Silver Line kicks off rapid bus era
For riders, it means a much faster trip with fewer stops and less competing with traffic
T.J. Buttons is used to a bus ride in Houston giving him plenty of time to check his phone. On that front, Houston’s first bus rapid transit route failed miserably.
“It’s so fast,” Buttons said as he bumped along on opening day
Sunday of the Silver Line, operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority through Uptown.
More than four years of work — some a source of frustration for critics who called the project unnecessary along the car-centric corridor — preceded the opening, muted by the pandemic’s constraints on travel in the area. Nonetheless, officials and transit supporters said the opening was cause for celebration, and an indication of the changes coming as Metro plots 75 more miles of bus rapid transit in the region.
For Buttons and other riders, it means a much faster trip than the Route 33 buses it replaces along Post Oak, with fewer stops and less competing with traffic.
“It’s really like the train,” Buttons said.
That’s exactly what officials wanted with the project designed by Metro and the Uptown Houston
Management District, which rebuilt the street and sidewalks as part of a $192.5 million project. Fourteen 60-foot buses will operate the route, traveling along an elevated busway along Loop 610 and then in dedicated transit lanes in the center of Post Oak.
The Silver Line operates between the Northwest Transit Center near Interstate 10 and Loop 610 through Uptown mostly along Post Oak to the new Westpark Lower Uptown Transit Cen
ter south of Interstate 69 near Bellaire. Fifteen bus routes connect directly to the service, via the two transit centers.
Metro and Uptown officials have said the buses will deliver service similar to light rail with boardings via platforms in the middle of the street. Trips will be faster, transit officials said, because the buses are not inching along in regular traffic. Compared to Houston’s light rail system, the buses might outpace trains because traffic is not in front of them or turning from the same lanes, improving both speed of trips and safety.
“If we don’t have shared left turn lanes, that knocks a lot of our issues out,” said Andrew Skabowski, chief operations officer for Metro.
Illegal left turns are a major cause of collisions along the light rail lines, something transit officials are hoping to avoid with the Silver Line. Fresh red paint denotes the lanes are for buses only, an extra clue to drivers to stay out of the way. Skabowki said traffic signals at intersections were also designed so the green light for the bus was not located with the traffic signal for most traffic to avoid confusion about who should proceed.
Timing of traffic signals, meanwhile, could be a challenge as buses begin to roll and new technologies tying bus location to light changes are deployed for the first time. Buses are equipped with GPS systems that communicate with signals constantly so the light changes are made in expectation of when buses will arrive at certain intersections.
“It knows not only the bus coming, but how fast the bus is coming,” Skabowski said, noting the system is much more dynamic than Metro uses to speed bus trips.
If a signal knows a bus needs an extra five or 10 seconds to make a green light, it can hold the signal a little longer so the bus does not have to stop, or can ready the red light to change when it receives a signal that the bus approach is 30 or 45 seconds away.
Getting the timing right in Uptown, especially at key intersections such as Richmond, is critical to not having the buses obstruct others. In downtown Houston, shortly after the Green and Purple lines opened in 2015, Houston Public Works and Metro spent months tweaking the traffic signal timing to find the right routine.
Skabowski said if there is a silver lining to opening the Silver Line during a pandemic, it is that lower traffic demand because of fewer commutes and shopping trips gives officials a grace period to get things right.
“We still don’t have normal conditions, so that gives us a little window to get there,” he said. “We have the perfect time period to tweak it.”
Drivers already have a lot of the routine down after months of testing. Johnny Finley said the seemingly tight lane is easy to maneuver once you get a good sense of the vehicle. After some back-and-forth as part of the design, officials opted to paint a yellow line which drivers use to line up with the platforms where passengers enter and exit.
The pandemic, however, will also dent use. Metro since March has been consistently carrying about half as many riders as normal, though use has increased slightly since June. Especially as office workers remain home, that could lower use of the Silver Line, which connects with three parkand-ride routes.
Bumpy ride
Opening of the line follows four years of contentious, costly and congestion-inducing construction along one of the region’s premier streets. Critics of the project challenged the management district and Metro in court, then lambasted the sluggish construction for hurting local businesses.
The work was not without stumbles. Utility relocation, especially around Westheimer, took longer than expected as hopes of an early 2018 opening faded. Officials then said construction would finish by the end of 2018, before pushing back opening day even further. project a mistake. Robert Thornberry, 50, said from the beginning of construction he has believed the project is “a disaster” and unnecessary. Thornberry, who lives near Post Oak in a condominium, said he does not believe there is demand for high-capacity transit in the area.
“You never see anyone on the buses,” he said.
Better service, faster
Part of that, riders said, is the quality of service, something the Silver Line dramatically upgrades. Many said the buses feel more like rail cars, along with plenty of room to sit or stand and USB charging stations at many seats. Unlike buses, riders bring their bikes with them on the bus, similar to light rail.
Less time on the bus, however, might be its best selling point, many said.
“This is much faster,” said Craig Johnson, 27, who works at the Grand Lux Cafe near Post Oak and Westheimer. “It is probably a lot better that they didn’t mix it with traffic.”
Though the line’s Sunday opening saw only a smattering of riders — gaggles of transit fans and cyclists interested in checking out Uptown were among the biggest crowds — it is expected to cater to many more workers starting Monday, when dozens of bus routes tie into the line.
The Silver Line is the first of many bus rapid transit projects planned in Houston, following voter approval last year of Metro’s $7.5 billion long-range plan. Plans call for new rapid transit routes from the Northwest Transit Center to downtown Houston via Interstate 10, from downtown to Bush Intercontinental Airport via Interstate 45 and a lengthy route from the Tidwell area, through downtown, Midtown, Greenway Plaza and eventually to Westchase.
Construction of the I-10 dedicated bus lanes could start in 2023, while other projects are not set yet. Metro officials — still facing uncertainty as they assess COVID’s effects on operational costs and the sales tax revenue that funds most of Metro’s local spending — are scheduled in the next three months to hire engineering and planning firms to begin designs on parts of the rapid transit project replacing the University Line light rail from downtown to Westpark.
By the end of 2018, Uptown and Metro were resetting expectations again, saying while the road would be back in place buses would not roll until early 2020, and even then along detoured routes to unfinished transit centers.
Schedules slipped again as some work was redone to repair an issue with the lanes being too narrow in places and then when COVID kept the buses parked as Metro delayed required road testing and practice for drivers.
The delays allowed much of that work to catch up, including south of Richmond where the rebuild of the Interstate 69 and Loop 610 interchange threatened to delay the project for months.
Between construction, delays and various setbacks, some have called the