Riding Every Rail Line in Houston

[@lalo.8811]

live in Houston for 25 yrs. , “just find out” that Houston has an Amtrak train station !!!!!! , thanks to you guys !! Good job guys , enjoy the video , keep up the good work !!

[@kitchin2]

The Houston to Dallas high speed rail, if built, will originate at the former Northwest Mall, 8 miles by road to the Amtrak station. It's 23 minutes on the 85 bus, plus 7 minutes critical walking.

[@truthteller8459]

I lived there to awhile back also. Years ago it was actually in downtown Houston then moved to even more of a ghetto area outside of downtown. I'm not sure of the date it moved though.

[@Salmagundiii]

The dead grass growing through the ballast adds a nice post-apocalyptic touch.

[@jackbates7467]

Couldn't believe that METRO won't sell you a day pass at a station when I was there. Especially when the rest of the rail operating transit agencies in the state will, DFW even has tri-agency regional passes at their stations.

[@RobbZipp]

You did it! I am a flight attendant and have to take the Skyway and Subway often. I love the Subway because I pretend it’s a Disney ride, which it technically is. It was cool to see you take the 56 bus down my old neighborhood I grew up in. Nice way to show our public transit issues. Also, chips and salsa are always free here!

[@AshmewStudios]

At this point I feel like Houston Metro is trying everything they can to run good service. It's a constant battle against TxDOT who still wants to widen freeways!

[@Dr.ZoidbergPhD]

They really should stop investing in more and more busses (they contribute to traffic and emissions) and widen the rail system

[@iannarita9816]

At least Texas is trying to build a high speed rail line from Dallas to Houston.

[@cabasse_music]

man this looks fun as hell - the same thing one would do just sightseeing in a new country for the first time, but as a side of an american city that most people will never see. i'm subbing

[@MilesinTransit]

Thank you!

[@blackman7437]

Your video and NJB's video just further increases my desire to live wherever the exact opposite of this place is.

[@MilesinTransit]

Getting mentioned in the same sentence as NJB is an honor!

[@supersammy00]

Same -someone who literally lives there 😭

[@superfly2449]

Hey! I have to live here. You’re lucky, wherever you live. I’m sure there are worse places, though.

[@Dr.ZoidbergPhD]

I live in Houston and it is THE WORST

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

I visit family in Houston every year and I like the trips because it reminds me that although my city has problems, it could be much worse

[@kitchin2]

Houston has great bike trails along the bayou and the red line was good for going to the green museum area south of downtown & renting a bike. On the other hand going north to a Walmart or Target or something to get supplies on the red line, I found a big fence between the station parking lot and store parking lot, so it was either climb or walk around. Later I took a bike to the historical village adjacent to downtown and as I was the only one there at closing time, got locked in and had to climb an even higher fence to get out. So that was weird. Overall, Houston is a surprisingly green city considering the petrochemical pollution and molds and pollens, and there’s been a great revival of people living “inside the loop” instead of out in the burbs. By loop they mean the inner highway loop, not the outer! (I think the entire light rail system or most of it is inside the loop.) Oh, besides fences, an understanding but strict guard did not let me take a bike, even walking, through museum grounds connecting two parts of a beautiful bike trail. And finally, one great thing about traveling in the Deep South is people will talk to you almost anywhere, unless they hate you. That applies from Miami, where it is crazy true, to about the NM-AZ border, where it dies out. The end. Oh, the bus system in Houston was cheap and good.

[@AA_8184_1]

Congratulations on 1000 subscribers! (I’m sorry I’m late on this!) Continuing to branch out to other cities…love it!

[@rosco77365]

Trust me, in our summers, you want the "Dots"/window clings

[@rayizard5687]

Ah Houston...4th largest city in the county...trains per day...0.875

[@YukonGhibli]

You missed the dedicated BRT line in the Galleria/Uptown which was originally designed for rail but initially done with Bus Rapid Transit on dedicated lines. And head down to Galveston's little trolley train next time ;-)

[@naturallyherb]

Congrats on 1000 subs! Hope you enjoyed your A220 flight!

