Houston rail system? Options

[impala454]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5829400.html

The plan, which would cost about $3 billion — although no funding details were included — calls for sharing tracks with freight trains on lines that have light traffic. The five recommended lines are:

• U.S. 290, with a passenger terminal and maintenance facility near Metro's Northwest Transit Center. This would connect to Metro's planned Uptown light rail line.

• Texas 3 to Galveston

• Texas 249 to Tomball with "back door" service to The Woodlands

• Texas 35 to Pearland

• Almeda Road, later turning west and providing an indirect route to Fort Bend County

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he will push for commuter trains to start running as soon as possible on the U.S. 290 and Texas 3 routes, even though the overall plan may not be developed yet.

Plan says they want to use existing rail where they can, and share with lightly traveled freight lines. Sounds like a pretty good idea. 45 to galveston is disgusting during the summer, and 290 is nasty every damn weekday of the year.

[Spectatrix]

yup but one line can only do so much. I dont think it will be successful due to it being mainly for commuters and go to very limited places....They need one that goes down to Buda, and one that goes up I35 beyond 183 to round rock.

But I guess it is a start....

The commuter rail they're building later on (reg rail, not light) is going to all those places. Through Austin, it's along MoPac, not sure about elsewhere.

http://allsystemsgo.capmetro.org/regional-...uter-rail.shtml

Passenger service on these tracks could eventually connect you to Georgetown, Round Rock, Austin, Buda/Kyle, San Marcos, New Braunfels and San Antonio.

Where the hell is it gonna run? Concurrent to 183?

The article said "back door." Uh huh huh hu uh huh huh

http://allsystemsgo.capmetro.org/capital-metrorail.shtml

I think it's mainly using rail lines that were already in place, just building new passenger stations.