Bus connections beyond the dreams of avarice

I sing in the Houston Chamber Choir.  And during the entirety of its existence, our regular rehearsals have been at Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in Downtown.  There was one exception: the 2006-2007 season during which the Cathedral's Latham Hall, in which our rehearsals are held, was completely renovated.  During this time, we rehearsed at Trinity Episcopal Church at the Ensemble/HCC Station.

It was a morning rehearsal at Trinity on the first Saturday of November 2006...  From my place in west Houston, I catch the 82 Westheimer as soon as I get to the bus stop.  Lo and behold, I hook right up to the 42 Holman heading east at Montrose.  I get off the bus at Trinity and go to rehearsal.

After rehearsal, I exit the church...and lo and behold!  A 42 Holman appears immediately, on which I make it to Westheimer and get off at Montrose and immediately connect with the 81 Westheimer Sharpstown...because I need to get a haircut at Hillcroft @ Richmond, and this is a God-given chance to do so.

Haircut done and meal eaten at an eatery next to the haircut place.  Time to head home...and I feel it in my bones...  The 25 Richmond Mission Bend was on its way -- and poof!  There it was right when I get to my stop!!

My perfect day of buses.

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About a month or two ago, I was riding the bus on a Friday or Saturday.  I do not remember the particulars of this except only three connections were made in this streak of good connections, and it involved getting on what may very well be for me my last ride on the 78 Alabama, getting on at Kirby or Buffalo Speedway and deciding to see how far west the bus would go.

I get off at Richmond and catch an immediate 25 Richmond.  I decide it would be a brilliant chance to get a haircut at my place (because getting there is a pain for me, otherwise).  Haircut done, I catch an immediate 25 Richmond Mission Bend bus home.

In today's METRO network, connections like these come less often than a blue moon.  With System Re-imagining, your perfect day of buses is coming!

BRT on Gessner? Yes, please! plus a podcast update

Memorial City has in the past thirty years - and particularly in the past ten - become a thing.  From the alien-ship-crowned Memorial Hermann Tower, the centerpiece of the burgeoning Memorial City Medical Center, as well as Memorial City Mall, and the many other buildings in the immediate vicinity, Gessner from Memorial through Westview has become the Galleria-Westheimer-Post Oak traffic bottleneck of west Houston.

Gessner has huge esplanades at I-10.  Rush hour for buses going north-south through that part of town is horrendous and will get worse and worse with time's passing.

Bus Rapid Transit - lanes dedicated exclusively to bus traffic with (hopefully) stoplight priority) on Gessner from Memorial through Westview would help bus traffic, but would it hurt car traffic enough to where it would do more harm than good to take one lane from each side and combine them with the esplanade to make for BRT lanes?

Then again, if we really want a future 40 Gessner that can actually do its job, can we afford not to put those BRT lanes in?  Bus rapid transit may not have the great capacity of light rail, but it is a big step to a more mobile west side of town.

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Two weeks without a podcast!  What is going on?

For starters, I still have not found time to fully tweak out the results of my 23 predictions made about the Draft Proposed Network Plan from Episode 26.  In that same episode, I intend to re-record a section that came out with a 'robotic' sound in my voice - stupid mic acting up.

I have had these same issues with Episode 1, and may need to re-record that one in its entirety.

Have patience, my friends, and MANY thanks for your many pageviews on this blog and following me on Twitter: @HoustonOnTheGo

1 June 2014 METRO Service Changes and 'overtake'

It's times like this I sorely regret having not saved over the decade and a half I've been riding the bus all the printed service changes leaflets and old bus schedules.  But I'm pretty sure I am correct in surmising that in the past few years, METRO has gone out of its way to do more to tweak our present network whenever possible more than previous leadership regimes.

The service changes effective at the first of next month are no exception.

These service changes are typical of the 'New METRO': nothing but improvements.  In the past few years, discontinuations of bus service have been rare.  And look at these changes this time 'round: additions of trips, moving of trip times to make things more-reliable and to ease overcrowding.

But this particular time, we have something epic...

402 Bellaire Quickline – Implement new midday service.
Route would operate with a 15 minute frequency between 5:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Yes, my friends, this is a foretaste of the full implementation of System Re-imagining (so long as public pressure does not emasculate METRO's plans).  Look at that frequent service!!  Yes, it's only on weekdays and yes (and most-unfortunately), it does not run late at all, but what we now have is a true piece of our bus network: a route people can use to great effect throughout the day on weekdays.