[@metro_via_transit]

You forgot Hermann Park Railroad train lmfaooo

[@johnchambers8528]

Thanks for the video about Houston’s light rail lines. I heard from others before the light rail lines were built that the bus system was not that good. I Don’t understand why they do not have a ticket system where you can buy a pass at the airport. I guess they want out of town people to use taxies or rent cars rather than use transit. By the way using web and apps are not for everyone. I have a modern mobile phone but do not use any apps on it. I would be especially mad that they want me to use that if I am only visiting one time and not need it again. All systems should have ticket/pass machines for people to pay for fares at major terminals or the ability to pay for it upon boarding the transit service. For example I live in the Philadelphia area but have used Delaware’s DART bus system and can buy a day pass when I board one of their busses from the driver. This kind of convince helps boost ridership by not making you find and buy a fare in advance.

[@MilesinTransit]

Having to download an app was insanely annoying! I think we both deleted them immediately afterwards.

[@danielb2286]

Do Dallas/Fort Worth! We have a wild amount of track mileage that is criplingly underused.

[@MilesinTransit]

It's coming sooner than you might think!

[@trainman1971]

If it's not delivery... it's Amtrakgiornio's!

[@NEPATransitnTravel]

Was rewatching and realized you forgot the Shark Train Miles!!!

[@cedricye1767]

You FLEW to, out of all places, *Texas,* for a side project, for your blog/channel. Wow. That is dedication. Great video as always!

[@MilesinTransit]

Well, we were originally going to Sanderson but that fell through - Houston was just a cheaper place to fly than San Antonio.

[@AnthonyMcNeil]

Unfortunately politics have killed any chances of an expansive transit system in House. They're constantly expanding freeways and adding more lanes instead of adding more light rail connections. So much wasted potential. Sucks that with the expansion of the freeways literally said screw transit systems.

[@MilesinTransit]

The Katy Freeway is the poster child for why highway widening doesn't work!

[@JelloTalks]

Austin's one Metrorail line next lol

[@Blocktracer]

Nice, I tried it once, and it took forever to get to where I need to to when you need to get off the rail and catch the right bus!

[@Habs__bigfan]

2:52 bro this is the area in which I live at, this area is called greenspoint

[@christopherradel3965]

It’s incredible that a city as large as Houston only has a one platform train station for its inter-city rail service lol

[@flyphone1072]

Here's a fun fact. If you look at the census tract map, every major Texas city's downtown tract has suburb density (2000 people/sq mile)

[@flyphone1072]

Houston's are 6k per sq mile and 4k per sq mile which is embarrassing.

[@boriskarpinski4507]

@MilesInTransit have you done any transit stuff out west? Seattle, Portland, Bay Area, LA, San Diego, Phoenix, Vegas, SLC, Denver...

[@MilesinTransit]

My Greyhound cross-country videos involve a little transit out west, and I have some stuff in the works!

[@MBTA1234]

Gonna add any reviews for Houston train stations on the blog?

[@MilesinTransit]

Nah, they're all kinda the same! The Amtrak station was a masterpiece though, of course.

[@ahmadfrw1]

The busiest bus route in Houston is route 82 along Westimer.

[@WilliamThorsson-zg4yy]

Does anyone know if Nathan has a KZbin? I'm rapidly watching/enjoying all of Miles' videos, so I'm starting to branch out and watch the MIT collaborators.

[@MilesinTransit]

Nathan doesn't have a KZbin unfortunately! I think his online presence is pretty limited to the videos he appears in on this channel.

[@WilliamThorsson-zg4yy]

@@MilesinTransit thank you for replying! Your videos are great and you've got awesome collaborators (Nathan, Jeremy, Classy Whale, etc etc).

