Transportation

More Concrete Coming On SH 288: 26-Mile Toll Road To Pearland

Hey Pearland!!! You are about to either a) enter a bright new day of easy commuting to downtown Houston, or b) add to our area's smog problem via the addition of more concrete laid down for the rich to use while the less well-off suffer. It's a matter of perspective, we guess. State Highway 288 ha ... More >>

Michael Brown: Feds Accuse Former Hand Surgeon of Choking Flight Attendants, Threatening to Show His Wang

We're sure that, by now, everyone's heard the latest hijinks our favorite cocaine enthusiast and alleged anal-herpes-giver Michael "Daddy's Baby Girl" Brown has gotten himself into: Dude has busted his federal-charges cherry by allegedly choking flight attendants and threatening to get buck nekkid o ... More >>

[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 >>

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 >>

Hobby Airport Renovations Promise to Make Air Travel Even More Fun For The Next Year

Once you're inside, it's back to all thease and comfort of air travel​Nothing these days is as soothing, hassle-free and just plain fun as flying on a commercial airline. So the fact that starting today, repairs are going to be causing detours for the next year in traffic circulation at Hobby ... 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 >>

Southwest's Pilot Apologizes For Misogynist, Anti-Gay Rant

Sorry about that.​KPRC, which first broke the story, has an update: The pilot caught on an open cockpit microphone denigrating gays and flight attendants has sent out a company-wide apology letter. Captain James Taylor said he "deeply regret[s]" the remarks. "Please know that this event has ... More >>

Robert Wade Prince: A-Hole Passenger Gets Six Months

Robert Prince: A raft of bad ideas nets him six months​A year ago we told you about Robert Wade Butler, an Alabama man arrested at Bush Intercontinental after getting drunk and disorderly on a Continental flight home from Amsterdam. Prince not only hassled female flight attendants and passeng ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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.

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 >>

First, They Came For My Legroom...Then They Came For My Food

​Earlier this month Houston's Continental Airlines announced that it would be improving its customer service for tall people by charging them for legroom.Today the airline announced it would be improving customer service for everybody in coach by no longer giving them free food."Continental Airlin ... 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 >>

Aren't You Supposed To Be Pretty Mellow Coming Back From Amsterdam?

​Robert Wade Prince, 47, is from Alabama. We have a feeling he's called "Bobby," if not "Bobby Wade."He was coming back from Amsterdam when he got a little annoyed with things, and began making a series of seriously bad decisions that ended up with him getting arrested at Bush over the weekend and ... More >>

The Polar Express 4D

Fun to the fourth power

Rider Agrees: Get Those Homeless Off The Light Rail!!

​Earlier this month we wrote about how a Metro vice-president blatantly told some citizens that he considered part of his job to be keeping those nasty homeless people off the light rail. Let them take the bus, he more or less said; the light rail is for winners.He has at least one supporter in th ... 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 >>

What, The Name "Death To Jews" Was Taken?

Photo courtesy Qatar AirwaysQatar Airways is making a big move in the Houston market -- it's got ads on the air touting its luxurious service, it's got a giant new 777 plying the new Houston-Doha route.One thing it's probably not doing -- advertising in Houston's Jewish Herald-Voice. Or, if they are ... 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 >>

Southwest Airlines Going All International On Us

You are now free to move about...another country?Has Southwest Airlines, the little Texas company that introduced cattle-call boarding, going all international on us?The airline announced today it's taking the first steps to offering flights to Canada, which is a country somewhere to the north of th ... More >>

Guy Sues Continental Airlines over Fuel Surcharges

Your Highway's A Parking Lot, But The HOV Lanes Are Clear

Houston's Light Rail Not Good Enough For Baltimore

Learning to Crawl

Bullet Train to Vegas

Sunday, July 9, at Java Jazz, 2502 FM 1960 East, Spring, 832-482-2684

Double-Wide Divide

Critics say Perry's turnpike plans will take a terrible toll on Texans

For Whom the Hell Tolls

Heights residents fear the toll road authority's new land acquisition plans

Up in the Air

Was this the punch line to a bad racist, homophobic joke or a dry run for a terrorist bombing?

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

Bridging the Gap

Birders and the port are new buds seeking to block the proposed toll span at Bolivar

Letters

Bad Blood on the Tracks

Metro's consulting becomes insulting for some Hispanic leaders

Best Hype

Super Bowl 2004

Trainspotting

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

The Train Ride Gets Bumpy

Metro's coalition shows some early cracks

Air Sic

In cargo holds or plane cabins, critters are taking more than flights of fancy

Best Bike Lanes

West Alabama at South Shepherd

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

Upping the Ante-Up

A planned HOV lane in west Houston ma instead become yet another toll road in our fair city

East End Transit

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

The Rule of Men, Not Law

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

Letters