Commuter buses eye new routes as job sites spread out

One of The Woodlands Express buses, a commuter bus service to and from Houston, pulls into the Marisco Place "Park and Ride" location bringing commuters home at the end of the day in The Woodlands, TX, Monday, March 19, 2018. (Michael Wyke / For the Chronicle) less One of The Woodlands Express buses, a commuter bus service to and from Houston, pulls into the Marisco Place "Park and Ride" location bringing commuters home at the end of the day in The Woodlands, TX, Monday, ... more Photo: Michael Wyke, Freelance Photo: Michael Wyke, Freelance Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Commuter buses eye new routes as job sites spread out 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

The three women gathered for coffee are all in their 30s and they all live within blocks of each other along Lake Woodlands Drive. But they all hold full-time jobs somewhere else: Sally Price at an oil and gas company in downtown Houston, Monica Chavez in real estate in northwest Houston, and Gwen Viera as a nurse in Kingwood.

They represent the conundrum facing commuter bus providers in a changing Houston, coping with ridership declines even as jobs and population continue to spread farther and wider. Officials in The Woodlands and other suburban enclaves have to factor in more variables than ever when deciding where to put lines.

The shift requires systems such as The Woodlands Express to shift from offering trips to two or three locations to considering new routes to new places - provided the demand is there.

"Shell is a good example and Exxon is a great example," said Chris LaRue, transit program manager for The Woodlands township, referring to the oil companies that defected to the Energy Corridor and Spring, respectively, from downtown Houston. "We are seeing more employers move out of the urban core and that's changing things for us."

More immediate plans call for more convenience and better marketing of the commuter bus system, LaRue said. Those efforts started with sprucing up the landscaping and other amenities at park-and-ride lots. Soon, LaRue said, he hopes to develop educational campaigns to encourage various solutions to connect people to the three Woodlands lots and advertise the buses in different ways.

"I think we would be foolish not to provide our services to more passengers," he said. "Offering these services now will allow us to fine-tune it for the future."

It's a future, LaRue said, that inevitably will include more regional transit. The Houston-Galveston Area Council, which is preparing its long-range 2045 Regional Transportation Plan, estimates the Houston metro region will grow to 10.5 million by 2045 from 6.7 million today.

The Woodlands Express operates 30 buses - 25 owned by the township and purchased mostly with Federal Transit Administration funds, along with five owned by the system's contractor, First Class Tours. Buses move steadily in the morning from the Research Forest, Sawdust and Sterling Ridge lots to stops in Houston's central business district, Greenway Plaza and Texas Medical Center.

Yet ridership is down even as officials plan for increased demand. In 2014, prior to Exxon fully staffing its northern Harris County campus, the buses handled 684,284 passenger trips. Last year, the system reported 551,282 trips, an average of 2,238 each working day, down 18.7 percent from the daily average in 2014.

Across the region, too, commuter bus use is down significantly compared to 2014 levels. For January, the last month for which figures are available, Metropolitan Transit Authority's park-and-ride system ridership was 9.4 percent below January 2014 levels. That decline was mitigated by increased use of park-and-ride buses in western Harris County, while other routes remain far below previous usage levels.

Even with the declines - which officials blame on the changing job locations and a prolonged period of low gasoline prices - some areas are already nearing the number of commuters needed to justify commuter bus service, LaRue said.

"We are exploring service out to the Energy Corridor," LaRue said. "The reason being, one, there is demand, we believe, that will warrant it."

Another spot people often call township officials about is the Uptown area along Loop 610. LaRue agrees there is demand, but he says the notorious Galleria-area traffic would tie up his buses. The hope, he said, is service could be added after the planned bus rapid transit along Post Oak is completed in 2019. That service could feed into Metro's transit center north of Interstate 10, meaning Woodlands buses would turn around for the return trip without being stuck in gridlock.

Woodlands officials are working on programs related to their own end of the service. LaRue said he's developing educational campaigns aimed at explaining travel options to commuters in hope of luring more to the service.

The winding, wooded streets in The Woodlands can be imposing for commuters looking to get from the park-and-ride lot to work. LaRue said he's own pattern of travel is one option to fulfill that so-called "first mile-last mile" challenge. He drives to The Woodlands on Monday mornings from his home in Houston. Monday evening, he drives his car to a park-and-ride lot and takes the bus home.

Then Tuesday through Thursday, his personal car stays in The Woodlands to ferry him from the lot to work and back. He can also run errands or make meetings away from the office.

Friday evening he drives home so he has his car for the weekend.

LaRue said the commuter system is also working on better signs and information at park-and-ride locations to help people consider options, ranging from bike path locations to taxi and ride-sharing information.

Another campaign is marketed toward another growing segment: Reverse-commuters, who travel to jobs in The Woodlands from urban parts of Houston.

Just as jobs have moved to the suburbs, some workers prefer to live closer to the center of town. Attracting them to the service is good policy for reducing automobile trips, he said, and helps fill mostly empty seats as the bus heads back to the Woodlands.

"We already have people who use it informally," LaRue said. "It just makes sense to develop the information in a way tailored to them, with the schedules reversed."

Sometimes luring riders is word of mouth. At the coffee shop, when the topic of using the buses came up, Price tried to convince her friends of the value.

Price said she hopped on The Woodlands Express about seven months ago out of desperation. Now she takes the commuter bus two days a week for its relaxation.

"I feel so much better when I get to work," Price said.

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