[@DRGW492]

As a former resident of Houston I approve

[@CaeserOct]

As a recent binger of your channel and also a longtime Houston resident, it’s nice to see these worlds merge. Sadly, as you discovered, our public transit and even routine maintenance is utter garbage. Houstonian opposition to any decent system is decades old and unlikely to change.

[@Molejules]

Too bad you can't make transit connections in Houston as good as Technology Connections.

[@thefareplayer2254]

That’s an amazing channel!

[@MilesinTransit]

Whoops, I had forgotten to put a card in with the link!

[@kbf6434]

The tram in the lower section was replaced by the skyway. :)

[@damiancooper3063]

Why didn’t you wait for the next train?

[@repulser93]

Why was it backing in?

[@MilesinTransit]

It did a weird detour on some other tracks to get in!

[@moniho6907]

Had no idea america had trams let alone texas

[@dannyeaton5784]

You will never get a jaywalking ticket in Houston. I'm a native, and been here over 50 years, and never have heard of a single person getting a ticket.

[@MilesinTransit]

Haha, yeah, it's a running joke on the channel that over the years I've been racking up jaywalking fines that will never actually be handed out. Since I've been going to a lot of new states recently, it's been interesting looking up how much the fines differ in each one, including complete decriminalization like in Philadelphia! But yeah, in most cases the fines are "in the books" but no one would ever actually give a ticket.

[@kitchin2]

Don't try it in Columbus, OH.

[@antonsmith9788]

Some parts of LA (West Hollywood and Beverly Hills in particular) do enforce its jaywalking laws. Just a heads up! 👊😊👊

[@lewnwdc]

Oh no! You decided to get off in San Antonio because 😍 Nathan was too sick to continue to Sanderson? 😢 Glad he's feeling better by the end of this video.

[@CSXKid5016]

Okay but what are Nathan’s links/socials

[@MilesinTransit]

He's not really on social media!

[@CSXKid5016]

@@MilesinTransit smhhhhh🙄

[@hashtagdag]

How oppressively hot was Houston that day?

[@MilesinTransit]

I can't remember it being TOO bad...

[@hashtagdag]

@@MilesinTransit... What time of year were you guys down there?

[@MilesinTransit]

It was in the summer! I just don't remember it being tooooo horrible out.

[@ThePlaceAndTime]

is Nathan single

[@JimBones1990]

To go with the beginning of this video: Runways are for plane models, Not fashion models.

[@johnyang5670]

W video

[@samkuzel]

I'm so embarrassed

[@aleenaparenti4823]

7:07 yellow car

[@MilesinTransit]

you are a monster

[@extra_toast]

This video is very loud

[@TraveonRogers]

I wish there was a way for folks to discuss our transit and transportation issues while also being respectful and honoring the city. Houston is an amazing city. You guys could have rented bikes and gone through the bike trails along the bayou. It is possible to get through a lot of the city that way. You guys were on the red line which goes through the Museum District and Hermann Park, which are some very beautiful areas, and ya'll didn't even show those parts or talk about the Medical Center. Ya'll didn't even show the downtown tunnels. The bus system is WAY more expansive and reliable then our limited rail system that doesn't even serve our most populated areas. There's the quick silver line that would have taken you across the Galleria area which is really nice and many of the buses pass through more scenic areas. It's really like people has a vendetta against Houston to make it seem like it's a god awful place with nothing to offer. Yes, it's sprawling and we have transit issues just like most North American cities, but that is not all Houston is. This was outright disrespectful.

[@MilesinTransit]

I understand where you're coming from - there were clips discussing those aspects of the Red Line that I cut out for brevity's sake (in my head I imagine that people don't want to sit through discussions of granular details, but I could be wrong about that) and the Silver Line looks really cool. Ultimately this is a transit channel (and that's where my travel interests tend to lie) and we only had five hours in the city, so riding the whole rail network seemed like an attainable goal that took up pretty much the whole time. Had we had more time, I would've loved to have ridden the Silver Line, explored more of the parks, and visited the Menil Collection at the very least, which I've heard is incredible. That being said, it was pretty jarring to step off the bus in an area designed solely around the car with the absolute bare minimum of provisions for pedestrians and I don't think it was disrespectful to point out that those conditions were incredibly uncomfortable. We highlighted a couple of fantastic small Mexican restaurants that offered amazing food and (granted in passing) mentioned how cool the neighborhood we traveled through on the 56 was. So I would push back on the idea that we were dead set on bashing Houston at every turn - we liked what we liked and we disliked what we disliked, and if I were to go back, I would focus more on being a tourist and going to some of the areas you mentioned.

