The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (stylized as METRO) is a major public transportation agency based in Houston, Texas, United States. It operates bus, light rail, bus rapid transit, HOV and HOT lanes, and paratransit service (under the name METROLift) in the city as well as most of Harris County. It also operates bus service to two cities in Fort Bend County, and to Conroe in Montgomery County. The Metro headquarters are in the Lee P. Brown Administration Building in Downtown Houston. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
History
The Texas State Legislature authorized the creation of local transit authorities in 1973. In 1978, Houston-area voters created Metro and approved a one-cent sales tax to support its operations. Metro opened for business in January 1979, taking over the bus service owned by the City of Houston known as HouTran. HouTran was plagued by outdated equipment, infrequent service and a route structure which failed to account for Houston's rapid population growth.
Metro's service area encompasses and also serves portions of an eight-county region with its vanpool service; the agency employs about 3,800 people.
Executive leadership
Tom Lambert is the current President and CEO of the agency. Lambert was formally appointed in February 2014, although he had been operating as the agency's interim CEO since the beginning of 2013. Lambert, a Houston native with a political science degree from Southwest Texas State University and master's in public administration from the University of Houston, joined Metro as a security investigator in 1979. He was named agency police chief in 1982, ultimately overseeing close to 100 officers, then moved into higher ranks of management.
The Metro Board has nine members – five are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Houston City Council, two are appointed by Harris County Commissioners Court, and two are appointed by the 14 mayors of Metro's smaller city members.
Metro Bus
Metro's local bus service usually runs on city streets, typically stopping at every other corner along its entire route. The bus system is the most used in Texas and the Southwest region. Metro also operates express bus routes on the Houston region's freeway high-occupancy vehicle lanes, which stop at park-and-ride lots.
Prior to the construction of Metrorail, Metro consisted of the largest all-bus fleet in the United States, only because Houston was the largest major city devoid of any rail transit since 1990.
Circa 1991 bus services for handicapped people were implemented.
In 2015, the bus system was redesigned, eliminating low-ridership routes in favor of a high-frequency, high-demand bus network. This change was accomplished without any increase in operating costs.
Service types
Local: Most Metro buses typically operate on city streets, with the majority of routes serving several of Houston's major employment centers. The routes are grid-like "crosstown" routes that travel from one part of the city to another, typically without entering downtown. Many routes were truncated to METRORail stations to eliminate duplicate service. Express: A local limited stop service that serves key destinations but travel nonstop on freeway segments. They were formerly categorized as Limited prior to the 2015 restructuring of bus routes. Park and Ride (Commuter): Metro operates express service between major destinations and outlying areas via high-occupancy vehicle lanes on regional freeways. Buses on these routes stop at park-and-ride lots, which also serve as transit centers. Bus Rapid Transit: A pilot program introduced on June 1, 2009, to provide faster service with upgraded buses and fewer, more modern stops to busy corridors, beginning with a supplement of Route 2 (Bellaire), 402 Quickline Bellaire BRT. The second route in this system was a replacement of Route 33 (Post Oak), 433 Silver Line Post Oak BRT, which unlike Route 402, utilizes an exclusive busway for a majority of the route. The next planned line is the University Line, which is planned to start construction in 2025 and open in 2029.
Routes
Metro's bus routes are numbered based on their service type and arranged in a grid. On August 24, 2015, Metro revamped their entire bus network with new routes and frequent service. Under the new network, all local routes run 7 days a week with the exception of two express routes.
Metro provided the free Greenlink shuttle services in Downtown Houston, but discontinued the service in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.