Uptown Bus Project Dealt Major Blow
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Ridership projections for that controversial $200 Million Dollar Uptown Bus Project will be slashed.
Dolcefino Consulting has learned Metro already knows thousands of potential riders will be cut from the ridership claims made by Uptown.
Uptown has claimed 14,000 people would get on buses going in and out of Uptown by 2018, and used those same inflated numbers to convince city officials Post Oak Blvd needs to be torn up and widened for two exclusive bus lanes.
Metro is conducting a new study of ridership projections, but is already acknowledging the new numbers will be closer to reality; Fewer and slower buses, far less parking at transit centers, some routes no longer counted.
Documents obtained by Dolcefino Consulting spell out key changes.
- Parking at the Bellaire Uptown Transit Center will be cut by several hundred spaces. Only 11 not 14 buses will be providing Uptown Service.
- Buses will move slower than Uptown claimed. Transfer times from the Northwest Transit Center to Uptown buses will be doubled. That alone will make the trip by bus longer than claimed.
- Bus Frequency will be cut in half down Post Oak during much of the day. Instead of trips every 5 minutes during non-rush hours, Metro will recommend 12 minutes is more likely. Uptown suggested nearly half of all the riders taking the bus to Uptown would not be workers, but shoppers. News those shoppers might have to wait at bus stops in the heat for nearly 15 minutes may be a deal killer.
Metro agreed to study the Uptown numbers after Dolcefino Consulting proved one of the routes used in the projection had been discontinued months ago, taking at least 1,000 riders from the projection.
And today TXDOT confirmed the planned flyover from 610 to Uptown won’t be done in 2018. Uptown had claimed the flyover would bring thousands to Uptown in 2018. Metro should release the official results toward the end of summer.
“It is time for Houston City Council members to put the brakes on this project,” says Uptown Property Owners Association Spokesman Jim Scarborough. “These documents literally shred Uptown’s justification for this boondoggle.”
Uptown Ridership Model Assumptions_comparison_070815_2
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