Eglinton and Mt Pleasant Stations Open House - October 2017
Purple line July 2011
1. Big Step in New Southeast Light Rail
Expansion
Metro's new Southeast Light Rail line expansion is taking a big
step, with the first installation of actual track set for later this
month. As Jack Williams reports — the project is helping Houston's
light rail system grow-up a little bit.
By: Jack Williams, July 05th, 2011 05:27 PM
"Today marks another milestone in the expansion of Houston's light rail system."
Standing just a few feet away from workers welding steel rail near a section of East End right-of-
way, David Couch, Metro's Sr. VP for capital programs, says it's taken a long time to get to this
point, actually putting rail in the ground.
"Up until now, it has been principally utilities and road work. This is something that changes it
from a character that had principally appeared as a road project or a utility project into
something that actually turns it into a rail system."
Workers are welding 80-foot sections of rail together to make longer, 480-foot lengths that will
be laid into the cement rail bed that's been prepared.
"This is a little over a six-mile extension and it will basically provide a two-line system for
Houston in that we currently have the north-south line on Main Street. This will then give us a
true light rail system that will operate in two directions and be able to bring individuals into the
inner city."
The Southeast line will start in the downtown area at Bagby, will swing into the East End, then
across 45, along the University of Houston campus and eventually terminate at Griggs. Metro's
Jose Enriquez is the program manager for the Southeast Corridor. He knows the construction
chaos is hard to deal with for some residents and businesses.
"They're anxious to see the end result and we hear that all the time, let's get the train going. But
we have to go through all this first. We do have to relocate the utilities, build a new road where
it's required, construct the guide-way. It's a step by step process and it take a long time."
The Southeast line, along with several other lines under construction right now, are expected to
be complete by early 2014.
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"What we see right now is just
the first expansion part and
somewhere down in the future
you're going to see expansions
that kind of feed off of this. But
you have to get outside the
inner-city area in order to
accommodate some of the
further reaching rail projects.
What I mean by that is you're
going to have commuter rail and
all these other things that you
hear about and that will tie-in to
some of the systems that we're
putting in today."
Metro expects 95-hundred riders
per day when the Southeast line
is complete. The overall expansion, which includes the North, East End, Uptown and University
lines, could include close to 40 miles of track.
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