PUBLIC TRANSIT: High demand for service puts the squeeze on Metro
Overloaded Metro rail and bus service struggled to carry eager Astros fans to Friday’s World Series parade and celebration downtown, causing long lines at train stops that left some revelers tardy for the party.
Thousands of orange-andblue adorned celebrants trying to use free public transit to get to the 2 p.m. parade waited several hours to catch a ride at packed stations. Some lines stretched for blocks, and scores of folks hadn’t been whisked to the route by the time the processional began.
Meanwhile, snarled traffic and transportation mayhem rerouted public transit service, leaving riders on the edge of the action, officials confirmed.
Decked out in their Astros best, Andre Brooks, 29, and his wife, Latoya, 33, were among those caught in the turmoil.
Hoping to board the train at the Ensemble/HCC station on the south side of downtown, they were faced with a wall of people each time a train’s double doors opened.
There was no room, but plen-
ty of time to reminisce. The Houston natives always believed their team would win a championship one day.
“It was going to happen eventually,” Andre Brooks said. “It had to.”
Moments later, another packed train paused at the platform. The doors didn’t even open.
Metro deployed 67 trains — each with 250-person capacity — to service the celebration, a capacity of 17,000 at any one time. A last-minute, two-block extension to the Astros parade route Friday morning, however, left officials scrambling to adjust service around the core of downtown.
“Staff added cars, modified routes and worked diligently to manage traffic and also navigated bus lanes to get people to their destinations,” Metro spokeswoman Laura Whitley said.
Still, trains on the red line stopped traveling in the center of the action by midday. At several points in the day, rail service on the purple and green lines was suspended because of heavy foot traffic.
Fans ended up squeezing into the available trains, where possible, pressed like sardines inside only to be dropped blocks away from the parade route.
Metro rides were free Friday in celebration of the Astros’ first world championship in the organization’s 56-year history. Ridership numbers weren’t available, but Metro officials believe Friday was one of the busiest days ever for downtown public transit traffic.
That’s significant because downtown ridership has been hit in the past year by layoffs at area businesses. Shell moving its headquarters to the Energy Corridor in west Houston ended 600 daily park-andride round trips. And average park-and-ride traffic on Fridays typically falls by 20 percent from other weekdays, Whitley said.
Average weekday boardings for Metro’s local network of rail, bus and park and ride in November 2016 hovered around 280,000.
The Astros celebration could exceed that weekday number just on downtown traffic.
MetroRail may also have hit a home run by breaking its one-day ridership record.
During this year’s preSuper Bowl festivities in early February, unprecedented traffic claimed three of the top five rail ridership slots. On Feb. 4, the Saturday before the big game, MetroRail hit 109,417 boardings, the top traffic day previously recorded.
Frank and Kendra Guzman had taken the day off from their jobs and left Katy for downtown Houston shortly before noon Friday.
When they couldn’t squeeze themselves and 14-month-old Gabriel on any of the first three packed Metro trains that arrived at their stop, the couple realized that missing the parade was a strong possibility.
They arrived just in time to scarcely caught a glimpse of the Astros taking the stage outside City Hall during a post-parade rally.
Kendra Guzman wasn’t fazed.
“We just wanted to come down and see everything. We wanted to come get in the atmosphere,” she said. “I’m just happy our city won a championship and everybody’s down here partying in peace. That’s just awesome.”
As bits of confetti continued to float from tree limbs downtown and a father played catch with his two sons next to the City Hall reflection pool, Kendra Guzman exuberantly narrated a video describing how they enjoyed the festivities.
“I knew it was going to happen because they have good friendship on the team and you can feel the chemistry between all of them,” Frank Guzman said. “At the end of the day, if you have a good relationship with everybody else, it’s going to work out best for you. That’s why it really worked this time.”
As the party wound down, people began to clear out of downtown and public transit slowly returned to normal. By 6 p.m., Whitley promised that Metro would finish the job.
“We will get everyone home regardless of how long it takes,” she said, adding that Friday’s event “demonstrates the need for continued investment in high-quality public transit across the greater Houston area.”