Public Transportation

[PHOTOS] Light Rail Expansion Moving Faster Than You Might Think

Since 2004, anyone living or visiting the areas near Main Street, the Medical Center, the Museum District or Reliant Park has probably gotten to experience METRO Rail, for better or worse. Some ride it daily. Some get in accidents with it. Some just gawk. But, one of the busiest stretches of commute ... More >>

Metro Board Gets Input On Whether To Keep Subsidizing City Budgets

The recent outbreak of hysterical excitement around the city can only mean one thing: the Metro board will soon decide on ballot language for the General Mobility Program referendum. With this fateful day closing in, the board convened last night to accept more public input on the issue. Speakers ... More >>

Harvard, CU-Boulder Design Downtown Houston of Your Dreams, Possibly

That up above, the dreamy rendering of the area that used to house the downtown Post Office? It's "Bayou Commons," which is "strategically designed to be downtown Houston's first residential district celebrating cultural diversity and urban lifestyle." But don't go looking for it yet.

Your Bus & Rail Is Free on New Year's Eve

If your New Year's Eve plans include drinking past the point where it'd be wise to get behind the wheel, Metro's got your back. All buses and light rail are free from 6 p.m. New Year's Eve until 6 a.m. New Year's Day, the agency announced. Metro says it "wants to help individuals celebrating the a ... More >>

Howard Hughes Gets a Light-Rail Station Named After Him

Bring your own urine jars.​The world's cleanest, germ-free light-rail station -- albeit one in which you no doubt will be encouraged to piss in jars -- will be Stop 3 on Metro's new East End line. That stop will be officially designated the Altic/Howard Hughes stop, the agency announced today ... More >>

Free METRORAIL Rides to and from Reliant Park for Texans Home Games

​Traffic around any sports stadium can be a serious pain on game day, so Reliant has teamed up with METRO to provide free light rail rides to and from Reliant Park for every Texans home game in the regular season. Free rides begin at 5:30 a.m. on game day and run until midnight. To promote th ... More >>

Metro Wants to Use Private Security Firms to Make Sure You Pay for Your Light-Rail Ride

They're watching you; they see your every move, baby.​Metro is making noises about hiring private security as fare enforcers on the light rail. Right now state law bars that, but Metro says Phoenix does it, so why can't they? "Adding civilian fare inspectors could not only increase fare insp ... More >>

The Mechanic: Is This the Latest Metro Crash?

SUV Meets Bus The Mechanic at MOVIECLIPS.comAds for the subtle coming-of-age film The Mechanic, starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster and plenty of guns and bombs, have been all over the air recently. Last night we actually bothered to watch one when it came on. And we could have sworn we saw ... More >>

Remember: No Light Rail Service This Weekend

Another weekend without light rail​Things are back to normal with Metro light rail service -- it's out again all weekend. Construction on a new pedestrian bridge over Fannin in the Medical Center will once again force people onto the bus from 8 p.m. tonight to midnight Sunday. (You might wan ... More >>

Big Stop Sign On Metro's Light Rail Projects

Photo by Bryan WilliamsMetro's light rail expansion plans are slowing down. Big time. ​More bad news, at least for people hoping for more light rail in Houston, came from Metro headquarters this morning when the agency's president, George Greanias, announced that the light rail expansion budget fo ... More >>

Metro's Greanias Forcing His Top Execs To Take The Bus Or Rail

Metro is taking away company cars and requiring its "senior management" to ride the bus or rail. ​At a public hearing this afternoon, Metro released additional details about how it plans to cut this year's budget by $431 million. George Greanias, Metro's president, talked again about the plan to s ... More >>

Metro Gets Bit By The "Buy American" Rule

An FTA ruling concerning light rail cars purchased from Spanish company CAF puts a whole lot of money in jeapordy for Metro. ​Metro has received just about the worst news possible: The Federal Transit Administration's "Buy American" investigation found that Metro did, in fact, violate federal guid ... More >>

