texd

The fare amazes me too. A cab to downtown is only about $45. I figure if I'm going to be in that neighborhood fare wise, I might as well get dropped where I want and go on my own schedule.

ralfp

On Sunday night (8PM) I took the 102 & 50 buses from IAH to HOU. $2 ($1 with a fare card, I think) was a lot nicer than what SuperShuttle or the taxis would have cost.

The 102 was a nice coach bus full of rowdy airport employees and took a roundabout route to get downtown. The $14 extra for an express bus might be justifiable with increased frequency, faster service, and quieter passengers. Noise isolating headphones helped on the 102. The 50, not a coach bus, was pretty empty. The whole IAH-HOU trip took a little more than 2 hours.

I wish I remembered the name of the CO ticket agent traveling home via the 102 & 50 that helped me figure out the connection. To the new hire working the Sunday afternoon/evening shift at Terminal B: thanks.

It's hard to change your race. It's easy not to be an airline passenger.

Cities love to stick it to airline passengers that aren't local (like car rental fees to subsidize private corporations), but they can't easily stick it to locals. The real problem is that cities selectively tax those without representation.

photog72

I took the 102 almost a month ago - from downtown to IAH. It was a quiet ride in the middle of the afternoon. I guess it depends on the time of day you ride the bus. For $1, it is a good deal if you have the time to spare.

797-3

Try walking from Sacramento to Houston.

Discrimination is always bad.

Insurance companies short changing people, hospitals, doctors...all bad. It's bad to say that "oh, cheating a hospital...that's ok"

The same with Iran. "Oh, Iran is too tough to bully and invade but Grenada, that's easy".

Even the way phone companies charge double for small businesses compared to homes is too sneaky and cheating in my book. (but I don't mind paying less!)

Why not favor grocery stores charging you double just because you are an American and can afford it compared to people in Sudan? Discrimination is bad. It doesn't have to be racial to be bad.

797-3

Ask singer and child lover Michael Jackson

ralfp

It's all a matter of degree. Racial discrimination is IMO worse than residency/mode of transport discrimination, which is worse than discrimination based on how annoying a person is, which is worse than discrimination based on caffeine content of coffee, etc.

rkkwan

Metro released a survey. 72 percent of respondents agree that the Metro system is "safe". Hahaha... in other words, more than 1/4 think it's not safe.

Htown Harry

The new Airport Direct service started up last week...has anybody given it a try?

http://www.ridemetro.org/Services/airport_direct.aspx

rkkwan

It's year end, and all these threads are coming up about trying to get small number of EQMs. While there's ABE bus, AMTRAK and US Helicopter at EWR, there's no good way at IAH to get some EQM easily, with EFD service long gone.

Then I saw that this bus service actually has an entry on co.com:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...romoCode=A6008

I'm starting to think. They should offer miles and EQM on this bus if CO and METRO want more people to know about and use this service.

photog72

By the way, the Bush 102 Greenspoint Limited is now $1.25 from downtown to the airport. All buses and the Metrorail are $1.25 per fare.

rkkwan

I know I haven't been patronizing METRO (or paying 1% local sales tax to them) since August, but they don't have to hike fares 25% on all my previously-fellow riders!

Man, rising fare when gas prices are sharply down. Like that's going to attract more people to ride the bus and train.

route100

I was really suprised to hear about the $15 O/W fare, given that the highest fare for Metro is just under $5 O/W for the longest commuter routes that run non stop from downtown. The distance covered on this type of commuter route is probably similar to that between downtown and the airport.

The interesting thing about the PHL regional rail service is that the fare charged for travellers (vs. regular commuters) is equivalent to one of the highest O/W fare zones (zone 5 out of 6 zones). Daily commuters like airport employees who purchase passes (e.g. weekly or monthly) need only a zone 2 pass which is in line with how other stations are charged.

Do tranfers from other Metro services to the IAH bus require separate fares? While we're at the PHL comparison, it's $2 extra to transfer to other regional rail routes.

Does anyone know about the ridership levels on the IAH bus? I may have to give this a try when I'm out there in December.

rkkwan

Interesting to see an ad of it aboard a Santa Monica Big Blue Bus this week. Big letters Only $15, when the LAX FlyAway is $5 from Westwood, and $7 from Van Nuys or Union Station even after 2 recent fare increases.

photog72

Updating this thread. Tonight, the local ABC station here in Houston is doing a story about the Express bus. I don't know what the gist of the story is, but thought it would be worth mentioning. It airs tonight at 10pm locally. I'm sure it will be online afterwards, or the next day.

festdave

Continental's website seems to be down right now, but IIRC, they are running a promotion where the METRO Express Bus is $10 each way instead of $15 if you show a Continental boarding pass.