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.

[Melanie]

I have curly hair, Houston is humid... end of story.

There are more reasons why, but that seems to be my funniest reason why I refuse to live there.

The freeway system here is pretty simple actually. And we have a bunch of roads that connect highways. Fredricksburg, Bandera (which is a horrible example but it does), Culebra, Wurzbach, Babcock, Callaghan, Wurzbach Parkway, Broadway, Military, Marbach. Those are just the major ones that I can think of off the top of my head.

[Mommy]

I have curly hair, Houston is humid... end of story.

There are more reasons why, but that seems to be my funniest reason why I refuse to live there.

The freeway system here is pretty simple actually. And we have a bunch of roads that connect highways. Fredricksburg, Bandera (which is a horrible example but it does), Culebra, Wurzbach, Babcock, Callaghan, Wurzbach Parkway, Broadway, Military, Marbach. Those are just the major ones that I can think of off the top of my head.

Yeah, I mean I get the system, but I think it's ridiculous that I-10, I-35, I-37, and Highway 90 all merge together at some point. You have to be in the correct lane to stay on the highway you want to be on. It's very difficult for travelers. My parents drove to Dallas no problem, but were astonished by how much of a mess SA was when they came here last month. The only thing that makes sense there are the loops (and they have problems) and the roads that connect them, like Culebra and Patranco. Loop 410, though, is such a mess from construction that it really isn't even worth the supposed convenience. Loop 1604 isn't finished. I mean, really, it is a mess there.

[Hartmann]

I thought the DFW road system was decent while I lived there, especially if you were going east or west.

Houston has a smart system (with the rings around the city), there's just too many freakin' people. In Dallas most of the freeways were 3-lanes each way and only a few roads had HOV lanes.