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Rock Talk, Vol. IX
Not surprisingly, U.S. Rep. John Culberson's announcement last week that he won't support a proposal to run a light rail line down Richmond Avenue has sent Metro into something of a tailspin: The agency has now pushed the date it expects to recommend an alignment for the University Line back a few weeks while it conducts cost and ridership estimates for a variety of routes that would take the line from the Third Ward to the Hillcroft Transit Center.
According to the Chronicle, Culberson aide Nick Swyka told Culberson about an idea for an elevated rail line that would run alongside the Southwest Freeway, so Culberson asked Metro to look into an alignment that would run "from Richmond in the vicinity of the University of St. Thomas to U.S. 59 (Southwest Freeway) to a transition point into the Westpark right-of-way." City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck suggested a route that would take the University Line along Richmond from the existing Wheeler Station to Mandell or Dunlavy street, where it would turn south, then follow the north side of the Southwest Freeway to Edloe, where it would head south to Westpark.
Clutterbuck's proposal isn't sitting well with Councilwoman Ada Edwards, whose district includes between 50 and 75 homes that would be demolished to make room for the rail line. Clutterbuck said she didn't mean any harm — after all, she's no engineer, and the houses aren't in her district anyway, right? — but Edwards is miffed that she wasn't consulted before the proposal hit the Chronicle. "Nobody discussed it with me," Edwards said. "The council member can call it what she wants — a plan, a directive, a good idea. But the point is that, at the end of the day, it would take homes in District D and I am against that."
Details of the plan Culberson asked Metro to look at (which seems to be the idea of a freeway-side rail line, not a specific alignment) aren't clear, but Clutterbuck's idea would potentially affect the Richwood Place and Castle Court neighborhoods and Chew Park, all of which are located along the north side of 59. It could mean the rail line would pass right by several homes, the same potential situation that's drawn vehement protest from people along Richmond Avenue.
Culberson, in a statement to blogHouston, says the route selection shouldn't even be an issue because voters chose to put the line on Westpark in the 2003 referendum:
I have not offered an alternative rail route because route selection ended on November 3, 2003 when the voters approved the routes and the light rail for those routes which the Metro board had formally approved on August 18, 2003. These routes are now the "locally preferred alternative" that federal law requires before the funding process can even begin.The Metro board and the voters approved rail on Westpark, which ends at Kirby. Richmond was not on the ballot.
Which brings up the debate of whether or not the referendum specified Westpark as an actual alignment for the line — though what's now known as the University Line was called "Westpark" then, presumably as a general reference. (The argument that voters approved putting the line on Westpark is pretty straightforward; you can learn about the other side of the coin here and here.)
If it sounds confusing, well — it is. We'll be interested to see Metro's cost/ridership reports; in the meantime, Intermodality has some estimates on how many people the various alignments might serve, though they were drawn up before the new Richmond-Mandell/Dunlavy-59 suggestion came about. There's also a look at potential alignments for the University Line's Third Ward segment, which has been somewhat overlooked.
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According to the Chronicle, Culberson aide Nick Swyka told Culberson about an idea for an elevated rail line that would run alongside the Southwest Freeway, so Culberson asked Metro to look into an alignment that would run "from Richmond in the vicinity of the University of St. Thomas to U.S. 59 (Southwest Freeway) to a transition point into the Westpark right-of-way."
That's not exactly how it went down, as Rep. Culberson detailed in an email to me last night that I posted.
The Chronicle relied very heavily on a press release from a METRO spokesman Friday night, and apparently didn't work too hard to verify all that was said and nail down the facts carefully. It really confuses the rail debate when that happens, as all sorts of groups then run with what was reported, regardless of its accuracy.
It could mean the rail line would pass right by several homes, the same potential situation that's drawn vehement protest from people along Richmond Avenue.
and mandell/dunlavy are not even in the same league as richmond ave.!