Any Chance of New Houston Station?

[Thomas]

Has there any talk on a new/remodeled Amtrak station in Houston? I know Metro had a plan for the Burnett Intermodal Center that was scrapped due to lack of funding. Could a scaled down version of that still happen, where there can be an Amtrak platform/building below the light-rail station under construction?

 

[stntylr]

Short answer, no.

The only way a new station gets built in Houston is if a high speed rail line is built and I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

 

[gn2276]

Nothing without the state comming up with the funding.

 

[Gratt]

Sadly, no.

And to be honest as much as I find the Houston station to be an embarrassment it is adequate for 6 trains a week and the twice daily bus service it currently sees.

In the future if the Houston area decides to start a commuter rail system, or by some miracle HSR comes to Texas, then their will be serious talk of a new station.

Unfortunately, the approval of the anti-rail metro ballot two weeks ago makes that task even harder.

 

[cirdan]

Sadly, no.

And to be honest as much as I find the Houston station to be an embarrassment it is adequate for 6 trains a week and the twice daily bus service it currently sees.

In the future if the Houston area decides to start a commuter rail system, or by some miracle HSR comes to Texas, then their will be serious talk of a new station.

Unfortunately, the approval of the anti-rail metro ballot two weeks ago makes that task even harder.

On the other hand, Houston is one of the fastest growing metro areas, not just in Texas but in the entire US.

And that growth is likely to continue for a very long time to come.

You can't have a massive population and no rail transit. It doesn't work.

It can only be a question of time that the prevailing opinion will come around and anti-rail decisons revisited.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Not gonna happen anytime soon. There won't be any new trains because Texas hates trains. No trains, no station. Current SL better go daily at least. It would be a miracle to see more transit buses over there.

 

[henryj]

Not gonna happen anytime soon. There won't be any new trains because Texas hates trains. No trains, no station. Current SL better go daily at least. It would be a miracle to see more transit buses over there.

Texas doesn't 'hate trains', they just don't have much experience with rail travel as most of the passenger trains in this state disapeared before Amtrak. SWA came along and began serving all the major population centers in the state so well that even Greyhound can't compete with it. It's just hard to beat hourly service between Houston and Dallas for example with a couple of four hour train rides a day that cost more than flying and still don't even break even much less make any money. Distances in Texas are in most cases beyond what is feasible for passenger rail. I believe that eventually faster passenger rail will be feasible in Texas because of the increased density of it's population and the State DOT is beginning to think about it. But for right now we just need to try and keep what little we have.

Houston has discussed a new passenger station in conjunction with adding commuter rail. The latest being thrown around is using the downtown post office building and site for a passenger or intermodal station. The Post Office is moving out of it and it sits where the original Southern Pacific passenger depot was sited and is right next to the Amtrak depot. So far nothing has come of these discussions mainly because we only have six trains a day that come through here. When they talk about commuter rail they propose ending it at the light rail stations and transferring passengers there to access downtown. Who dreams this stuff up?