Passenger Transportation

Southwest vs. United: The Tale of the Texas Tape

This week brings another chapter in the titanic showdown between Southwest Airlines, who wants to fly international flights out of Hobby, and United Airlines, the company that flies international flights out of Bush. United knows that allowing international flights out of Hobby would be a very, ver ... More >>

Comment of the Day: United, Southwest & Loyalty

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involving wit ... More >>

Amtrak's Terrible Sunset Limited May Become A Daily

Improvements on the way?​Amtrak has a new plan out on how to improve service on the Sunset Limited, the long-distance passenger train that comes through Houston on its way between Los Angeles and New Orleans. Any plan would likely improve service, since the Limited is notorious for long, long ... More >>

Bullet Train Between Dallas And Houston: It's Coming (Maybe)

How about a Lone Star flag on the front of that thing?​Houston business leaders got briefed yesterday by a Japanese company looking to build a bullet train between Dallas and Houston, with mostly private funds.It's part of a U.S. offense by the Central Japan Railway, which, according to media repo ... More >>

Train Wreck

How Metro and its president Frank Wilson got so far off track.

Southwest To Make Guinea Pigs Out Of Passengers, All In The Name Of The Environment

​We've heard of test pilots, but Southwest Airlines is offering the chance to be a test passenger.The airline is introducing a new "Green Plane," one where the materials used on a lot of things are lighter, resulting in a plane that uses less fuel to fly.If it works.One aircraft will be outfitted ... More >>

Commuter Rail From Galveston And Hempstead By 2012!! Well, Maybe

​The Citizens Transportation Coalition is currently giddy with dreams of 90 MPH commuter trains speeding from Galveston and down 290 into the city...possibly by 2012, which sounds like the far future but is only three years away. There hasn't been much public movement on commuter rail since the HG ... More >>

Metro Still Has To Prove To The Feds It's Not Screwing Low-Income Riders

Photo by pfrench99​The Federal Transit Administration released its final report on Metro's compliance -- and non-compliance -- with federal civil rights laws, and according to the report, Metro is still deficient in two areas, including not being able to prove that its November 2008 fare increase ... More >>

Southwest Airlines Offering Some Really Cheap Seats

Photo by ACommentSouthwest Airlines has created a huge amount of buzz among low-fare junkies this morning with the announcement of a two-day sale where all tickets cost either $30, $60 or $90 one-way.As the Dallas Morning News' aviation blog puts it: Southwest calls it "one of the biggest fare sales ... More >>

Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things u ... More >>

Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things u ... More >>

High-Speed Rail Coming To Texas, Once Again

Last week, the Houston Business Journal reported that high speed rail  is coming to Houston. At a speech at New York's Penn Station, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced that her office will soon begin "accepting expressions of interest to finance, design, build, op ... More >>

You Are Now Free To Bounce Around The Runway

Think you had a bad weekend?It could have been worse: You could have been coming home from Denver on Contintental.As you've no doubt heard, a Continental jet skidded off the runway into a ravine while trying to take off Saturday.Continental has issued an Official Statement: "The care of our passenge ... More >>

Tough Month To Be A Houston Flier

October was really a tough month to be an air passenger in Houston.The federal Bureau of Transportation has released its latest survey of flight delays, and Houston plays a prominent role in it.The third-worst airline when it came to on-time arrivals was our very own Continental. Almost 19 percent o ... More >>

An Ike Miracle: Bayport Cruise Terminal To Actually Be Used

Metro: Are You Great, or Magnificent?

Flying Objects: "Jac Leirner" at Gallery Sonja Roesch

Jac Leirner transforms daily life's debris into art

Paradise by the Dashboard Light/Houston Music

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Learning to Crawl

Scorpion on a Plane!

Missing them Margs

Tale of Two Cities

Please Check Your Seatbacks -- and Pilot

Letters to the Editor

Best Use of Taxpayer Dollars

The Mixmaster

County Judge Bob Eckels, the Doc Ock of transportation, is busy planning more roads

Crash Course

A stuntman is mightily impressed by Houston's rail crashes

Bile on the Isle

The wild fight between an entrepreneur and the Galveston port for loot from cruise-ship lots

Letters

Bad Blood on the Tracks

Metro's consulting becomes insulting for some Hispanic leaders

Trainspotting

Here's how Metro wants to sell us on light rail

The Train Ride Gets Bumpy

Metro's coalition shows some early cracks

Great Expectations

Joe's Sandwich Shop is just one of the businesses along Main Street struggling to survive until Metro gets its light rail line up and operating.

L'Italia Classica

Simposio

Best Patio

The Terrace on Main, Warwick Hotel

Trial Story

The Hearst Corporation

Letters

From the February 24, 2000 issue

Train In Vain?

Main street's light rail is on it's way, and boosters hope to see passengers lining up for a ride

The Katy: Railing On

Fears of a future light train trouble Katy Freeway expansion critics

News of the Weird

Dog Bites Train

The Main Train and selling pets to labs have nothing in common. Until it comes to referenda, that is.

We Read Thom Marshall So You Won't Have To

The Insider

The Great Non-Communicator

Houston's new mayor is working as hard as, or harder than, his predecessors. Now if only he could find a way to tell people about it.

East End Transit

Why have bus lines to Mexico bloomed all across the East End? Maybe because it's a family affair.

Why Don't They Want This Man to Be Mayor?

George Greanias is smart. He's honest. He's independent. But Bob Lanier and his friends are pulling out the stops to see that Greanias doesn't return to City Hall.

The Rule of Men, Not Law

Who gave Lanier & Co. permission to loot Metro? They did.

Jitney Jihad

Yellow Cab goes to war to keep jitneys off Houston streets

Little Big Crony

Bob Lanier's buddy Billy Burge wants to play the power game the way it was played in the old days. . . . . . But the rules have changed.

Just Don't Breathe It

What Houstonians can -- and probably won't -- do to clean up the air they drive through