All done in silence, no notice and no transparency.
Light rail passengers are facing longer delays while taking Metro’s Red Line route through downtown after the city adjusted the timing of traffic lights.
Local officials have not responded to questions about the extent of the problem, and it’s unclear how long it will last. Some public transit users expressed their frustrations on social media as they documented MetroRail cars stopping at red lights more frequently instead of continuing through well-timed, extended green lights, like normal.
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Metro officials say they’re aware of the delays, and that they’re currently working with city officials to find a solution that balances the needs of both commuters on the road and public-transit riders.
“Our shared goal is to keep Houston moving so everyone can enjoy the streets we share,” Metro officials said in a statement.
Early Friday morning, Metro posted a recent update on its website, stating that riders should plan their trips for possible delays as the agency works toward a solution.
It’s unclear whether the issue affects the entire Red Line or only specific areas, but several online users have reported delays along Main Street. The traffic signal timing is managed and controlled by the city of Houston, according to Metro.
Mary Benton, a spokesperson for Mayor John Whitmire, and the city’s Public Works Department did not respond to requests for comment about the traffic-signal adjustments. Metro spokesperson Anna Carpenter referred questions to the city and said the agency doesn’t have access to which street lights were adjusted.
Carpenter later sent an email after the publication of this story stating that Metro is working with Houston Public Works on traffic management across all transit options.
The agency is preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the Texas Department of Transportation’s Interstate 45 realignment and reconstruction project, which includes service enhancements and adding more trains. The expansion has required them to adjust scheduling and timing.
The rail system uses “transit signal priority,” which enables minor adjustments to traffic signal timing and helps MetroRail move through intersections more efficiently.
Houston resident Marcus Strohm shared photos online of his travel frustrations on the Red Line. He said it stopped at two red lights before getting to the Downtown Transit Center, and then stopped at two more before heading to the Bell Station.
I took the embedded picture on Friday afternoon at the Ensemble/HCC station. It was extremely noticeable how much longer it took to get through downtown, as for the most part we were just going block to block. None of this makes any sense. The train has had priority signal timing since its inception in 2004 with no problems. There was no advance notice of it, and as you can see no one in any position to comment on what happened is saying anything. If this is here to stay and not a temporary screwup, it sure is going to make us all look like a city of buffoons for the World Baseball Classic and the FIFA World Cup next year.
What the Metro spokesbot is saying on Twitter is even more ludicrous, because there was no problem that needed to “find a solution that balances the needs of both commuters on our system and those on the road”. Even without someone messing around with this, you can’t go more than a couple of blocks east-west downtown without hitting a red light. I drove the carpool home from my daughter’s east-side-of-midtown high school for two years, believe me on this one. There was nothing to be gained by doing this. All that was accomplished was breaking something that had been working fine for 20 years. At least going by the comments in that thread, people are angry about this, and they should be. Undo whatever was done, right now, and be done with it.
During the work week, it’s been my observation that those lite-rail cars go back/forth mostly empty. It doesn’t make much sense to disrupt downtown vehicular traffic flow to expedite low ridership rail cars. The more often vehicular traffic is stopped and started contributes to downtown traffic jams. Perhaps Metro and the City could collaborate to identify high volume Metro rail ridership times/dates and then expedite rail traffic during those peak time periods. For example, rail ridership may be much higher during scheduled sporting events, parades, holiday events, concerts, political conventions, etc. Anyway, Metro and the City should be able to analyze available ridership data to determine when it makes the most sense to expedite lite-rail traffic thru the traffic lights.