'Overtake'.

I am at Bellaire @ Ranchester.  I want to get to Bellaire @ Buffalo Speedway.

I have two choices: take the current 2 Bellaire with the full panoply of bus stops to delay your trip, or take the current 402 Bellaire Quickline from the Ranchester stop and get off at the Brompton stop.  Or I can get off the bus at Stella Link and, yes, wait and catch the regular 2 Bellaire to get me the rest of the way to Buffalo Speedway.

Of course, I would get off at Brompton, but even if I get off at Stella Link, I could still walk to Buffalo Speedway and with our current network, by walking beat the 2 Bellaire eastbound bus to Buffalo Speedway!

And most-likely during my Quickline trip, I will pass one or more 2 Bellaire buses.  Having so few stops really does make a difference!

The great problem with the current 402 Quickline is that it ends at Ranchester.  It is frankly difficult with the 2 Bellaire's current base frequency combined with car traffic to arrange a trip whereby I get via Quickline to near where I want to go and make a quick connection to the 2 Bellaire to get me the rest of the way.  Many times, I think, walking the rest of the way would be faster unless that perfect connection with the 2 Bellaire could be made.

69Q Hobby Broadway Harrisburg Quickline?

Looking at METRO's map of the coming light rail East Line, I see two things.  Hughes street where exists the infamous railroad crossing that precipitated the need for an overpass or an underpass (and all the drama that has ensued) is far enough east on the rail line that the long building of what will be the overpass will not affect that much of the route, and I have to wonder if METRO will build a temporary terminus at the Altic / Howard Hughes Station and open that part of the line later this year as scheduled.
I'm not sure if this is possible, but I cannot think it has not been talked about, and this map seems to imply METRO is at least thinking about this.  Hopefully, a temporarily-shortened East Line will come to pass, ending at Altic / Howard Hughes.

Which brings us to what to do between Altic / Howard Hughes and Magnolia TC.  Easy-enough: extend the new 69 Broadway to the temporary end of the East Line.  It will take 2.5 years to build the extension to Magnolia TC, which means the 69 will serve Altic for quite a while.

However, I almost hope East Line will not go online until the Hughes street overpass is done.  This will give METRO a chance to introduce people to Quckline service.  In lieu of light rail service, put in the 69Q Hobby Broadway Harrisburg Quickline, starting at Downtown, replicating exactly the stops the rail line will make, and then making the trek to Hobby down Broadway.

The 69Q will introduce a lot of people to the wonders of a Quickline service as well as provide a real mass-transit option for people getting to Hobby Airport.  And if it turns out ridership is not so great, METRO can make adjustments accordingly.

In the cost-conscious culture that is the 'New METRO', such a move entails an amount of risk, but let's make silk out of the sow's ear that the Hughes St. railroad crossing has become, remedy the lack of an East Line, get people to Hobby, and offer to the burgeoning east of Downtown a mass-transit option it maybe has never seen before.

Thoughts on the Draft re-imagined transit network - Part 7 of 7

And finally...

When dividing all this text into bite-sized chunks for the blog, I had forgotten I had originally eight parts and not seven to this series. Well, so as to not mess things up with my previous blog-post headings, I'm ending this series on the route-by-route analysis at seven, which gives you all this time 'round a really long blog post. Please bear with me - lol.

Also, as I suspect there will be wholesale changes to this map in some routes from this Draft iteration to the Final iteration that will be prepared and unveiled later this summer/early autumn, I'll be doing this sort of route-by-route look at that map as well.

METRO's System Re-imagining website: www.transitsystemreimagining.com

METRO's route-by-route summary of the re-imagined bus network: http://alturl.com/y8kov

My rendition of the old and new bus networks plus re-imagining items: www.metroreimagined.org

70 Bellfort

At 10 miles in length, it is not as good a way of getting to Hobby as East Line - 69 Broadway except when one takes in the extra transfer for most-anyone coming from west of Downtown to the East Line. There is still no easy way of getting to Hobby via public transport.  Seeing stuff like this makes me a little frustrated our bus budget is so small.

Quickline from Fannin South to HOU via Bellfort or from Magnolia TC via Broadway? Quickline - Express from Northline to IAH? I'll take one of each, please!

