HarrisCounty Commissioner Rodney Ellis on Friday again called on the METRO Board ofDirectors to seek $939 million in federal investment for the UniversityCorridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and complete the voter-approved25-mile expansion of service linking northeast Houston to the TSU/UH, Midtown,Greenway Plaza and Westchase communities.
“Turningdown nearly a billion dollars of federal money for a much-needed andvoter-approved project would be shortsighted and irresponsible,” saidCommissioner Ellis. “Even at the 11 th hour, the board stillhas the chance to invest in our communities’ economic development and vote toseek federal funding. I call on them to reconsider and hold a roll callvote on this project at their Thursday board meeting.”
OnJune 18, METRO’s Strategic Planning Committee recommended – without a vote – toreject federal funding and abandon plans for the University Corridorexpansion. Their refusal to hold a formal vote on an issue of thismagnitude breaks with long-standing tradition. Besides the lack oftransparency, the action would also scrap years of preparation and $72 millionin engineering and environmental impact analysis.
“Votersoverwhelmingly approved this project and the board itself endorsed the conceptlast November. Countless working families would benefit from the BRTproject, yet the board is poised to try to kill the initiative in the dark ofnight,” Ellis stated. “If some on METRO argue the project is unnecessaryand choose to disregard the will of the people, then they should have thecourage to put the matter to an open vote of their members. There’s stilltime for the board to heed public necessity and vote to seek the federaldollars to move forward on this important project.”