290 commuter rail study shows less ridership than park & rides

Gulf Coast Rail District

David Crossley, Sep 27, 11.

Members of the board of the Gulf Coast Rail District recently got a look at a presentation called “Conceptual Engineering for Commuter Rail within the Hempstead Corridor.”

The presentation outlines the costs and benefits of a commuter rail line from Hempstead to the 610 Loop. The study proposes 10 stations, including a transfer station just inside the Loop where passengers would transfer to buses to travel to Downtown, Uptown, Greenway Plaza, and the Texas Medical Center.

Projected ridership for 2019 startup is 2,640 boardings per day, rising to 5,952 boardings per day by 2035. Capital costs for the line would be $291,000,000, and annual operation costs are projected at $6,600,000.

The study assumes all Metro park and ride service outside Beltway 8 would be replaced with the rail service. Those three park and ride lots now combine for 4,400 boardings, according to Metro, with the Northwest Station alone having 2,800 boardings. So the commuter rail line would have 1,760 fewer boardings than the current park and ride service.

Metro service today has 5-minute intervals between buses and goes nonstop to downtown. The proposed commuter rail line would have 20-minute intervals and stop at 10 stations, then require a transfer to a bus to get downtown.

The cost of the commuter rail line would be slightly less than the cost of the Main Street light rail line, which has more than 35,000 boardings a day.

An earlier study by the Houston-Galveston Area Council had forecast 6,904 boardings per day for the 290 corridor train.

Comments

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

The numbers for the Red line reflect double counting. I estimate 40% of the riders are simply transferring from a bus to a rail car or vice versa. In addition the 7.5 mile line is the target of many of of the bus routes. Overall the much cheaper bus program (in capital costs) still represents 99% of the service.

Posted on Sep 27, 11 at 11:41 pm

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

How are these numbers obtained? It seems obvious that any commuter rail line needs to extend all the way to downtown, not stop at the Loop? Who designed this, the Concrete Lobby?

Posted on Sep 28, 11 at 11:01 am

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

I think this plan needs to be expanded. Instead of trying to use Union Pacific’s lines, and terminating at the loop where buses would still be needed, why not replace the massive HOV lanes that run along the main highways with rail lines? The HOV lane right of ways are already owned and we already have park and ride stations all over the city. These projects can run simultaneously and we can relieve traffic all 290, I-45 and 59 in both directions. Users of the HOV lanes dont pay anything now, so if there’s trains in their place, the city/county can benefit from the revenue generated.

Posted on Oct 26, 11 at 10:57 am

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

If Harris County or Metro build a 300 million dollar train that is slower and runs less frequent and will have lower ridership than the current bus system then we have the most corrupt leader’s in the country!
This plan can only be about padding someone’s pocket.
And if they replace the current bus system with a rail that stops at the loop then words cannot describe how stupid and corrupt they must be.

Posted on Nov 03, 11 at 5:04 am

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