Metro says it got all it wanted and then some in a transportation bill Congress passed Friday, including authorization for at least $245 million toward its revised transit plan featuring rail and guided busways.
That's a huge turnaround since the previous bill, when legislation backed by local congressional leaders blocked the Metropolitan Transit Authority from using federal money for any rail project.
But in June the ice finally broke.
Mayor Bill White and Metro officials announced that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who previously had blocked rail funding, and another rail critic, U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, had agreed to help the agency obtain $1 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years.
The bill passed Friday also gives Metro credit toward federal matching money for $324 million already spent on its Main Street light rail line, which was built without federal assistance.
On Friday, the mayor and Metro leaders had nothing but praise for DeLay's work in helping get the agency back on track.
In a statement headed "Promises made, promises kept," Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said DeLay and others in Congress "kept their commitments and ushered in a new era of cooperation and support."
White echoed the theme. "From Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to Majority Leader Tom DeLay and on, our entire congressional delegation has stepped up to move us forward," he said.
"There's more than we had asked for," White said. "We requested the members of the House and Senate to fight for Houston, to get the maximum amount of money we could. We have people who can, every year, make sure that ... Congress is able to disburse the money."
Culberson and Hutchison sit on congressional committees responsible for doling out federal transportation dollars.
Amid the jubilation, however, spokesmen for Metro, DeLay and Culberson emphasized that the bill, which covers the remaining four years of the 2004-09 transportation funding cycle, does not actually guarantee money for Metro. The agency still must win Federal Transit Administration approval of its projects and compete with other cities for annual appropriations. But the authorization, they said, shows strong support from Congress, which should increase Metro's clout with the FTA and make it easier to sell bonds for the agency's local match of the federal dollars.
A 'vote of confidence'
Smalley and the congressional spokesmen said the $245 million authorization does not set any limit on how many federal dollars Metro can obtain and should be viewed as a "vote of confidence" by Congress.
Smalley said it is impossible to break down the sum among light rail, commuter rail, bus rapid transit and other buses, or to determine how much will go to each proposed transit corridor. Congress authorized the money for Metro Solutions as a whole, a plan that includes all these transit elements. The actual shares will depend on annual appropriations and FTA grants, he said.
Buses may lead to more rail
The bill also says Metro may carry out its plan to temporarily substitute bus rapid transit in four of its proposed light rail corridors. Metro would construct railbeds but initially operate train-like buses on them until ridership increases enough to justify a shift to rail.The revised Metro Solutions plan calls for bus rapid transit in a North corridor from downtown to Northline Mall, a Harrisburg corridor through the East End, a Southeast Corridor through the Third Ward and an Uptown corridor from the Northwest Transit Center to near the Galleria.
Light rail is intended for the University corridor, from the University of Houston central campus to Greenway Plaza and the Galleria area. The plan also calls for commuter rail lines along U.S. 90A to Fort Bend County and U.S. 290 to the northwest.
Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles contributed to this report.
