Type Light rail Locale Houston, Texas | System METRORail Stations 25 | |
 | ||
Termini Northline Transit Center Station (north)
Fannin South (south) Opened January 1, 2004
Expanded on December 21, 2013 | ||
The Red Line is a 12.8-mile (20.6 km) METRORail light rail route operated by METRO in Houston, Texas. It is the oldest line in the METRORail system, and opened on January 1, 2004. A 5.3-mile (8.5 km) northern extension to the first 7.5-mile (12.1 km) section of the line, originally scheduled to open in 2014, opened ahead of schedule on December 21, 2013.
Contents
Route
The approximately 13-mile (21 km) Red Line runs through the heart of the historic North Side, a storied neighborhood rooted in rail that came into being with the expansion, in the 1880s, of the Hardy Rail Line. Starting at the Fannin South station, through the Texas Medical Center, Museum District, Midtown, and through Downtown onto the UH–Downtown station. The line continues north on North Main to Boundary Street, crosses east to Fulton Street, and proceeds north on Fulton to the Northline Transit Center and Houston Community College, Northline Mall Center. The length of line south of Hogan Street is located on an elevated structure. Currently older metro rails from the old Fannin South to UH–Downtown line cannot reach the Red Line Extended portion of the line, and will always stop at Burnett.
Construction
Construction began July 2009, and was expected to continue until the line's opening in 2014, though the opening date was later pushed back to 2015. Because of better than expected construction progress, the line opened on December 21, 2013.
On December 8, 2011, the FTA announced the award of a $450 million grant from the New Starts transit program to fund construction of the Red Line.
Stations
The following is a list of stations for this line, listed in order from north to south.
METRORail line key
Green Line
Purple Line
Expansion
A possibility for expansion of the line would take the route to George Bush Intercontinental Airport.