Virus halts Post Oak bus lane tests.

Rapid-transit testing postponed due to stay-at -home order

Fourteen buses meant to ferry folks along Post Oak in a dedicated bus lane will stay in a Metro bus depot until after Harris County lifts its stay-at-home order, officials said this week.

With construction largely completed along Post Oak and Loop 610 for most of the route and Metropolitan Transit Authority ready for the finishing touches, the coronavirus crisis has parked the buses a bit longer than planned. Testing once projected to start April 1 now will wait until May — with no certainty about when it may start.

“I put a hold on that because of operator availability,” Metro CEO Tom Lambert said of the six-tonine-week testing period, noting the agency remains focused on keeping buses running during the COVID-19 response.

In the meantime, crews are putting the final touches on bus depots at both ends of the new project — the first bus rapid transit in the area offering train-like service in 60-foot buses through one of the most bustling parts of Houston.

Delaying the testing pushes back the day Metro can open the service to riders, potentially moving a July debut back a few days or weeks. Officials will not know how much until they get past the pandemic.

“I think by then we will have a sense of where are the next steps,” Lambert said.

The bus-only route runs from a new transit center along Westpark, through the underpass shared with the Loop 610 southbound frontage road, then Post Oak north to Loop 610 — through the heart of Uptown’s commercial and office corridor. From there, buses will travel up onto a dedicated busway parallel to Loop 610 to North Post Oak and eventually into Metro’s Northwest Transit Center, which also is being rebuilt.

Transit officials must operate the system for an initial period to make sure all of the buses can navigate the route and drivers learn the techniques for handling turns and entrances to the bus-only lanes. Making sure the buses can pass safely must happen long before riders hop aboard, which some believe could pose a challenge for bus operators along Post Oak.

“That lane looks really tight,” said Metro board member Troi Taylor, the son of a former Metro driver. “I know the bus fits, but any kind of inattention and that bus can be up on the curb pretty quick.”

The hiccup in testing is the latest for the project, once projected to open by 2017. Most of the $192.5 million project is managed and

funded by the Uptown Houston District, with about $121.5 million of the cost related to utility, sidewalk and bus lane work along Post Oak. As work lagged along the street, businesses complained the construction — which many opposed before it even began — curtailed sales.

A jumble of other projects associated with the work faced their own challenges, including delays to the $58 million busway along Loop 610 — overseen by the Texas Department of Transportation — that pushed completion from the end of 2019 to March 30.

Most of the work is completed. TxDOT’s busway is ready for testing and only street work at Richmond and Post Oak remains along most of the route — along with construction of the Richmond bus rapid transit stop.

Construction also continues on the two ends of the project, where Uptown is readying the new transit center along Westpark and Metro plans to have the entrance and its rebuilt Northwest Transit Center ready by December, said Roberto Trevino, the agency’s executive vice president for planning, engineering and construction.

Transit officials originally had planned to have the transit center work, estimated at $34 million and not included in the Uptown project totals, trail the rapid bus service.

By the time buses start rolling the entire route between the transit hubs, Trevino said he anticipates work along North Post Oak to be finished for the bus lane, though work on the automobile lanes along the bridge could take longer.

As most of the parking and transit stops are rebuilt, workers erected temporary stops and platforms for buses that use the hub — including, eventually, the rapid transit vehicles.

When completed, the transit center will have 22 bus bays — compared to 12 previously — including two for the rapid bus service. Other upgrades include additional parking, a bike path into the transit center and a Metro store where people can get transit information and buy bus passes.

In upcoming transit plans, the Northwest Transit Center will become an even larger hub for Metro, Trevino said, where local routes, commuter buses and two rapid transit routes — Post Oak and a planned Interstate 10 route to downtown — converge.

“We’re in a good spot,” Trevino said. “It all works together so when the service is ready we have everything in place.”