71 Cambridge

Blue west of Mainer
Green: Mainer to Southeast TC

This re-imagined route takes up some of the current 1 Hospital's current hang-outs: VA hospital, Harris County Hospital Districts, Holly Hall, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, etc.

The green segment takes up bits of the current 60 South McGregor and 87 Sunnyside TMC, connecting with Southeast TC. Better to name this route 'Cambridge south' a la 'Tidwell east'.

72 Yellowstone Reed

Green

At app. 18-19 miles, this route is as circuitous and ponderous as it looks, continuing the tradition of oddly-shaped bus routes I hoped System Re-imagining could and would eradicate entirely. Look for this route to be split in the Final map.

I was hoping to see a single bus route go the whole of Cambridge, but the labyrinth that is the TMC and all the necessary places people need to go there makes, I expect, such ease of routing impossible. Best to add to this nomenclature 'Cambridge north - Ben Taub'.

73 Southmore Park Place
Green

All of Southmore is covered directly or indirectly by this route that takes in the old Richey Branch of the current 40 Telephone. The current 60 S McGregor, 5 Southmore, and 40 Telephone provide routings for this new bus line.

74 Evergreen

Green

The current 40 Telephone gives its Howard Branch to this new 74 Evergreen that, along with the 73 Southmore Park Place gives the Meadowcreek Village area two green routes. Not the greatest service, but this part of town is lucky with two greens for this low-ridership portion of our city that in a bus-route vein looks a lot cleaner than it does in the current network.

Service is not as good for this area as before, but again, an unfortunate trade-off and one of many difficult decisions METRO had to make in regard to geographical coverage vs. ridership-focus.

75 Sagemont

Green

Imagine carrying around a ball and chain. Currently, the 88 Hobby carries a ball-and-chain: its segment between Hobby Airport and San Jacinto College South.

With the re-imagined network, this segment becomes a route all its own with the rest of the current 88's functionality given over to other re-imagined routes.

77 Market Pleasantville

Green

The old north turning of the current 48 Navigation will now be handled by the new (and more logical) 77 Market Pleasantville that also takes routings from the current 11 Nance and 30 Clinton (Denver Harbor branch).

Reaching these hard-to-get-at neighborhoods is not easy with their odd street layouts, but METRO is trying to accommodate as best as it can.

78 Collingsworth

Green

Why does METRO call this the 'Collingsworth' when it hardly travels on Collingsworth? Clearly, the notion of long, straight lines in routing does not apply to all parts of town! The current 77 Liberty and 5 Kashmere Gardens give routing to this new line, though I would rename it to 'Kashmere Gardens'.

79 Ley

Green

The current 52 Hirsch gives routing to this new line that services the three northeast Flex zones.

80 Westridge

Blue

The current 18 Kirby and 14 Hiram Clarke offer routing to this new line that is really quite short. The west part of OST not serviced by the new 66 OST Wayside is serviced by this new 80.

81 Willowbend

Green

Taking routing from the current 10 Willowbend, the new 81 Willowbend helps provide that segment of S. Main from the Loop to TMC TC a decent amount of frequency via this new line and the new 49 Hiram Clarke.

82 W Airport Briargate

Blue

In the current system, the number '82' stands for gigantic ridership on the biggest non-freeway artery in the city of Houston. In the re-imagined system, '82' denotes a blue route that takes up the southern portion of the current 33 Post Oak as well as 98 Briargate Circulator and a little bit of 49 Chimney Rock.

The one thing it is clear to my lay eye is instead of going up Hiram Clarke to W. Fuqua to Hiram Clarke TC, the line could stay on Anderson and then go up Bathhurst, perhaps, thereby giving a little better service to Anderson Rd.

85 Memorial Villages

Green

If the world were a perfect place, the whole of Memorial would be a very strong blue. As it is, no such bus will exist for at least the new few years, but METRO does make the best of a bad nomenclature situation with a new route taking up routing from the current 70 Memorial. We can't call this the 'Memorial' bus, but we can at least call it by where it goes.

86 Outer Memorial
Green

Alas, no service to Memorial City! This green line takes up routing from the current (and much-lamented) 131 Memorial.

87 Westview

Green

The current 72 Westview and the northern terminus of the current 19 Wilcrest provide routing here.

