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Old 04-14-2010, 10:42 AM
 
Location: Inner Loop
789 posts, read 1,523,880 times
Reputation: 353

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Finally someone agrees with me on the rapid transit thing. It doesn't need to be going along with the traffic we want to avoid. It needs to go under, or as I said before, "over it"!

Last edited by Kenpar; 04-14-2010 at 10:42 AM.. Reason: correction
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Old 04-14-2010, 11:14 AM
 
1,106 posts, read 2,650,363 times
Reputation: 957
so, did you guys know that long ago the houston area had street cars running all over the place? supposedly the old rails are still under the streets in the heights area.

Houston Streetcars Home Page

They even went from Houston to Galveston. Where the hell is the public transport between the two these days? Greyhound will cost like $30 just to get from downtown to Galveston and as far as I know there are no shuttles across 45. I think Galveston could become better in terms of entertainment if it was easier to get to and from Houston via public transport. After all, Galveston is a lot more walkable than Houston. Don't know what they'd do about the look of the water, though.
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Old 04-14-2010, 11:54 AM
 
Location: Pearland, TX
3,333 posts, read 9,153,874 times
Reputation: 2341
Underground? Because the water table is too high in Houston, it's a swamp yaknow. You can't even build a basement here without paying out the nose for permits and structure.

Just sayin'...

Ronnie
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Old 04-14-2010, 12:23 PM
 
Location: Austin/Houston
2,930 posts, read 5,255,713 times
Reputation: 2266
Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonRonnie View Post
Underground? Because the water table is too high in Houston, it's a swamp yaknow. You can't even build a basement here without paying out the nose for permits and structure.

Just sayin'...

Ronnie
Well i'm jus sayin, like the O/P said Amsterdam is below sea level and they can make it work for them. Houston has an advantage of being 50 miles inland. Also, the water table didn't stop Houston from building one of the largest tunnel systems in the country.

I'm not talking at you but in general, People need to stop with the lame excuses because anyone who takes longer than 5 seconds to really think about it will see that it is B/S.
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Old 04-14-2010, 12:38 PM
 
Location: Pearland, TX
3,333 posts, read 9,153,874 times
Reputation: 2341
Quote:
Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston) View Post
Well i'm jus sayin, like the O/P said Amsterdam is below sea level and they can make it work for them. Houston has an advantage of being 50 miles inland. Also, the water table didn't stop Houston from building one of the largest tunnel systems in the country.

I'm not talking at you but in general, People need to stop with the lame excuses because anyone who takes longer than 5 seconds to really think about it will see that it is B/S.
I understand what you're saying, but Amsterdam was once ocean floor, unlike Houston which is basically a morass. The ground structure is totally different.

End of story.
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Old 04-14-2010, 12:44 PM
 
Location: ATX-HOU
10,216 posts, read 8,098,568 times
Reputation: 2037
Quote:
Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston) View Post
Well i'm jus sayin, like the O/P said Amsterdam is below sea level and they can make it work for them. Houston has an advantage of being 50 miles inland. Also, the water table didn't stop Houston from building one of the largest tunnel systems in the country.

I'm not talking at you but in general, People need to stop with the lame excuses because anyone who takes longer than 5 seconds to really think about it will see that it is B/S.
Its a cost issue here in Houston. A completely underground rail wouldn't be economically feasible here. I am all for having small sections of the LRT underground but that would significantly raise the costs.
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Old 04-14-2010, 12:47 PM
 
1,474 posts, read 4,986,272 times
Reputation: 557
Quote:
Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston) View Post
Well i'm jus sayin, like the O/P said Amsterdam is below sea level and they can make it work for them. Houston has an advantage of being 50 miles inland. Also, the water table didn't stop Houston from building one of the largest tunnel systems in the country.

I'm not talking at you but in general, People need to stop with the lame excuses because anyone who takes longer than 5 seconds to really think about it will see that it is B/S.
Houstonians are the kings of lame excuses. check out the guys who 'enjoy the views' on the freeway. lame
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Old 04-15-2010, 12:21 AM
 
Location: On the Rails in Northern NJ
12,380 posts, read 26,802,008 times
Reputation: 4580
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveArmy View Post
Houstonians are the kings of lame excuses. check out the guys who 'enjoy the views' on the freeway. lame
I agree , but the Oil kings still run the city. In-till they stop Houston will never have as great a system as Dallas's.... Street running Light Rail isn't that dangerous , but the way its designed in Houston makes it dangerous. Several states have systems that have street running light rail and you don't see that many accidents if any. Portland , Jersey City , Philly , Newark , Camden , Boston , San Fran , LA , Seattle.
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Old 04-15-2010, 01:13 AM
 
Location: ✶✶✶✶
15,218 posts, read 30,483,237 times
Reputation: 10851
The oil industry has nothing to do with this. If it did, Dallas wouldn't have its LRT system either. Nor would, say, Calgary.

The main problem with the rail as it is isn't the rail itself. It's the drivers. Those crashes? Running red lights and making illegal left turns at intersections where there were no left turns allowed long before the rail ever came through. My only problem with it is those crashes can damage the trains, because in every other regard those morons are getting precisely what they deserve.
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Old 04-15-2010, 07:09 AM
 
Location: classified
1,679 posts, read 3,729,777 times
Reputation: 1561
Two reasons.

First you have a combination of Clay Soil and a high water table which causes the cost of boring a tunnel to increase dramaticaly enough to make tunneling underground unfeasible.

Second is back in 2001, Tom Delay when he was a represenative prevented Metro from recieving any federal funds for construction of the current light rail line. As a result it was built as cheaply as possible using public streets as right of way since the city had to pay for everything.
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