Coordinated planning on Harrisburg
Note: this is an April Fool’s blog post. The outcome described occurred only in an alternate universe where transportation agencies coordinate their planning. The problems are real; the solutions — for now — are not.
In October of 2007, METRO realized they had a problem. The Federal Railroad Administration has long permitted light rail tracks to intersect freight rail lines at grade only if the freight rail track is out of service while light rail is operating. But the East End Line alignment on Harrisburg crosses the East Belt freight rail line, and both the street and the railroad are at grade in this location. That was already an issue with BRT, since freight trains could delay transit service. It became a pressing problem, though, when the board voted to build the line as light rail. Now an over- or under- pass was absolutely required, and it would raise the cost of the line.
However, METRO wasn’t the only agency looking at this railroad crossing. The City of Houston had identified it as a problem as far back as the 1950s. Whenever a train passes, Harrisburg and the streets north of it are completely blocked, making people late for work, keeping kids from walking to Tijerina Elementary, and stranding fire trucks and ambulances. Harris County and Texas Department of Transportation studies identified a need for a grade crossing, and the newly formed Gulf Coast Freight Rail District named (pdf) it a recommended project.
The problem: black lines are freight rail; the East Belt, by far the busiest line on this map, runs from lower left to top right. Red “X”s are grade crossings. Green circles are grade separations where a road goes under or over the tracks.
The transit project provided the needed impetus to get things moving. A new underpass with two lanes, two tracks, sidewalks, and bike lanes would be built. METRO would pay a little less than half the cost, the county would cover most of the rest, the city would fund new sidewalks and bike paths leading to the bridge, and the Union Pacific Railroad would make contribute in recognition of its reduced maintenance costs. The problem was solved, and the entire neighborhood would benefit.
But then political leaders had a realization: Harrisburg wasn’t the only problem around here. Canal Street crossed the tracks at grade, too. So did the neighborhood streets north of Harrisburg, and closing them wasn’t feasible since that would split the neighborhood. The East Belt was a bottleneck for the railroad; getting rid of all those road crossings would make operations more flexible and eliminate car-train accidents that shut the line down. Also, just south of Harrisburg, the East Belt crosses another railroad line, the Galveston Sub, at grade. That limits the capacity of both lines, and it prevents the use of the Galveston Sub for commuter rail to Galveston.
So a new solution was proposed: more expensive at first, but cheaper in the long run, and much more comprehensive. The East Belt rail line would be placed in a trench (much like the Almeda Corridor) from I-45 to Navigation, replacing a dozen at-grade road crossings and one railroad crossing with bridges over the track. Because the tracks would be below grade, those bridges would not require ramps, minimizing impacts on the neighborhood. In fact, the sides of the trench would reduce noise. The neighborhood would be reconnected, street traffic would move better, emergency services would respond quicker, transit would be improved not just along Harrisburg but along the Gulf Freeway, and the railroad system would operate more efficiently, helping the port and local industries and thus the regional economy. And it would all be safer than before.
The solution: the green line is the new trench. The red line is light rail; the purple line is commuter rail.
Obviously, this was a more expensive project. But its benefits per dollar spent, to the local neighborhoods (which haven’t received their share of transportation funding for a long time) and to the entire region, far outweighed those of other projects like the Grand Parkway or the Trans-Texas Corridor. So, with political leadership from the mayor, city council, county judge, county commissioners, and local members of the legislature, funding was shifted. METRO, the Texas Department of Transportation, the city, the county, the port, and the railroad all participated, using the Freight Rail District as an umbrella implementing agency. And, in the end, solving multiple problems with one project proved to be far less expensive than solving them individually.
In the alternate universe, everyone posts their thoughts in our forums.