with the 2015 redesign of the bus network, which created more frequent crosstown routes that intersect rail. The Main Street Line drew new transit riders, but it was also an upgrade for bus riders who could now connect to a faster, more reliable service. In 2004, with the opening of the Main Street Line, Houston did something very different: a light rail line that connected multiple major employment centers, that ran in the street in the middle of walkable places, and that operated as an integral part of the bus system. LRT’s Red Line is an integral part of Metro’s bus network Read part one by Kyle Shelton, deputy director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
#METRO RAIL ROUTE HOUSTON SERIES#
Part three of the four-part series will run Friday, Feb. The rail system is essentially an overlay on a separate bus network. Transit connections are an afterthought, planned long after the route of the rail line has been set. That doesn’t mean that people don’t take the bus to get to a rail station, but it does mean these rail systems are not designed to work with a bus network. It’s intended for people who will make their entire transit trip by rail. light rail system is also designed in isolation. systems in ridership per mile - and the ridership they get is heavily concentrated at commute times. These single-purpose suburb-to-downtown rail lines don’t get good ridership - Dallas, Denver and Salt Lake City all rank in the lower half of U.S. And commute trips are only a small portion of the trips we make the transit lines that get the best ridership are those that get people to the store, the park and the doctor as well as work. Downtowns aren’t the only major employment centers: hospitals, universities and secondary office centers are major destinations, too. The places where most people ride transit are not car-oriented suburbs but dense walkable neighborhoods. Following easy paths, though, misses a lot of potential ridership. To do that, it follows paths like freeways and freight rail lines that allow fast speeds and are relatively easy to build.
light rail system is designed to do one thing: enable fast trips from park-and-ride lots in suburbs to jobs Downtown. But the most important way is to describe its function in a transit system. The most obvious way to describe a transit line is by technology. That fundamental difference, though, has nothing to do with rubber tires and steel rails. The transit plan that Houston voters passed by an impressive margin in November outlines a system that is fundamentally different than the massive light rail systems that cities like Dallas, Denver and Salt Lake City built over the past 25 years. In part two of the four-part series, transit expert and advocate Christof Spieler outlines the enormous promise of BRT that can only be realized if its greatest strengths aren't bargained away. To help readers better understand the bus rapid transit (BRT) approach, Urban Edge is running a series of posts from transit experts exploring what BRT will mean for the future of the transportation system in the Houston metropolitan area.
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