Originally Posted by mwg25 (Post 12763384)

..I'm QUITE worried that one of these days I will pass out and wake up in Trenton at 1 AM. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by mwg25 (Post 12763387)

Just think about the highway robbery that goes on during college graduation season. For what my parents paid last spring, we should have housed an entire platoon. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Olton Hall (Post 12763442)

Good location and a nice area. Parking $$$$$$$$$$$$

Originally Posted by Steve GadFly (Post 12763609)

Did you remember to book through ebates to get your 1% cash back??? :-:

Originally Posted by sbm12 (Post 12764437)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Greetings from FRA. Enjoyable flight over but I'm beat. Nap time now.

Originally Posted by Scott6067 (Post 12764485)

In FRA. COLPUCK has been spotted and has made it here. All is well so far. Glad I brought the extra bag for the SWAG!! Have a great day everyone just waking up in the states!!

Originally Posted by ConciergeMike (Post 12764795)

Morning, Box. Writing a post in between charter checkin and going to the Star dinner. fozz was kind enough to guest me into the lounge, where overconcentrated Eurocoffee and real-sugar Coke have helped me to reset myself to pretty much normal.

Originally Posted by ssullivan (Post 12763500)

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.

Originally Posted by Hartmann (Post 12764959)

Was going to book my MR to get me to Plat last night but hesitated until this morning. Price jumped $50. :(

I just wanted to go IAH-DFW-IAH

Originally Posted by gbryan84 (Post 12764995)

I will be at DFW from 3:30-5:30 on Saturday.

Originally Posted by Hartmann (Post 12764983)

ALCO, did you notice the new "Journeys" feature on FM?

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 12765016)

That's been around for a while now. I tried it out with our honeymoon and I'm not quite sure I see the usefulness of it. If I am interested in keeping that close of an eye on expenses, it's easier to just punch everything in to Excel.

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 12765009)

The PClub closes at 1:30pm (:rolleyes:) but, fortunately, there is a pretty nice SC a few gates down.

Originally Posted by Hartmann (Post 12763396)

The city officials were most certainly involved with the I-10 trainwreck as well as the Congressman.

The rail was seen as lose-lose but there were $$ signs with HOT.

Reading studies on light rail and knowing that most rail basedass transit
is severely in the red across the nation, I am much more inclined to support improvements to buses, bus routes, stops, etc.

Originally Posted by Anglo Large Clawed Otter (Post 12765131)

I use the light rail daily, am very pleased with the service (it is a huge improvement over local buses), and would like to see it expanded. Just like other public services, public transit is indeed subsidized. Police departments, fire departments, road maintenance, etc., are all also subsidized.

I'm happy to have sales or other city taxes support public services like light rail when the subsidies produce a tangible benefit. The trains are always full when I ride in the mornings and evenings (there are even a good number of riders after 9pm), so it isn't as if they are running around empty.

Most of the complaints I have heard about light rail in Houston are along the lines of "but it only runs from UH Downtown to the Stadium..." To me, such complaints indicate that the system is not yet useful enough, because it hasn't been expanded enough.

Originally Posted by Hartmann (Post 12765183)

One huge problem I see every time I am on the light rail is the lack of enforcement of fares. I've even been buying a ticket and had people tell me that it was unnecessary and that I should save my money :rolleyes:

I don't equate subsidies for rail as being the same as the subsidies for fire, police, etc. because one is providing a simple transportation service and the other is a necessity. I'm not saying some subsidies for rail are bad, I'm just saying it should be a system that can provide a lot for itself. Metro does a good job in the bus realm, I'd like to see that carried over to the rail.