Rail on the Katy Freeway? Not yet

Well, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone who's been in Houston for a while: The Chronicle reports that a draft agreement for the operation of the toll lanes on the new, super-wide Katy Freeway doesn't include a provision for rail transit. Instead, we'll have four toll lanes running down the middle of the freeway, which will take the place of Metro's HOV lanes — but will be accessible for free to buses and vehicles with three or more occupants during rush hour. "That's what TxDOT has built, and the concrete is there now," Peter Key, deputy director of the county toll road system, said. "The operating agreement is geared right now to how you manage those lanes."

Does that mean no rail in the Katy corridor, ever? Well, technically, no — but practically, maybe.

The question is, where could Metro put its rails once the toll lanes are in place? There is no room in the freeway's current design without removing some traffic lanes, TxDOT spokeswoman Janelle Gbur and Metro board chairman David Wolff agreed.

Running rail down the middle of the freeway would displace two or more of the four toll lanes, which are to replace Metro's current High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and serve the same role for transit and carpools while generating revenue from other vehicles.

Alan Clark, transportation planner for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, noted that the toll road authority is putting $500 million into the freeway reconstruction project and will be looking to revenue from the toll lanes to help pay off its bonds, which might make converting toll lanes into rail lines difficult. "It would be hard to do and expensive to do, and that kind of investment would require quite a bit of public involvement," Clark said. He noted that shoulders, main lanes and frontage roads are other options for rail alignments — because, he said, it's hard to get people to and from trains in the middle of a freeway. (Hard, but not impossible. Just ask other cities, like L.A. and Chicago, that have trains running down the center of freeways.)

Despite potential complications, Metro vice president Bryan Pennington told the Metro board Friday that having rail along the Katy Freeway corridor in five to seven years is a realistic goal. "I think that's optimistic," Metro Chairman David Wolff said. "It's intriguing because the demand is there in the I-10 corridor for rail — but the demand is there for traffic, too." And in Houston, traffic always seems to take precedence.