88 Hammerly

Green

This route is elegant and is a perfect example of when geography-stars align perfectly to give us the perfect example of METRO's new paradigm of the long, straight, namesake route with big connectivity at both ends. The new 88 Hammerly gives us that with the appropriate deviation to its western turnback, meeting up with the Kempwood and Clay Road buses and its eastern ending at the massively-connectified NWTC.

89 Dacoma Shuttle

Blue

To this diminutive new blue route is given routings from the current Rosslyn branch of the 50 Heights and the current 40 Pecore (Northwest Mall branch), providing easy service to NWTC.

91 Veterans Memorial

Green

94 Acres Homes / Montgomery

Blue

95 Jones

Green

96 FM 1960

Blue

97 Ella Aldine Westfield

Green

101 Veterans Memorial Express

Weekday Peak Only

These new six routes take up the work done by the current 44 Acres Homes, 86 FM 1960 (with its two branches), and the 108 Veterans Memorial with new service from W. Little York P&R to the cluster of college campuses up Highway 249 @ Compaq Center W. Dr.

102 Bush IAH Flyer

Blue

Years ago, METRO had a near-non-stop direct service from Downtown to Bush Intercontinental Airport. No-one rode the thing, and that very-nifty service was discontinued. Along with the current and new 4 Beechnut, the 102 will by pure accident be one of the two routings in the coming network to retain their former numberings.

Every time I've put together my own 'dream-map', I've left FM 1960 almost exactly as METRO has it laid out in the current network. This area of town is just a pain route-planning-wise.

120 FW/DH Northshore Flyer

Blue east of FW/DH TC

Frequent Network west of FW/DH TC

This line replicates almost verbatim the current 137 Northshore.

151 Harwin Westwood Flyer

152 Harwin Briar Forest Flyer

Frequent Network east of Ranchester
Blue west of Ranchester

The current 132 Harwin and 53 Westheimer Ltd. are gone and replaced with these new routes, combining east of Harwin & Ranchester into a Frequent segment. Notably, the direct connection between Westheimer and Richmond featured with the current 53 - with its stop at Lakewood Church - is gone.

160 NWTC Downtown Flyer

Frequent Network

This replaces the I-10 portion of the 131 Memorial.

161 Memorial Express
Weekday Peak Only

No service to Memorial City Mall does not this a replacement for the 131 Memorial make.

376 FW/DH Flex

377 Mesa Flex

378 Kashmere Flex

395 N Shepherd Flex

398 Jensen Flex

The theory is dropping off and picking up the few riders who live in these new Flex zones curb-to-curb will be less-expensive than running the miles and miles of bus routes through these areas. And yes, we run a lot of miles through these areas currently.

These areas do not have, in METRO's mind, enough ridership to justify fixed routes, but do have enough ridership to justify at least some level of service. Unfortunately, what this will amount to is, as a friend of mine put it, 'METROLift for able-bodied people'.

30 W. Gulf Bank Rd. Mesa TC
Green - 18-hour span

Eastbound: Acres Homes TC, Left on W Montgomery, R on Ferguson Way, L on Wheatley, R on De Walt, R Veterans Memorial, N Shepherd P&R, L Veterans Memorial (limited-stop), R W Gulf Bank, R Airline (limited-stop), L Carby, L W Hardy, R Hopper Rd., R Hirsch, L Little York, R N Wayside, L Tidwell, Mesa TC

74 Mesa TC N Wayside FW DH TC

Green - 18-hour span

Mesa TC, R Tidwell, L N. Wayside, R I-10, R FW/DH TC

METRO needs your public comments. METRO wants your public comments. Your public comments will help our planners fix what is wrong with this map and send to the METRO Board of Directors a beautiful final network map for their approval sometime in (we hope) September.

Visit www.transitsystemreimagining.com - Look at the new draft map for yourself - Mouse over the 'Draft Reimagined Network Plan' text in the menu bar at the top of the page - Click the 'Provide your feedback' option - Fill out the easy and simple online form and submit it!

Nothing could be more simple, and it would be to our area a tremendous public service!  

Thoughts on the Draft re-imagined transit network - Part 6 of 7

METRO's System Re-imagining website: www.transitsystemreimagining.com

METRO's route-by-route summary of the re-imagined bus network: http://alturl.com/y8kov

My rendition of the old and new bus networks plus re-imagining items: www.metroreimagined.org

60 Kelley Scott

Frequent Network, Green south of S. Acres

I was wondering how METRO would be dealing with the current 1 Hospital. This current route is no more and its routing is being split among a number of re-imagined routes, including this one which should be named 60 Scott Kelley LBJ. The current 52 Scott gives its routing to this new re-imagined service.

