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October 27, 2003
Support for METRO Solutions
Washington, DC - This morning, Congressman Gene Green delivered the following statement at a press conference in support of METRO Solutions’ regional transportation plan that will appear on the November 4th ballot:
 
“I support highway and road construction projects, but we must do more.  Mobility will be better if we use all our transportation options, especially light rail transit.  If the opposition to urban light rail is successful, why should urban elected officials support suburban road projects like the Grand Parkway?
 
“Today there will be 300,000 transit trips in Harris County.  That means over 100 million transit trips this year. 
 
In eight days, we will all have a chance to vote on a regional transportation plan to dramatically improve mobility for Harris County, including the East End, Northside, and other communities.
 
By 2025 METRO Solutions will allow over 157 million bus transit trips and over 43 million light rail transit trips each year.
 
By 2025 METRO Solutions will allow over 2 million light rail trips a year on the Harrisburg line going right past this spot. 
 
A Harrisburg rail corridor will enhance and solidify the tremendous urban revitalization already going on in the historic East End. 
 
If METRO’s plan is approved, East End will see concrete benefits in the next ten years.
 
By 2012, METRO rail will provide service for East End residents to major city centers including Downtown, including UH Downtown, the Medical Center, the Galleria, and the Reliant Stadium area.  North Houston residents will also have access to all these points starting from Northline Mall.
 
By 2025, subject to further voter approval of financing, METRO Rail will provide service for East End residents to Gulfgate Center, Hobby Airport, and all the way up to Intercontinental Aiport. 
 
The eventual extension to Gulfgate, which I continue to push METRO to complete as soon as possible, will greatly benefit mobility and commerce in our community.
 
By 2025, Northside residents living out to Greenspoint would also be linked up to the rail system.
 
This community and others don’t want rail to come at the expense of bus service.  And METRO’s plan does not bet the ranch on rail. 
 
Reliable and efficient bus service is essential for our community to stay connected and METRO’s plan provides a  new Transit Center at Gulfgate with new local and crosstown bus routes to the Manchester area, Hobby Airport, and over to the NASA area.  Combined with rail service, this is a major improvement for this community.
 
METRO’s plan has new express bus service to the Texas Medical Center from Denver Harbor and the Magnolia Transit Centers.
 
METRO Solutions is the best plan for transit riders and car commuters and it will, along with increased road construction, improve congestion in Harris County.  In fact, METRO’s plan provides $774 million in street construction and maintenance over the next 10 years.
 
Opponents of METRO want us to watch congestion get worse while they have no plan. 
 
These opponents want us to support their suburban projects, while they work to defeat solutions for our communities.  Those tactics are selfish and divisive.
 
They are saying that the light rail line will serve less than 1% of area trips, but that is misleading.
 
METRO figures show that by 2025, light rail would be over 20% of all transit trips, and transit is 12% of all trips, which means light rail is over 2% of all trips. 
 
But, the use of trips is misleading, because if a commuter stops 2 times on the way home for groceries and dry cleaning in your car, that counts statistically as 3 trips, but a transit trip where the same commuter picks up groceries and dry cleaning on the walk home from the station is only 1 trip.  “Trips” statistics overestimate car use vs. transit.
 
METRO opponents are also trying to claim the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s (HGAC) “100% Solution” plan it as their alternative plan. 
 
However, according to the HGAC Transportation Planning Manager, HGAC’s plan is actually an unfinished “analysis tool” that includes METRO Rail, is a wish list of roads and other projects without funding sources, and is not intended to be an alternative to any plan.
 
Furthermore, the plan to use commuter rail to western suburbs on freight rail tracks has been talked about for decades but freight rail companies will not allow passenger trains on their property without major public investments in track maintenance. 
 
It is not clear whether any of the serious meetings with the railroads that would be necessary have ever happened.  
 
The real tragedy is that rail opponents are distorting and politicizing the HGAC, which as our Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), is supposed to provide objective transportation analysis.
 
Smart leaders should support transportation solutions outside of their areas, because they realize the problem is regional. 
 
We all travel across the region and this community does not oppose suburban highway and transit projects, so why are METRO’s opponents refusing to support transit in the East End?
 
Congestion is the number one problem in our area.  METRO’s plan is the result of two years of public meetings, hearings, and hard work.
 
We need all the tools to fix congestion, including light rail and more buses to relieve congestion in city centers where hundreds of thousands of folks come in to work every day. 
 
On November 4th, our communities face a choice of whether we want to get moving with a plan, or stay in stuck in gridlock.”
 
 
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