Results tagged “universityline”

In a fight trying to reinstate a fraction of what the city had miles of before 1940, the Metro Board has voted on the future placement of the controversial University Line - west: Richmond-Cummins-Westpark-Hillcroft transit center, and heading east on Richmond/Wheeler and terminating at the Eastwood transit center. The other main west contenders were Richmond-Greenway-Westpark, Richmond-Kirby-Westpark, or to can it altogether. There is still more work and fighting to do, though - Metro must still...

So the Draft Environmental Impact Study for Metro's proposed University light rail line has been released — a lot of information that a lot of people will be poring over. Fortunately, Christof at Intermodality has a summary of the DEIS for the line's western segment already, and here's what he found: There are three alignment options for the Main-to-Hillcroft segment of the University Line: Richmond to Cummins to Westpark, Richmond to Greenway to Westpark, and...

There was a hearing yesterday on a request from a Richmond Avenue resident and business owner to order Metro officials to testify about its transit expansion plans, but there was no ruling — yet. Daphne Scarborough, an outspoken opponent of proposals to run a light rail line down Richmond, filed the motion in mid-April seeking information about the University Line alignment, Metro's substituting buses for trains on some of its proposed new transit lines, how...

Metro has issued a response to the legal action taken by rail opponent Daphne Scarborough, and it's a pretty strong-willed statement. They call this measure a "fishing expedition" because Scarborough did not file a lawsuit, she filed a "section 202 motion," hoping that a judge will grant the authority to start "fishing" for evidence against Metro, with the intent to file a lawsuit later on. Here is an excerpt from Metro's response, but the full text is online here:

Ubiquitous Richmond Avenue rail opponent Daphne Scarborough has pulled out a new weapon in her fight against the light rail expansion that she says would destroy her livelihood and her street: Scarborough has sued Metro, claiming that the transit agency has broken a "contract with the voters" established by the 2003 passage of the Metro Solutions referendum. Scarborough's focus in the suit isn't solely the contentious Richmond light rail alignment, but that's certainly a part of it: The suit claims that Metro has isn't complying with the terms of the referendum because the western section of the proposed University light rail line won't run totally on Westpark. Scarborough said she's filing suit because she has tried to talk with Metro for three years and has gotten nowhere: "I can't seem to get any straight answers," she said.

And so we have some final-ish alignment options for Metro's University light rail line: All of them would begin at MetroRail's Wheeler Station on Main Street and head west along Richmond Avenue for some distance, and all would avoid Afton Oaks, which has been a loudly squeaking wheel in the planning process. But that's pretty much where the similarities end: • The first proposal would turn south on Montrose Boulevard, then west on an elevated...

"What can we do long-term to accomodate students and provide something different?" Dr. Gogue, President and Chancellor of the University of Houston, posed this question in his state of the university address Friday morning. This was his segue into a discussion of UH's master plan for the main campus.

As the debate continues over the alignment of Metro's proposed University light rail line, a calmer discussion is going on in the Third Ward, where the eastern end of the University Line would run. At issue is how the line would get from the University of Houston to Main Street — Third Ward residents want to make sure the line will help the neighborhood, not drive it out of existence. Planners are looking at...

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...

U.S. Rep John Culberson won't support running the University light rail line down Richmond Avenue, he announced this morning at a news conference under a tent near James Coney Island at Richmond and Shepherd. It's an announcement that's long been expected by some, though Culberson said earlier this month he was keeping an open mind. Today, he said his decision was based on "overwhelming opposition" to building a light rail line on Richmond:

The Chron's Rad Sallee takes a look today at the question of right of way in the Richmond rail debate, focusing on comments from Metro Chairman David Wolff about some property owners along Richmond Avenue "stealing" the public right of way. What Wolff meant was that some people have put things — lawns, parking spaces, driveways — on the right of way, which usually isn't a problem until the land needs to be used for...

It looks like Metro might not have won critics of the proposed University light rail line's Richmond Avenue alignment over last night at the first of three public meetings on the project: KTRK and the Chronicle report that the people who oppose having the rail on Richmond still oppose it, even with a "compromise" unveiled this week that would switch the line from Richmond to Westpark at Greenway Plaza. "None of this is any different from the meetings that we had a year ago," Richmond business owner Daphne Scarbrough told KTRK. "All of it's the same."

There's news today from the Chronicle on Metro's proposed University light rail line: Metro Chairman David Wolff met with the Chron's editorial board this morning and said he could "live with" an alignment that would take the line from Main Street west along Richmond Avenue, then south at Greenway Plaza to Westpark. It's a Metro compromise between keeping part of the line on Richmond and avoiding Afton Oaks and residential areas between Greenway and the...

Metro officials went to Washington yesterday to talk up their plans for the University light rail line to U.S. Rep. John Culberson — and though they said the meeting didn't result in much of anything, there's talk that Culberson's opposition to the proposed line could mean it won't get built.

Today's Chronicle has some details of Metro's proposed intermodal terminal, including basics of the complex's design.

Planning to attend tonight's meeting on the proposed MetroRail University Line? You just might run into Mayor Bill White, who will be among the city leaders attending the meeting. Metro's called the community meeting to discuss proposals for where to put the University Line, which will connect the University of Houston main campus with the Uptown area. Though the MetroRail referendum called for the line to run along Westpark, Metro now says ridership would suffer under that alignment and the line could lose federal funding. Metro has talked about putting the line, all or in part, along Richmond Avenue, but residents and business owners along Richmond think that's an awful idea.

Houstonist rarely gets to use "Houston" and "light rail expansion" in the same sentence — and it seems every time we do, the sentence is a negative one. So we weren't surprised to hear that business owners along Richmond Avenue are protesting MetroRail's University Line even though the line hasn't been approved yet.