The Eureka Corridor: still up for grabs
In 1992, the Texas Department of Transportation bought a 28-mile rail line stretching from Katy to Downtown Houston. TxDOT was after the section outside of 610, which they then used (along with a lot of private property) to widen the Katy Freeway. The section inside 610 came as part of the package. Ever since, there’s been planning and speculation for what might happen to it. In 1993, a large portion of the corridor was added the the City of Houston’s bikeway plan as a hike and bike trail from the Heights to Downtown. METRO’s Inner Katy light rail line, approved by voters in 2003 and slated to be opened sometime after 2012, could use a section of it. And in late 2004, the Harris County Toll Road Authority considered buying the corridor. The tracks have long since been torn up. But nothing else has happened since the last freight train ran.
Now, as Rad Sallee notes, the METRO board is considering negotiating with TXDOT to buy the land. [UPDATE: METRO’s board did not vote today, but the agency is definitely considering the purchase.]
An abandoned transportation corridor is a valuable resource. It makes sense for an agency to buy it to preserve it for future use. That may be what METRO is intending.
But, as Rad notes, the purpose may be specific: commuter rail. To get a 290 commuter rail line Downtown, there are only a few options. The existing freight rail line — the Terminal Subdivision. which splits into two parts near Downtown — is congested, with no spare capacity for commuter rail. HGAC’s Commuter Rail Connectivity Study includes an elevated commuter rail line along the edge of I-10, but that would be expensive. The Eureka Corridor, by contrast, seems simple: it connects to the 290 line at Eureka Junction, and commuter trains wouldn’t need to cross the busy Terminal Subdivision to reach it. At the other end, it passes right by the Intermodal Center, with lots of room to build a connection. And there are no freight trains in between.
In other words, the Eureka Corridor would be perfect for commuter rail — if it didn’t happen to run right through two residential neighborhoods, the First Ward and the Heights. It’s unlikely those places would look kindly on the idea of new. large, diesel-powered trains through their neighborhoods (especially since the First Ward already has two freight rail line). And this would be suburban service, which means it likely wouldn’t stop between Northwest Mall and Downtown. These neighborhoods would get the impacts but none of the benefits. In fact, using the corridor for commuter rail would prevent its use for light rail or streetcar service that actually would benefit these neighborhoods.
There is a possibility here for a bigger, more beneficial solution, one that combines urban transit, suburban trains, bikes, and freight rail in a way that not only adds modes of transportation but reduces the impacts of what is already there. METRO and the city and Union Pacific and the Gulf Coast Freight Rail District could work together and consider the corridor as a whole, and the neighborhoods could end up better off.
We’ll see what happens. But whoever ends up owning this corridor, and whatever it’s used for, those neighborhoods need to be part of the discussion.