Public Transportation

East End Street Fest

The Museum Train's A-Rollin'

MetroIt's a work of art​You may have seen light-rail cars sheathed in red to promote safety, and you should get ready to see some in green to promote...art. Metro is "partnering" with the Museum District to tout the cultural offerings available a few steps away from the light rail line. Metr ... More >>

Metro Etiquette

Five rules that should be added to light rail.

Metro Prepares for Final Four Onslaught

Metro clearly wants to avoid this during the Final Four weekend.​Beginning next Thursday, college basketball fans will begin descending on Houston for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, held at Reliant Stadium. In addition to the games, there is a fan festival at George R. Brown Convention ... More >>

Five Rules MetroRail Should Consider Adding

Do some crop dusting, go to jail. It's the law.​Houstonians are generally an amiable folk. We have a reputation for being friendly almost to a fault. So, when we read about the controversy stirred up in New York City over a video of a fight between a subway rider eating spaghetti and another r ... More >>

George Greanias, CEO of Metro: Metro Out to Prove It's Not "Evil and Stupid"

Metro CEO George Greanias wants to make a transfer right into your heart.​When Metro trains are broken, they chug into the rail operating center on West Bellfort to be fixed. But today inside the vast concrete warehouse, repairs of a different sort were first on Metro's mind. Metro president ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Commuter Rail Makes Sense

​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 involv ... More >>

Metro Announces a New Commuter Rail, and It Wants Your Input

METROThe new train will chug around the dotted black lines.​If you commute from Harris County to Houston, you may be in luck. Plans for a new commuter rail that will one day connect downtown Missouri City with Houston were set into motion today.Kimberly Slaughter, Senior Vice President of Service ... More >>

Comment of the Day: More Tips for Metro

​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 involv ... More >>

Some Good Metro News: Light Rail Will Be Working This Weekend!

Metro's light rail will actually be working this weekend​Hey, here's some good news for a change from Metro: the light rail system will be working this weekend! Hey, you take your good news any way you can these days. All of you saying, "Shouldn't a light rail system be designed to work on a ... More >>

January Weekends: Don't Expect Much Light Rail

Construction for the ages​How long does it take to build a freaking pedestrian bridge across Fannin? Long enough that -- on the heels of Metro having to suspend light rail service on some December weekends to accommodate construction -- they'll be doing the same for most of January, the agenc ... More >>

Two Versions Of The Chron's Bill White Story Out There: The Houston One Is Nicer

Two cities, two versions of a story​The Houston Chronicle did its Bill White's Houston Legacy story today, and it was picked up online by the Dallas Morning News.It had the same writer in the byline, and the stories were essentially the same. But there are subtle differences between what showed u ... More >>

George Greanias Lays The Groundwork For Metro's Tough Upcoming Budget Decisions

Starting September 8, the Metro board will have 20 days to review and approve the agency's 2011 budget. ​September is a big month for Metro. It's when the board will start to publicly discuss and plan its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. There are only 20 days between the first budget presenta ... More >>

Metro Votes To Settle Paper-Shredding Lawsuit

The Frank Wilson era gets further into the rearview mirror, Metro hopes​The Metro board has voted to settle the Lloyd Kelley lawsuit that spawned a wild series of tales of the agency shredding paperwork.No details of the settlement were released, but the agency took pains to note how quickly a new ... More >>

George Greanias' First Metro Meeting: Exorcising The Ghost Of Frank Wilson

​George Greanias presided over his first Metro board meeting yesterday afternoon as the agency's new president, and board members seemed giddy to finally proceed without the dark cloud of Frank Wilson hanging over the place. There wasn't any of that boring talk about lawsuits or document shredding ... More >>

Frank Wilson Survival Watch, Day 4: The County Judge Doesn't Weigh In

​How long will the embattled Metro president last? Hair Balls presents today's installment of the Frank Wilson Survival Watch. 1. Ed Emmett won't muddy the Frank Wilson waters. Yet. Along with appointing two members to Metro's Board of Directors, there's no question that the county has a stake in ... More >>

Metro, Investigate Thyself

​The Metro board called a special meeting yesterday afternoon to hold a private executive session to discuss attorney Lloyd Kelley's lawsuit against Metro, which deals with all that alleged document shredding. But the board also used the opportunity to release the findings from UHY Advisors, a ... More >>

Metro Rolls Out Facebook & Twitter Accounts To Zero Fanfare

​In a press release clearly launched from the Stone Age, the Bayou City's Metropolitan Transit Authority (that's Metro, if you're nasty) puffed up its chest and triumphantly declared today that it is "expanding the conversation by adding social media tools Facebook and Twitter to its communica ... More >>

Houston's Choice for Mayor

Black Guy, Rich White Guy, Lesbian or Hispanic Republican

Light-Rail Will Be Limited In Downtown This Weekend

Photo by pfrench99Metro's announced they'll be doing track maintenance this weekend, so if you're planning on cruising the light rail through downtown, think again.There will be no service between the Downtown Transit Center and UH-Downtown from 5:30 am til 2 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, Metro's ... More >>

The East End Doesn't Like Metro's Light-Rail Overpass (Updated)

The Houston East End Chamber of Commerce, the Eastwood Civic Association, and some East End residents are up in arms over Metro's plans for a light rail overpass on Harrisburg Boulevard. So what's their problem, you say? Why would anyone have anything critical to say of Metro? Yeah, Hair Balls found ... More >>

The Metro Ninjas Will Mess You Up

Kumar Arya, a City of Houston engineer, was summoned to his department's downtown offices last summer to defend his rejection of a Metro site plan. He didn't think the design would work.Leaving the meeting, Arya decided to ride the Metro rail back to his office at 3300 Main St. He says he stepped of ... More >>

Tunnel Walk & Rail Tour/MFAH

Web exclusive!

There Are Traffic Lanes To Spare Downtown, Apparently

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Katy Freeway Finished As Of Tomorrow

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Metro, You Broke My Heart

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

You've Missed The Bus

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

The Mayor's right -- Houston Is Never, Never Trendy

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

East End Doesn't "Explode" Metro

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Metro: Are You Great, or Magnificent?

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Tales from Transit

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Oops. Delete! Delete!

Did we lose a lane on Dallas Street? Up until recently, Dallas Street from Louisiana to Travis had five lanes, now it has four. In place of the far right lane, there are concrete platforms for METRO passengers to embark on to/disembark from buses at the end of each block, and trees dividing parki ... More >>

Paradise by the Dashboard Light/Houston Music

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Light Blogging Today (And Everyday)

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Good Job, Metro !

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Missing them Margs

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Tale of Two Cities

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Upward Mobility, My Ass

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Best Contribution to Downtown Redevelopment

Racket again ventures downtown in search of musical serendipity

Well-Dressed Rebels

Revolt of the operagoing socialites

Party Like It's 1899

Super Bowl week turned out to be a slow one for HPD's vice squad

Bling Thing

A hip-hop summit preaches what it doesn't practice

Best Place to Buy Roses

Fannin's Flower Row

Trapped on the Tracks

A mayoral candidate wrestles with a no-win choice

City Blames Metro for Cash Crunch

A transit official says delayed payouts are Houston's problem

Letters

From the February 24, 2000 issue

We Read Thom Marshall So You Won't Have To

From the February 24, 2000 issue

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.

Cotswold Unspun

A group of weathy benefactors have a "gift" for the city. They say it won't cost taxpayers a nickel. But the fleecing may have already begun.

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.