HOUSTON – Riders who depend on Houston’s METRORail Red Line say their commutes have doubled, or even tripled, since the city adjusted traffic signals in downtown and midtown earlier this month.
METRO spokesperson Anna Carpenter said the change impacted their system beginning on September 20.
John LeBlanc rides the Red Line twice a week to get to work. He said what used to be a quick trip has turned into a time-consuming commute.
“A 15-minute ride turning into 45 minutes to an hour, both ways, it is frustrating,” LeBlanc said. "
KPRC 2 rode along with LeBlanc to see the impact firsthand. The ride that typically took about 15 minutes stretched to 35 minutes.
Peter Eccles, the Director of Policy and Planning for Link Houston, says the changes are hurting both riders and operators.
Eccles also takes the METRORail Red Line on a daily basis.
“The Red Line carries about 34,000 riders each weekday. With an average delay of around 10 minutes, if you multiplied that by all of the riders, that’s about 5,600 wasted hours each day of passengers’ time,” Eccles said. “The Metro red line took about 52 minutes end to end, ran a consistent schedule that allowed operators and ship supervisors to bake in breaks and rest time for operator schedules. This has thrown everything completely off."
5,600 hours equates to 233 days or 7 months and 20 days.
He added that the delays come with a financial toll as well.
“The Federal Transit Administration estimates that every additional minute that Metro has to run service costs them $7.50, that’s thousands of dollars each day,” Eccles said. “We can’t expect to grow ridership if we are actively making transit slower and less reliable.”
METRO spokesperson Anna Carpenter sent us the following statement:
“The traffic signal timing adjustments cover both the downtown and midtown grid. The adjustments made so far have brought improvements to our buses, curb2curb, and METROLift services. At the same time, we recognize there are opportunity areas in METRORail timing, and we are actively working to address them. We are getting closer to finding a balanced solution that is equitable for all commuters who share our roads.”
The city referred KPRC 2 to METRO and did not respond to our request for comment on when the traffic signal changes were made.
LeBlanc hopes he can return to his normal commute time soon.
“You all need to take care of these people that’s working here to build the city and keeping the city rolling,” said LeBlanc.