If the route-numbering aspect of System Re-imagining holds, then yes, there will be no more METRO local bus route named 44 Acres Homes.
It's times like this I wish I had had a far-better grasp of routing histories throughout the METRO system with the old schedules to go with them. I would be able to give you better background information on the current 44 Acres Homes. However, for our purposes, it suffices to say the current 44 has been around long enough, and Acres Homes has enough pride in its identity to have 'adopted' this route as a part of its culture to the point where this part of town has the nickname, 'The 44'. If METRO gets any slack for its new route-numbering in System Re-imagining, it will be from Acres Homes.
From south to north, re-imagined routes running east-west west of Main and Downtown are numbered 1-29. From west to east, routes running north-south are numbered 30-69. Routes numbered 70-99 run all directions, but they are in an order running from south to north. They include those routes around FM 1960, among them the 94 Acres Homes.
METRO is opting for a logical route structure, but methinks has not quite hit the mark. If it were me, I would have everything west of Downtown running east-west numbered 1-60 with odd numbering. I would have everything east of Downtown running east-west numbered 1-60 with even numbering. Everything running north-south, I would number 61-99 running in an order from east to west.
The few peak only routes as well as the Intercontinental Airport and some other routes, including the 120 FW/DH Northshore Flyer are numbered in the 100s. Park & Ride route numberings are in the Draft Map mostly-unchanged. The 300s are the FLEX Zones, there are no more 400s, and the 700s will continue to be the rail shuttles.
This route re-numbering accomplishes a number of things. It first of all creates a more-intuitive system for the mass of humanity moving into our city. And, it communicates to everyone this is not the old network we all grew up with and that this proposed network is not a continuation of the old local bus network that dates back even all the way to days of the mulecars of the mid-to-late 19thC.
This proposed network of local bus service combined with our other transit offerings is absolutely new.
It is fresh. It is clean. It is modern. It is relevant.
And it does a lot of things differently than our current network does. The current 44 Acres Homes is a very-different thing from the proposed 94 Acres Homes. METRO believes the people of Acres Homes need to know this, and in part, it is the reason for the proposed demise of the old number 44.
However...nothing in this Draft Map is set in stone, including route numbering. METRO is more about ridership than anything else. If the proposed 94 needs to be re-numbered the 44 to get people on the bus, METRO will, kicking and screaming, do that.
And regarding the Final Proposed Map to be presented to the METRO Board this autumn for approval, I will have, yes, a list of predictions of what the Final Map will do compared to the Draft Map. As of this writing, we are about two months removed from that remarkable day when the final network map that will literally transport us forward into the future will to the world at least be revealed.
Jeff Ragsdale's musings on all-things mass-transit in the greater Houston-Galveston area
Actually, I talked to a higher up at Metro and they are willing to retain the 44 if the community really wants to. It's up to the residents and riders themselves. And the 44 dates back to the Houtran days as the 44 - Studewood. It was a huge route with nine or ten branches and turnbacks. It was basically a combination of the 34, 66, and the early 90's version of the 44 before it was slimmed down and sent to what was then Compaq.
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