61 Jensen

It would not be a METRO network without something on Jensen. The street is just too strategic coming out of Downtown and straight to the northeast. Taking routings from the current 3 Langley, 6 Jensen, umpteen routes from Downtown on Jensen to Clinton, and the 83 Lee Road Circulator, we lose a lot of direct service in what will be the 398 Jensen Flex.

62 Cullen Hirsch

Blue

Current 29 TSU/UH Crosstown, 30 Cullen, 52 Hirsch, and 83 Lee Road Circulator routings make up this new 62 Cullen Hirsch, which does not really serve the northeast quadrant of Houston that well. The northeast is the new domain of four of the five new Flex zones, which we will get to in time.

65 Homestead Greens

Green

A tiny bit of 26/27 102 Bush IAH, 83 Lee Road Circulator, 77 Liberty, 26/27 Outer Loop / Inner Loop Crosstown make up routings for this new Green bus route, which given the Greenspoint location is all-too-appropriate given the lack of ridership.

66 OST Wayside

Blue

I had hoped for a bus going the full length and breadth of OST, and with this draft network, we almost get our wish. OST west of Bertner is left out.

69 Broadway

Frequent Network

We don't get direct non-stop service by any means to Hobby Airport, but we do get a logical extension to the East Line starting at the Magnolia TC and going all the way down Broadway, providing a somewhat-decent bus service to Hobby, though if it had been my thing to do, I would have skipped out on the Southeast Line and put the East Line all the way to Hobby along Elgin or Wheeler. But, no-one asked me.

What the Broadway does do is provide southeast Houston with a Frequent Network north-south spine, and yes, this is a route for which I had hoped.

Harrisburg @ Hughes will sport an overpass. No East Line for another 2.5 years...

Harrisburg @ Hughes.

A part of the coming light rail East Line, this intersection sports railroad track along Hughes.  METRO had originally planned for an overpass through this railroad crossing for the light rail line though in 2011, it changed its mind and opted for an underpass, but with the discovery of accumulated gasoline underground, the agency was put into a quandry.

The first half of this year has been fraught with METRO's wringing its hands in indecision as to building an overpass or an underpass as well as  the necessary process of getting public input.  The presence of an overpass would affect many businesses and homes.  And from what I can tell, the east end of Houston has been divided almost evenly as to whether to build the overpass or build an underpass.  Witness the 6 May 2014 Special Board Meeting, in which things get a little hot under the collar...

More on this situation from Charles Kuffner...

Yesterday, METRO - in its regular monthly Board meeting lasting three-and-a-half hours (with as concise, yet comprehensive a presentation as one will ever find on the background and present situation at 2:49:50 onward), two-thirds of which was a steady stream of public speakers, among them Houston's Mayor Pro-Tem by proxy - the Board voted first to not delay the final vote on overpass or underpass by another thirty days, and then at last, the Board 8-0 voted to build an overpass, closing a long and tedious process of discernment.

After the public speakers were done, and before the two aforementioned votes, METRO's President & CEO, Thomas C. Lambert delivered the stupefying news that designing and constructing this overpass via the option voted for by the Board would take about thirty-one months...putting the end of the construction of the East Line in my estimation to God-Knows-When.

During this months-long process of public input, the memory and reality of Love Canal was more than once invoked by long-time mass-transit activist Dominic Mazoch.  With the plume of contaminants lurking underground, in this process, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.  The overpass is the right choice, and I'm relieved METRO has finally come to a final decision here.

The only other news of any note is that CAF is staying on its revised schedule with the completion of the new facility in Elmira, NY specifically for METRO's cars still being on the schedule 6th of June.  I was unable to make the meeting, but thank Heaven for METRO's copious meeting archives!

The meeting was well-attended and most-productive.  Board Member Christof Spieler is out of the country on a long-planned tenth anniversary vacation he sorely needed, though he did send an email to the Board expressing his support for the overpass.  That email was read aloud at the meeting.  Seeing Christof these past few weeks, I look upon a guy that is very, very tired.  Happy - but still in dire need of some rest and relaxation...

The next regularly-scheduled METRO Board meeting is on 26 June 2014.