The New Houston Rail Plan: An Introduction

Orange – commuter rail Light blue – light rail Yellow – Bus Rapid Transit and high-frequency bus lanes

Let’s have no qualms about it – Houston is a car city, and it will remain so for decades to come. I don’t expect Houston to abandon the automobile any time soon, nor do I aspire for it to. A metropolitan area that covers 10,000 square miles quickly quashes any conventional vision of mass transit. Anybody who expects to apply traditional urbanist philosophy in Houston – or any other major Texas city, for that matter – will be quickly disappointed. The car rules Houston, and that isn’t an entirely negative thing.

This city has prospered on the back of a forward-thinking freeway system that was first outlined over sixty years ago. Houston’s freeway network is easy to navigate and – at least, at the time of its construction – incorporated innovations in road safety and traffic management into its design. Especially inside the Interstate 610 loop, the freeways preempted massive metropolitan growth and fostered the development of a world-class economic center. Amid all of the negative aspects of unplanned suburban sprawl – from unattractive strip malls and tract houses to dangerous and costly pollution and traffic – the freeway has still facilitated Houston’s economic prosperity and makes it possible to commute reasonably quickly throughout a region of over six million people.

However, the benefits of the original freeway system have quickly eroded over the decades. Thanks to the lack of  basic land use and zoning measures, Houston heaved itself upon the surrounding prairies and plains with unmitigated force in the 1970s. Meanwhile, abuse of eminent domain and a blatant disrespect for urban environments harshly impacted inner-city neighborhoods, tearing into their vitality and encouraging the flight to the suburbs. Suburban sprawl and the redistribution of job centers away from the geographic center of the city have created a traffic Armageddon that is now cited by residents as Houston’s single biggest problem. The conventional response to this massive issue is to rebuild and expand the existing freeway infrastructure – which is appropriate. However, even with billions being spent on creating some of the nation’s widest highways, traffic remains as stagnant as ever. The Katy Freeway is now over twenty lanes wide at some points – yet still suffers from snails-pace rush hour traffic on a daily basis. The Northwest Freeway is undergoing a much-deserved renovation and expansion, but the impact on commute times will be short-lived (especially considering the insane rate of suburban growth to the northwest of the city). With public right-of-way quickly being exhausted along Houston’s busiest thoroughfares, the era of careless freeway expansion is at its end. Houston needs real alternatives to car-based transport – the freeway is no longer enough.

Note the use of the word alternatives. Nobody should be suggesting the destruction of automobile culture, the conversion of Houston to some ultra-dense Northeastern urbanist utopia or the removal of existing freeways. Nobody should even be arguing against the expansion and renovation of existing freeway and road infrastructure, because such improvements are desperately needed (although the creation of monstrosities like the Grand Parkway certainly deserve criticism). However, it’s unfair to force so many thousands of people to rely on roads that are both logistically inefficient and harmful to human health and the natural environment. The contingent of Houston residents that desires walkability and mass transit is far, far larger than most in this city would assume – and its interests are simply not being represented in current infrastructure spending. Houston has not seriously considered comprehensive mass transit. Not even the current light rail plan actually addresses the deplorable state of transportation throughout a vast majority of the metropolitan area. What this city needs is heavy rail. Commuter rail. Fast, high-capacity trains that run out to the very edge of the exurbs.

Rice University’s annual Houston Area Survey now shows roughly 50% of the metro population supporting increased spending on transit, including rail. METRO and other organizations such as the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) have been studying various proposals for commuter rail lines for decades. Even the most conservative of Houston’s state and federal politicians have expressed some support for the construction of commuter rail out to the suburbs (although their legislative votes reveal a bias towards roads). However, all policy discussion so far has been focused on the construction of single lines. A few years ago, it was a line running down the Katy Freeway. Today, it’s a line running parallel to Highway 90 southwest of the city. Maybe a line running alongside 290 as well, but that proposal is practically stalled until the current freeway expansion is complete.

Houston wants rail, but it has no plan in place to make that desire a reality. This isn’t all that surprising considering the municipal government’s historic aversion to urban planning of any sort, but Houston isn’t in the 1970s anymore. Attitudes towards the urban form are quickly changing. The suburbs – while still very popular – are losing their luster. The newer generations are being lured towards density, walkability and the opportunity to not be completely dependent on a vehicle. Houston is experiencing an urban renaissance as a result – people are moving back into the Loop. Inner-city development is booming. Houston may label itself the city “with no limits,” but its policy choices are unabashedly biased towards suburbanism.

In order for the city to better serve its residents, and ensure the presence of alternatives to freeways that have reached capacity, it needs to construct a real mass transit system. Houston challenged itself in the 20th century with consistent, widespread investment in a freeway system that made much of its economic prosperity possible. Houston’s highway network is still a work in progress, but its efficiency and ease of use is a testament to long-term planning that sought to make life easier for Houstonians. However, the pro-road philosophy that dominated the 1950s and 60s has proven itself insufficient at serving a metropolitan area of six million people. Freeways are important, but we cannot rely on them as the only form of metropolitan-wide transportation. They’ve filled up and can’t be expanded any further – and we absolutely should not resort to destroying neighborhoods to create new ones. Houston will never be able to eliminate traffic, but there is still plenty of time to build reliable alternatives. The same level of foresight that created the freeway system can establish a comprehensive mass transit system. Will this city take the opportunity to put itself at the forefront of major American cities by creating world-class rail infrastructure? Or will it shy away from the opportunity and pretend that really wide freeways, a puny light rail system and some buses are enough? The answer is clear.

