(The Associated Press distributed the following article by Mark Babineck on August 11.)
HOUSTON — Once called the ”train to nowhere,” Houston’s new rail line between downtown and the Astrodome is earning a few new nicknames — ”Danger Train,” the ”Wham Bam Tram,” ”A Streetcar Named Disaster.”
More than 50 collisions have occurred along the 7.5-mile route since it opened in November, most of them with cars making illegal turns across the tracks.
Rail promoters promised the sleek, gray trains would take cars off the road — ”they’ve just done it one car at a time,” said John Gaver, who started the Wham-Bam-Tram counter, a Web site that tallies each crash.
The MetroRail averages six crashes a month — a rate 20 times worse than the national average for the nation’s 17 light rail systems, according to the Federal Transit Administration.
Most of the wrecks are minor and injury-free, and the soft rubber noses on the quiet, 200-passenger trains usually don’t suffer much damage. All but one of the crashes was blamed on error by car drivers.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, known as Metro, initially blamed drivers for the amount of accidents, saying Houstonians are 2-1/2 times more crash-prone than motorists elsewhere, according to the federal government.
If the transit authority, however, had followed an early recommendation to elevate the tracks, like Chicago did for its trains, crashes wouldn’t be a problem, said Ned Levine, lead traffic safety researcher for the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments.
But key suburban congressmen blocked federal funding for the project, so former Metro chairwoman Shirley DeLibero soldiered ahead with local money — meaning the line was built as inexpensively as possible.
”They were told repeatedly by transportation planners, anytime you do an at-grade rail line you’re asking for trouble,” Levine said.
If cars continue to hit trains, transit authorities may have no choice but to rebuild the line, raising the tracks above the streets, he said.
Despite the crashes, the transit authority says the $320 million project has been a success. There were more than 3 million boardings in the first six months of the year and nearly 680,000 in June.