More than 120,000 people work at the Texas Medical Center – many of whom commute from Sugar Land and the surrounding areas in Fort Bend County.
The Houston-Galveston Area Council is studying ways to help them get there faster through new public transportation options that could include a rapid transit bus system or light rail.
The Gulf Coast Rail District – a consortium of Houston-area counties and cities that works with both freight trains and public transportation across the region – approached the council to conduct a study of transportation options along the U.S. 90A corridor.
Thomas Gray, a principal transportation planner for the council, led the study. More than 900 residents responded to a survey conducted as part of the study.
“Mainly, people are concerned about congestion,” Gray said. “They’d like to see more public transportation options, but they’d also like just overall improvements to transportation on the corridor.”
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The study is expected to be complete by June. More information can be found on the council’s website.
I agree with the premise here, I would just like to point out that the idea of commuter rail into Fort Bend along US90A has been around for over two decades. Such a line was part of the 2003 Metro proposition; it wasn’t the highest-profile project on there, and it was more of a commitment to study it than to build it, but it was there. Just doing a basic search on my site, I’ve written about this since at least 2010. You’ll note in that post that the same H-GAC did a study on rail into Fort Bend back in 2004. Various facts on the ground have changed – Fort Bend is much more populous, the traffic is way worse, Metro is a far less reliable partner – but the need remains. As to what happens next, well, I’ll believe this when I see an actual plan, with funding and a firm ground-breaking date. Until then, happy studying.