[@kitchin2]

To be fair, that's Miles's schtick. It's like when Greyhound still had stations and would show you the least scenic views of each city on the East Coast. Even trains do this in most places: the backsides of old warehouses, etc. I haven't seen Miles in Transit's cross-country trip, but when I took Greyhound from from Denver to Oakland it stopped twice in Utah and seven times in Nevada, always next to a place with slot machines. But I agree with everything you said about Houston.

[@kitchin2]

@@MilesinTransit I like museums and feed in their cafes. Menil was not a highlight of my trip to Houston because half the buildings were closed (pre-pandemic) and the cafe crowd too hoity-toity to welcome a very slightly scruffy guy who'd just ridden a bike five miles. That *can* happen at museums cafes, but what was unusual was the staff was uncool too. Those people are usually art students or at least slightly wacky. Probably the large museums in Htown would have been fine. Like they are at the fantastic Toledo Museum, with its glass box building!

[@MilesinTransit]

Ah yeah, I could see Menil's combination of smallness and pretentiousness factoring into your experience there. Still, I can't help but appreciate that it's free!

[@AM-tu1rc]

Transit Channels have a hard-on for shitting on Houston constantly. Houston isn't a city for tourists, it's a city for living a good, decent low-cost life. Too bad people ignore this and can't fathom why Texas cities don't have 5 billion supertrain lines running each and every direction.

[@lewnwdc]

Why is Nathan wearing a mask outside? 🤔

[@smashbro713]

He complained that the only way to ride the bus with through a convenient app, instead of a terminal that prints you out a physical bus pass. It’s called going green, welcome to the future. And he complained about Palm Center Transit Center being redundant. No it’s not. The neighborhood is called Palm Center, and the Transit Center is a center that exists there.

[@kitchin2]

Also there’s a cheap bus from the IAH airport and an express bus. I find that interesting, since airports in my area have zero bus/train, even for the workers, and keep building bigger parking decks. Meanwhile they spend bux improving bus or even rail elsewhere in the same cities. Houston was fun aside from the fences I ran into and bike/transit worked great. Amtrak admittedly doesn’t do much yet, until Texas Central gets built northward. Also I had delicious coffee.

[@MilesinTransit]

It's a little hard to call it "going green" when Houston still sells plastic cards in a variety of locations - just not the airport, where they would be well-used. The app wasn't convenient; the driver said to download the Houston METRO app, but that actually forces you to download a SECOND app, the QTicket app, to ACTUALLY be able to purchase a day pass. There's also no signage at the airport to tell new travelers that this is what you're supposed to do, so instead we were yelled at by the driver to do it - not a great way to get welcomed to the city. The true "going green" would be to allow contactless card payment but Houston does not have that in place. I thought the Palm Center line was pretty inconsequential and I don't really care about the name, but for what it's worth, it's not exactly a "transit center" if it only has two bus routes that stop on the street down the road from the light rail station. I think "Palm Center" would be a more fitting name.

[@KySparkzVODS]

so the green line and the purple line were originally intented to go MUCH further, but like everything in Texas, it gets blocked and slowed to a halt by conservative voters.

[@RoycePhillips]

Yes both the lines were meant to terminate at Hobby Airport east and the Municipol Courthouse west of Theater District station. As for the voters, I heard some politicians were yeeted out of office last year (few of them anti-transit) so hopefully the MetroNEXT program can breathe easy.