Metro Light Rail Expands Hours For Bike Riders

The Iron Horse welcomes velocipedes​Metro and BikeHouston have reached an agreement that expands the hours bike riders will be allowed on light-rail trains.Bikes are still barred during peak travel hours in the morning and afternoon, but the definition of "peak hours" has changed.Bikes can now be ... More >>

Beyond the Motor City

Getting Detroit residents out of their cars and onto a bus or train won't be an easy job

Train Wreck

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

Washington Avenue: A Big Trench For Commuter Rail Below, Streetcars Above

They desire a streetcar....get it?​If you're gonna dream, you might as well dream big.The Super Neighborhood 22 group, responsible for improving Washington Avenue, is meeting Monday to discuss highly ambitious plans for that burgeoning entertainment district.Among the proposals: Burying a large tr ... More >>

Frank Wilson Survival Watch, Day 3: Spanish Bombs

​How long will the embattled Metro president last? Hair Balls presents today's installment of the Frank Wilson Survival Watch. 1. The Federal Transit Administration sends Frank Wilson a damning letter. Dorval Carter, the FTA's chief counsel, alerted Wilson at the end of last week that the feds are ... More >>

Don't Depend On Light Rail To Get You Anywhere This Weekend

​If you were thinking you could drink freely downtown this weekend and take the light rail home, think again. It's "Set Back the Clock" weekend at Metro, as they abandon the sleek 21st-century wonder of light rail and regress back to smelly old buses.A new pedestrian bridge is being installed over ... More >>

It's Not Turning Into A Good Month For Metro

​If the paper-shredding scandal were not enough ... it seems the Metropolitan Transit Authority aka Metro has more problems than it can handle.Remember the rail lines approved by voters in 2003 ... yeah that 2003 when Michael Jordan was still playing basketball and YouTube did not exist? Well, se ... More >>

Even Edgar Winter Can't Get A Free Ride On The Light Rail Today

​Light-rail riders, beware. The cops are out to getcha.Since early this morning, Metro police and light-rail employees have been stationed at each stop along the route checking to make sure everyone has a ticket and is not abusing the city's well-loved, though probably often abused, honor system.I ... More >>

Saying Goodbye: A serial killer's victim is finally buried and Metro kicks the homeless off the light rail.

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

Metro Vice President To Homeless: Stay Off Our Train

​Todd Mason is the vice president of real estate services for Metro. At the time of his hiring, there was some concern that by hiring Mason and dabbling in big-time real estate development at and around Metro properties, the transit organization was extending itself far beyond its mission statemen ... 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 >>

Feds Say Metro Has Violated Civil Rights Laws (Without Specifics)

We reported yesterday on things looking up for Metro, but today Hair Balls learned that our transit authority is violating the federal government's definition of civil rights. According to a letter dated April 27, the Federal Transit Administration conducted a Title VI Compliance Review of Metro ... More >>

Metro's Light Rail, Directed By Martin Scorsese

Houston METRO Light Rail from NC3D.com on Vimeo Via Swamplot comes pretty, pretty pictures of the proposed light-rail lines Metro is building.See!! Swooping visuals as you zoom in from the skies and glide past trains and Second Life pedestrians!!Hear!! Light-rail trains that sound like Santa's slei ... More >>

Houston's Light Rail Not Good Enough For Baltimore

This Just In: Proletariat’s Days Are Numbered

Learning to Crawl

Letters to the Editor

On the Right Track

Sole Sister

The Alley Theatre's Bad Dates is a shoe-in

Best Place to Pretend You're in Blade Runner

Best Use of Taxpayer Dollars

The Mixmaster

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

Perfect Fit

Metro's new president already has a Houston attitude

Bad Blood on the Tracks

Metro's consulting becomes insulting for some Hispanic leaders

Best Activist

Tom Bazan

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.

Best Patio

The Terrace on Main, Warwick Hotel

Letters

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

Dog Bites Train

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

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.

Stadia Watch

The Rule of Men, Not Law

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

Just Don't Breathe It

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