METRORail

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METRORail
Info
Type	Light rail
System	Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas
Locale	Houston, Texas
Termini	Fannin South (south) UH–Downtown (north)
Stations	16
Services	Red Line, route 700
Daily ridership	39,500[1]
Operation
Opened	January 1, 2004
Owner	METRO
Operator(s)	METRO
Rolling stock	Siemens Avanto S70
Technical
Line length	7.5 mi (12.1 km)
Minimum radius of curvature	(?)
Electrification	overhead catenary
Highest elevation	at grade, shared with streets
Route map Red Line map

METRORail is the 7.5-mile (12.1 km) light rail line located in Houston, Texas. It is the second major light rail service in Texas following the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. With an approximate daily ridership of 39,500,^[1] the METRORail ranks as the eleventh most-traveled light rail system in the United States, with the second highest ridership per track mile.

The arrival of METRORail came 64 years after the previous streetcar system was shut down^[2], which left Houston as the largest city in the United States without a rail system since 1990 when the Blue Line opened in Los Angeles. METRORail is operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, or METRO for short.

Contents 1 Ridership 2 Rolling stock 3 Crashes 3.1 Other controversies 4 Future expansion 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Ridership

Today, the average daily weekday ridership is 39,500. Notable records in ridership have occurred on the following dates:^[3]

• February 1, 2004: 64,005 passengers rode the METRORail to Super Bowl XXXVIII
• February 23, 2004: 54,193 passenger boardings were recorded, the highest weekday at the time
• February 27, 2007: 56,388 passengers were recorded the day of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

[edit] Rolling stock

Houston operates a fleet of 18 Siemens-built Avanto S70 light-rail vehicles, delivered in 2003-2004.^[4] Each 96-foot (29 m) long, double-articulated vehicle has four low-platform doors per side and has a capacity of 72 seated and approximately 169 standing passengers, or a total capacity of around 241 per car.^[5]

For future expansion of the METRORail system, Metro has turned to CAF USA, with an initial order of 29 cars.^[6] These vehicles will be five-section articulated cars. Each new car will be 102 feet long and have space to carry 282 passengers. A two-car train would be 205 feet long, with a maximum capacity of 564, a 17% increase over the 482-passenger capacity of a two-car Siemens set.^[7]

[edit] Crashes

The first METRORail crash occurred in November, 2003 as the system was still under testing prior to opening.^[8] In September 2004, METRORail set a new record for the most accidents in a year, passing San Francisco Municipal Railway's 2001 record of 61 crashes over 73.3 miles (118.0 km) — nearly ten times the length of the Houston Redline.^[9]

As of April 15, 2006, there have been 129 crashes officially confirmed. One crash has resulted in a fatality; the fatal crash occurred on May 10, 2005 and involved a man in a pickup truck who ran through a red light at the Jefferson Street intersection and collided with a train, killing the driver of the truck instantly and causing minor injuries to several passengers of the train.^[10]

There are several possible reasons for the high accident rate; an often preferred explanation is that the entire 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of track runs in city streets unlike systems with private right-of-ways, though systems like the Baltimore Light Rail run much of their route in mixed traffic as well without anywhere near the crash rate.^{[citation needed]}

METRO has consistently blamed driver error as the cause of the high collision rate and the transit agency's police department regularly tickets motorists who cross paths with the train. Some of the people involved in the crashes have stated that poor signage and signal layouts have contributed to the problem. Critics argue that such a high rate of driver error must be attributable to an environment conducive to it.^[11] METRO has rearranged some signals and altered some sign arrangements to try to make things clearer.^[12]

After a near miss, an investigation was launched and the results were sent out in a press release. Along with its findings, it has also published its results since implementation of several safety improvements, the crash rates have gone down significantly over the past few years from 62 crashes in its first year of operation to 14 as of May 31, 2007 with a goal for fiscal year 2007 of 28.^{[not in citation given][citation needed]}

[edit] Other controversies

Since its inception, METRORail has been the source of several political controversies in Houston. During the 2003 expansion referendum, critics of the system, including Texans for True Mobility (TTM), questioned METRO's financial practices. METRO itself was criticized for spending public funds for "educational advertisements" about the proposed system, which were said to promote the referendum.^{[13][dead link]}

The main political action committee (PAC) supporting the bond was accused of having a conflict of interest due to the relationship between its main contributors and METRO. The PAC received over US$100,000 in contributions from contractor firms and equipment suppliers for METRORail who stood to gain financially from its expansion.^[13] This includes a US$50,000 donation from Siemens AG, a German engineering corporation, which has the contract to build METRORail's train cars.

Critics of METRORail accused the Houston Chronicle of heavy bias in its coverage designed to promote METRORail. The newspaper became embroiled in controversy following the accidental posting of an internal memorandum on its website that urged the "specific objective" of making "rail a permanent part of the transit mix" in Houston through news, editorial, and op-ed columns.^[14] The memo included a "ground zero for November" proposal of attacking the finances of groups and individuals opposed to light rail, and specifically Rep. Tom DeLay, who secretly financed "Texans For True Mobility"^[15], and former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier.^[16]

[edit] Future expansion

The following lines are anticipated to be opened by 2012 as part of the METRO Solutions transit system expansion:

Line Name	Distance	Route
Red Line Extension	5.2 mi (8.4 km)	UH–Downtown Station to the Northline Center Station
Southeast/Green Line	6.1 mi (9.8 km)	Smith Street in Downtown Houston to the Palm Center at MLK & Griggs Street
University/Orange Line	11.3 mi (18.2 km)	Hillcroft Transit Center to the Eastwood Transit Center
Uptown/Pink Line	4.7 mi (7.6 km)	Southwest corner of US 59 South/I-610 West interchange to the Northwest Transit Center
East End/Brown Line	3 mi (4.8 km)	East of Downtown Houston to the Magnolia Transit Center

[edit] See also

• List of METRORail stations
• List of light-rail transit systems
• Light rail in North America
• List of United States light rail systems by ridership

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• METRORail
• Metro Solutions

v • d • e METRORail of Houston, Texas Current Lines Main Street/Red Line Future Lines North/Blue Line · Southeast/Green Line · University/Orange Line · Uptown/Pink Line · East End/Brown Line Related Articles METRO · Intermodal Transit Center · List of METRORail Stations · Quickline · Siemens Avanto

v • d • e Currently operating light rail and streetcar systems in the United States AR River Rail Streetcar AZ Old Pueblo Trolley · METRO Light Rail CA Muni Cable Car, F Market & Wharves, and Metro lines · LACMTA Metro Blue, Metro Green and Metro Gold lines · San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Line · Sacramento RT · San Diego Trolley · Santa Clara VTA CO Platte Valley Trolley · RTD Light Rail FL TECO Line Streetcar System GA River Street Streetcar LA New Orleans Streetcars MA Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed Line · MBTA Green Line MD Baltimore Light Rail MN Como-Harriet Streetcar Line · Hiawatha Line MO /  IL St. Louis MetroLink NJ Hudson–Bergen Light Rail · Newark Light Rail · River Line NY Buffalo Metro Rail NC LYNX Rapid Transit Services · Charlotte Trolley OH RTA Blue and Green Lines OR MAX Light Rail · Portland Streetcar · Portland Vintage Trolley PA Pittsburgh Light Rail · SEPTA Routes 15, 101, 102, and Subway–Surface Lines TN Memphis MATA Trolley TX DART Light Rail · METRORail · M-Line (McKinney Ave.) UT UTA TRAX WA Central Link · Seattle Streetcar Network · Tacoma Link WI Kenosha Transit