The Houston Intermodal Transit Center (also known as Burnett Plaza) was a planned hub for local, commuter, and intercity transit in

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(

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). The site is located adjacent to the campus of the

University of Houston–Downtown The University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) is a public university in Houston, Texas. It is part of the University of Houston System and has a campus that spans in Downtown Houston with a satellite location, UHD-Northwest in Harris County. Fo ...

(UHD). The center would have eventually replaced the Houston

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station, as well as various bus terminals throughout the city such as Greyhound Lines.

Design

The transit center was designed by EE&K. The plan for the structure would have been a modern glass and steel building surrounding a "great space". Because the facility would have been built over the tracks, one of the dominant features would have been a grand staircase. The center was designed as a multi-level station with heavy rail (commuter,

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freight) running under a large public space with light rail running via an elevated structure. Main Street would have been split into Upper Main Street, with access to the station at the level of the public space in a loop, and Lower Main Street, which would have gone underneath the entire station and continued on as North Main Street.

Cancellation

Following METRO's 2010 annual audit, the agency decided to cancel the project as part of a

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168 million write-down of worthless or non-existent assets. The value of the land

21 million was to be recorded separately as a remaining asset. A smaller light rail station and

bus terminal A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is l ...

, named Burnett Transit Center, opened in 2013 on the southeast corner of Main and Burnett.

References

{{Houston METRORail METRORail stations Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United States