The stations are on wheels
One of the things that isn’t new in the University Line DEIS (part 1, part 2) is the location of stations. They’re in the same places they were in January. But don’t expect them to stay there. I met several people at the open house yesterday who wanted stations in different places. The METRO people I talked to about told me that the DEIS deliberately showed the same thing as the preliminary results in January. But they know that there may be better locations, and they’re open to that. “The stations are on wheels,” one said.
So what stations might move, and why?
Let’s start at Montrose. For the Greenway and 59 options, METRO shows a split platform station (like those on Main) with one platform east of Montrose and one west. First Montrose Commons, the civic club that’s east of Montrose here, wants both platforms west of Montrose. That would also benefit the University of St. Thomas and the Menil, both of which are west of Montrose here.
The DEIS map:
The alternative:
Heading westwards, we reach Upper Kirby. There’s a new YMCA under development next to the park at Eastside, and there are a lot of office buildings there, too. That would be a good place for a station. To do that, the Kirby station — now west of Kirby — might need to scoot eastwards.
Changing the Eastside station would dovetail with changes to the Greenway Plaza stations. I proposed back in January that the Cummins option should have a station on Cummins, just south of Richmond. That would put it within an easy walk down a tree-lined street of several office buildings, the new apartments, Lakewood Church, and Edwards Cinema. The second Greenway station could be between Edloe and Buffalo Speedway. This would also allow the elimination of the Weslayan station, which would no longer be needed to serve the west end of Greenway Plaza and which seems to be opposed by the adjacent neighborhoods.
The DEIS map:
The alternative:
The Neartown, Upper Kirby, and Greenway Plaza areas have well-organized groups speaking up and working with METRO. That’s not the case, though, at the place that most needs better station locations: Gulfon. The DEIS shows that the densest and most transit-dependent place on the line is south of Westpark between Royalton and 59. There are no stations proposed there. There need to be. I suggest Chimney Rock and Fountainview.
The DEIS map:
The alternative:
There is time for these changes to happen, but not unlimited time. By October, stations may be close to finalized. The map may well look different depending in who gets their input in before then.
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