The METRORapid Silver Line is a bus rapid transit line in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, Texas operated by

METRO Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...

. Opened August 23, 2020, the line connects the Uptown area of Houston, with dedicated lanes on Post Oak Boulevard. It serves ten stations in Uptown, with terminus at Westpark/Lower Uptown Transit Center and the Northwest Transit Center. On internal METRO documents, the METRORapid Silver Line is designated as Route 433. The line was originally planned as a extension of the

METRORail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

light rail network under the name Uptown/Gold Line. Due to lack of funds, it was announced in early 2013 that the line would be constructed initially as a bus rapid transit line using three-door buses. The design features the ability to convert the line to light rail in the future. The Silver Line is the first segment of a planned 75 mile network of bus rapid transit service in Houston, branded as

METRORapid MetroRapid is an express bus system in Tampa, Florida. Operated by Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, it incorporates some bus rapid transit features. Currently, there is only one line in operation, the North-South line, with an East-West line i ...

Route

The Silver Line runs between Westpark/Lower Uptown Transit Center, a park and ride facility located on Westpark Drive near the intersection of the Southwest Freeway (I-69/US 59) &

West Loop The Near West Side, one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, is on the West Side, west of the Chicago River and adjacent to the Loop. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started on the Near West Side. Waves of immigration shaped the history of t ...

(I-610), and Northwest Transit Center, located at Katy Road on the north side of the I-10 interchange. This corridor was previously served by Route 33. Silver Line buses serve eight stations via bus-only lanes in the median of Post Oak Boulevard through the Uptown area. These lanes connect to the Northwest Transit Center with an elevated two-lane busway along the West Loop portion of Interstate 610.

History

Following a statement in 2010 by Houston's mayor,

Annise Parker Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and city controller fro ...

, construction will commence at a time when funding can be secured for this line. Furthermore, due to the lack of infrastructure upgrades promised by the Uptown Management District, METRO will hold off on anything related to the line until a deal is arranged. The light rail project was repeatedly blocked by Congressman

John Culberson John Abney Culberson (born August 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2019. A Republican, he served in in large portions of western Houston and surrounding Har ...

, based on concerns from constituents on Richmond Avenue. It was downgraded to a $177.5 million bus rapid transit project with dedicated lanes in 2013, under a plan promoted by Uptown developers to receive improved transit service sooner than the estimated 2025 arrival of light rail. Construction began in 2016 with the line's opening planned for 2018. However, the project faced several delays before service began in 2020.

Stations

The following is a list of Silver Line Stations, listed in order from north to south. Frequent bus service bolded.

Expansion

Future expansion would include a extension northbound to Northwest Mall (future Texas Central Railway station), as well as a westward expansion to the Hillcroft Transit Center.

References

External links

METRO Official WebsiteGo METRORail
{{USBRT METRORail Proposed railway lines in Texas Bus rapid transit in Texas 2020 in Texas Transport infrastructure completed in 2020