Westpark: how would it work?
I posted yesterday about the politics of rail on Westpark. But what about the technical aspects? I’m going to confine this discussion to west of Shepherd. Of course, Westpark ends at Kirby, but METRO owns intact right-of-way as far as Shepherd. Past there, the old railroad right-of-way gets narrower and closer to the freeway and is largely owned by Centerpoint Energy. A “Westpark” alignment east of Shepherd is considerably more complicated, so I’ll leave that to another day.
In many ways, an abandoned railroad right-of-way is a perfect place to build a light rail line. But that doesn’t hold true is that right-of-way parallels a busy street. That’s because of one key problem: If signal timing is properly coordinated, a light rail line in the center of a street will not disrupt traffic at intersections. A light rail train in the center of street “A” where it crosses street “B” will cross “B” while traffic on “A” has a green light. That means traffic on “A” can go straight or right but not left, and traffic on “B” can turn right. That’s exactly the same thing that happens while “A” has a green light without a train around. The trains fit right into the regular signal cycle.
But if the rail line is on one side of “A”, we have to restrict two right turns while trains pass. That’s a safety problem, since people aren’t used to being told not to turn right, especially by a traffic light. Moreover, it tends to back up traffic on both streets. And if there’s a short space (maybe 20 feet) between the tracks and the street, that leaves a short segment of street where cars can be “trapped” between a red light and a crossing gate.
This isn’t a major issue on a lightly traveled street. But it’s a big problem when the cross street is busy. Unfortunately, the Westpark right-of-way not only crosses several very busy north-south streets but crosses them just a short block away so the 59 frontage roads, so those intersections are problematic already, with northbound traffic from a red light on 59 backing up across Westpark. Worse yet, the right-of-way crosses Edloe on a diagonal (that’s the picture above, looking straight down the METRO right-of-way), which would means that ONLY turns (two rights, two lefts) could be permitted while a train crossed.
Of course, there’s a solution to every problem. That solution, as usual, is money. Dallas has the same problem multiple times on their North Central Expressway line, and they solved it by elevating the tracks over the intersection on short overpasses.
Thus, a workable Westpark alignment might look like this:
- elevated over Greenbriar/Shepherd (with an elevated station)
- at grade briefly
- elevated over Kirby (with an elevated station)
- at grade across Wakeforest and a business driveway (with crossing gates)
- elevated across Buffalo Speedway, Edloe, Weslayan and multiple driveways (with 2 elevated stations)
- at grade briefly
- elevated across the Union Pacific Railroad
- at grade across Newcastle and Loop Central (with crossing gates and a station at grade)
- depressed under the 610 frontage roads (there’s not enough clearance under 610 to be elevated)
- elevated across South Rice, Royalton Chimney Rock, and Fountainview (with 1 or 2 elevated stations)
- at grade across Renwick (with crossing gates)
- depressed under the 59 frontage roads
- station at grade at the Hillcroft TC
Elevated track costs at least twice as much as track at grade –even in a street — and elevated stations cost several times as much as at grade stations. So, as I said yesterday, federal cost-effectiveness requirements loom.
To make things worse, one of these elevated segments — the one over Edloe and Weslayan — is directly adjacent to houses, and another –Greenbriar/Shepherd — is close to a residential area. Those neighborhoods — which are already mobilized against rail on Westpark — would probably demand that the track be depressed, not elevated. That’s more expensive still.
Given that we spend the money, we end up with a well-engineered rail line that doesn’t cause traffic problems or tower over people’s back yards. But we’re still not getting as much ridership as we would on Richmond. In other words, we’re paying more money for a less useful rail line.
Westpark is an option. That’s why METRO is studying it. But it’s not the easy way out, either politically or technically. And we haven’t even talked about what to do east of Shepherd. That’s next.