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TMCNet: Growing suburbs now see mass transit as good idea: But no regional provider and funding obstacles make getting it there difficult

[September 02, 2008]

Growing suburbs now see mass transit as good idea: But no regional provider and funding obstacles make getting it there difficult

(Houston Chronicle (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 2--A perfect storm of rising fuel prices and rapid population growth beyond the Harris County line have joined to spur unprecedented suburban interest in mass transit.

Fort Bend County Commissioner James Patterson recalled recently that when he talked about the need for public transportation after being elected in 1999, "I almost got run out of town."

Now, he said, commuter buses carry 13,000 passengers a day between Sugar Land and the Galleria or Greenway Plaza, twice the number just two years ago. "Next week," he added, "we'll start a commuter service by contract with a Texas Medical Center group."

Patterson, who also chairs the Houston-Galveston Area Transportation Policy Council, said Fort Bend is hardly alone.

"Gas prices got everybody's attention."

Although transit needs are regional, the closest thing to a regional provider, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, is limited by statute to Harris County. And large parts of the county are excluded because their residents voted in 1978 to do without Metro's services and its 1-cent sales tax.

Asked if Metro should be expanded or a regional agency created, Patterson and other elected officials in the Houston area were doubtful. Even Metro was cool to the idea.

The larger the area that such an agency would cover, Patterson said, the more likely that some residents will not receive the services they pay tax for.

"No reflection on the current Metro board, but I would be less than candid if I did not say there are some reservations about the current makeup," said state Sen. Tommy Williams, whose district runs from Beaumont to The Woodlands.

Five of the nine board members represent Houston, two represent Harris County and two the 14 smaller cities in Metro's service area, guaranteeing the big city a majority say.

Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said the board would need broadening if Metro's scope were expanded. A good model, he said, is Caltrain, in which three San Francisco Bay counties contract with Amtrak for commuter rail.

But a regional approach has advantages, Wilson said, including coordination of transit modes and routes.

"With an integrated system, you wouldn't have competing organizations vying for precious federal funding, and the customer would find it easier and simpler to use," Wilson said. "You wouldn't have to pay five fares. You pay one fare and ride all over the region."

But fares do not cover transit costs, and the issue of paying the rest remains. Metro residents have paid its 1-cent sales tax for 30 years, but many cities outside its boundaries are at the statutory maximum sales tax. And nobody wants to raise property taxes.

Considering all that, Patterson said, a Houston regional transit agency may be an idea whose time has not yet come.

"I'm not saying it isn't needed. I just don't see it happening."

Patterson said he believes most residents of Fort Bend and other suburban counties "are pretty much an independent lot, and they are going to say, 'We would love to work with Metro ... but if there is going to be a Park & Ride lot in Rosenberg, we need our elected officials to be in control of that.' "

With that in mind, a Metro board committee is talking with suburban officials and business interests about ways for Metro to provide services to them without expanding its taxing area. Last year, Metro began Park & Ride bus service to Baytown under a contract with Harris County.

Committee chairman George DeMontrond said Metro is not seeking legislation to expand. "There is nothing that would put a hitch into any of these discussions quicker," he explained. "That is something that would have to come from them."

The first outreach, DeMontrond said, should be to seek more short-term contracts. "It's a baby step to try to see where we can cooperate and get everybody comfortable in dealing with one another," he said.

Transit projects, some in the conceptual stage, that would extend outside Metro include: Park & Ride bus service from League City to Galveston and Houston, commuter rail from Houston to Galveston and along Hempstead Highway from Houston to Prairie View, and commuter rail -- via a route still undecided -- to Fort Bend County.

Others in the discussion stage include a fast train beside the Hardy Toll Road from downtown to Bush Intercontinental Airport, The Woodlands and Conroe, commuter rail along Mykawa Road to Pearland, and light rail from the Texas Medical Center to Pearland.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said rail to Galveston and Waller County would make sense for Metro, which included the idea in its 2003 transit referendum, along with one out U.S. 90A to Fort Bend County.

"Their concern is one I share, that whatever is developed ties into the Metro system," Emmett said.

But the lines also could be developed by the Gulf Coast Freight Rail District if Waller and Galveston counties joined that body, he said. The district has no taxing power, so the counties would need to agree on funding. Emmett also said the two routes could attract enough riders to be profitable for private operators.

Commuter rail along U.S. 90A to Fort Bend County is a long-awaited hope of drivers stuck in traffic, and a study done through H-GAC concluded it was feasible. However, Union Pacific Railroad says its double freight tracks and numerous daily trains leave no space for safe passenger operations.

Metro is considering light rail service along the route as far as the county line, and the commuter rail study by H-GAC examines an alternate route to Richmond and Rosenberg through rural areas of Fort Bend County. The latter prompted a sharp response from Stafford Mayor Leonard Scarcella at a public meeting on the study.

Scarcella said he was "very disappointed and very frustrated" over the backdoor route. "It totally ignores the 90A corridor," he said. "That's where the action is. That's where the growth is -- one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. To have it removed from this proposal ... is something that I just really find unacceptable."

rad.sallee@chron.com

To see more of the Houston Chronicle, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.HoustonChronicle.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Houston Chronicle
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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