I didn't say they weren't involved — but they weren't the primary reason that we ended up with the design that was adopted. At the time Metro was fighting off two members of Congress who were doing everything they could to stop the first rail line from being built — a line that was built with zero federal money and only local funds — and much of the decision for the final design for the Katy Freeway involved TxDOT and the HCTRA. There was also a lot of public pressure to get something done as quickly as possible, and the HOT lanes managed by the HCTRA were the answer to closing the gap in funding. Had the toll portion not been there, the project wouldn't have had the funding to move forward so quickly.

I have a friend who was at the time a high ranking executive at Metro. They really were closed out of the deal, and their desire for preserving right of way that could have rail transit added to the freeway corridor without having to convert existing lanes went largely unheard. Unfortunately the agency wasn't in a position financially to commit money up front to the project either — this was all before the Metro Solutions plan was voted on and approved, and the funding mechanisms for that plan were put into place. Had the political climate been more in their favor, they likely could have had more input into the Katy Freeway project.

Houston's bus system needs a lot of improvement — not that it's horrible, because it certainly isn't. It has certainly seen a lot of improvements to make it more user friendly implemented in the last decade, but there is still a lot that could be done. It will always be the backbone of the system. However, there are cases where higher capacity, faster transit needs to be implemented, which is the role light rail should play. One thing that also needs to happen is the way development in the city is managed must change; as long as the city continues to sprawl outward, transit options are going to cost a lot more and have less overall impact. There's so much space for infill and increased density in Houston's urban core that needs to be better utilized. People can say all they want about the money losing public subsidy that is Metro, but it's not like expansions to freeways to the suburbs haven't been even more heavily subsidized by public money than Metro has — and those freeways aren't exactly profit centers either.