The beginning of this post features my personal vision for a rail plan serving urban and suburban Houston. The next few posts will detail each of the ten lines comprising the heavy rail system, as well as the Bus Rapid Transit network and other mass transit features that could vastly improve quality of life in Houston.

Houston, part 5: Expanding METRORail

Having driven around the city more than usual recently, I’ve begun to think about the expansion of Houston’s limited passenger rail network into the wider metro area. While METRO is making headway in expanding the system, it still has a long way to go before it begins to compare to established networks in cities like Dallas and Los Angeles. Commuter rail could have huge benefits in densifying the urban core, targeting development in specific districts and reducing automobile reliance – however, politics have gotten in the way and two of the most important proposed lines, the University Line and Uptown Line, have been shelved. Controversy over the complicated Richmond corridor that the University Line would run right down the middle of is a particular point of contention between residents and the municipal government – the light rail construction process tends to choke vulnerable small businesses and is generally an unwelcome intrusion into otherwise peaceful neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, forcing light rail into developed areas is an urban planning challenge that’s never free of pain. While Houston has relatively low population density, there are few remaining corridors that light rail can be introduced to easily. Prior thoroughfares have been consumed by wide freeways (such as Interstate 10) and further development. Nonexistent zoning laws and the Texas state government’s weakening of eminent domain laws make navigating potential paths for rail an incredibly challenging process. Ultimately, as I see it, Houston will have to look away from running rail down its avenues and developed areas in order to expand its rail system to something representative of what a cosmopolitan city should have.

I spent a few hours today drawing up this map of potential passenger rail routes throughout the city – mostly to the west, where population growth has been sustained over the past few decades. This map also attempts to connect the two major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby, both of which would greatly benefit from a more direct connection to the city than a gridlocked web of freeways. Of course, it’s not a perfect sketch and it would be a challenge to implement. There are areas where rail lines will just barely fit, and some landowners will have to sacrifice their property to the government. And, of course, there are stretches of line that run narrowly down the medians of avenues, and some spots where a line may have to be elevated to avoid completely destroying the traffic flow around it. In addition, I don’t have access to information regarding who owns some of the land these rails would hypothetically run down, nor can I come close to estimating whether any of these lines are economically feasible.

The routes can be viewed on Google Maps and downloaded as a .kmz file for Google Earth here.

The above map highlights the routes of the three existing METRORail lines and their respective colors for reference. The proposed lines are all in bright red.

Now, what makes this alignment of a Houston rail network significant is that it attempts to reduce right-of-way conflicts as much as possible. Many of these lines run through undeveloped strips of land that cut straight through heavily developed suburbs. Most of these corridors are reserved for utilities like power and gas lines, leaving ample space for rail infrastructure. These routes veer away from traditional light rail routes along avenues and other roads. This is intentional, as building a rail network without having to tear up roads and suffocate local businesses would be much easier and more fiscally sound.

However, the problem with adopting this philosophy towards rail planning is that some of the commercial districts that would heavily benefit from a rail connection don’t receive one. I’ve tried to inch rail into heavily traveled areas, such as Sugar Land and the Energy Corridor. However, reaching places like Greenway and Greenspoint would be difficult without seriously disrupting existing infrastructure. Thanks to the stubbornness of politicians, the Katy Freeway corridor – which was the perfect location for a rail line – was instead filled with one of the widest stretches of highway in the world. What would have been feasible a decade ago is no longer possible. The only exception I make towards this non-disruptive approach to rail construction is in the Uptown area, which desperately needs a proper mass transit connection. Even though METRO already has a proposed route for the Uptown Line, I figured I’d put in my own two cents and try something else.

Throughout the next few posts I’ll be detailing each of the above lines, including their specific routes and potential sites for stations and other facilities. I’ll also talk a bit about the feasibility of each line, in terms of both cost vs. benefit and ease of construction. Of course, some of these routes are pretty ambitious, especially the ones straddling Addicks Reservoir and George Bush Park, as well as the extension into Cinco Ranch and Kingswood.

Houston has the potential to develop a comprehensive mass transit system to tie the entire city together. An aging freeway network is simply not enough to properly support a metro area of six million – there needs to be an alternative, not just to alleviate massive car dependence, but also redirect development away from the far-reaching fringe suburbs. The raging political debate over the practicality of a light rail system is threatening to completely disable future expansion. We need to consider alternative routes that take the concerns of residents into account – rail doesn’t have to run along roads, it can avoid disrupting the daily lives of commuters and save enormous amounts of taxpayer money by taking advantage of undeveloped corridors. As my map suggests, it may be possible to connect Houston’s busiest business districts and most populated suburbs using this approach. It’s time to return to the optimistic ambition that lingered in the early 2000s and reopen public discussion concerning a rail system that extends beyond the Inner Loop. If an extensive system becomes reality, Houston’s image and navigability will transform for the better.