Houston transit officials are betting on bus rapid transit as a big part of the region’s long-term plans, at times going as far as calling it the “wave of the future.”

If seeing is believing, however, voters in the region will go into the election booth blind when it comes to bus rapid transit, or BRT. Houston has local buses, MetroLift buses, commuter buses and even articulated buses on major routes, but BRT is MIA.

“(Light) rail seems to be very well maintained and it has a high degree of reliability,” said Lex Frieden, a Metropolitan Transit Authority board member. “BRT, since we have not experienced that, we can only imagine how a bus can be as stable as the sense you have on a train. How can it be as reliable as a train? Part of the issue is familiarity.”

Growing transit, specifically via BRT, is a major component of the $7.5 billion plan Metro developed over the past 18 months. The agency is expected to ask voters for authority to borrow money in November, with the specifics of the projects still under review. Plans include 20 more miles of light rail, two-way HOT lanes along most freeways and about 75 miles of BRT.

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Bus rapid transit uses large buses to operate mostly along dedicated lanes, offering service similar to light rail without the cost or construction of train tracks. It has proven successful in communities such as Cleveland and Los Angeles.

The first foray into BRT in the region will be along Post Oak Boulevard in the Uptown area. Drivers already have felt the construction pain, but riders will not hop aboard until next March, months later than initially scheduled when construction began in 2016.

In the interim, Metro will try to convince people to support something most have never seen. Part of that will mean getting people to reconsider their own biases.

“The second people hear bus, they have an image in their mind,” said Metro board member Sanjay Ramabhadran.

Bus rapid transit, as the name implies, is a bus, but its style and operation is much more train-like than the buses bouncing along Houston area streets:

Riders board BRT at platform stations, nearly identical to Metro’s light rail stations. That means riders pay their fares on the platform, not on the bus.

BRT vehicles have flat floors, much like trains, so anyone in a wheelchair can roll aboard and not need to be strapped in. There also is more room for people to stand.

Buses only stop at BRT stations, not as people alert the driver to pull over or hail the driver at multiple places along the route, meaning a more reliable trip with fewer stops.

Often, the buses remain in their own dedicated lanes, meaning they are not stuck in stop-and-go traffic or clogging lanes as they stop for passengers to board or exit.

The closest most voters could get to seeing it before they cast a ballot, however, will be if Metro sets up a demonstration after June. The buses for the Post Oak line will arrive in early summer, but will not start rolling until construction is closer to completion. In the interim, officials are weighing whether to show them off by building a temporary platform at a public event so people can get a look.

If voters approve, BRT could become a big part of regional transit. Metro plans BRT along five major corridors, at an estimated cost of $3.15 billion. The routes mostly mirror where Metro previously proposed rail, most notably between the University of Houston and Uptown and from downtown to Bush Intercontinental Airport.

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The former, once dubbed the University Line, long has been a point of contention. Voters in 2003 narrowly approved the Metro Solutions plan that included light rail from UH, through downtown and on to Uptown, but the project sputtered under intense opposition from residents along Richmond Avenue.

Now resurrected as a bus rapid transit project, the pains of the previous rail fight linger. Transit critics still question Metro’s ability to execute a major project that does not disrupt traffic, noting the Post Oak project has taken longer than expected and derailed driving along the street.

Rail backers, meanwhile, insist trains are superior, with some opposed to any Metro plan that does not include trains to and from downtown and Uptown.

“I’m opposed to anything that doesn’t add rail,” said Tyler Dempsey, 30, a Midtown resident and native of the area who uses the Red Line to commute to work. “Houston has wasted enough time caving to car interests and needs to focus all its efforts on rail.”

Not everyone agrees, however, and Metro historically has eked out victories involving rail. In 2003, plans for light rail and improved bus service passed with 51.3 percent of people voting in favor. In 2001, Metro was able to begin construction of the Red Line without having to seek voter approval of funding, which angered some and led to court challenges.

It was not until 2004 that the first light rail trains started operating along a lone 7.5-mile route, and even that came after wrangling between critics and those pushing for more.

“There are those who argue that Houston should never have rail because of our lack of density and our reliance on the automobile,” then-Metro chairman Robert Miller wrote in 2001. “Others will be satisfied with nothing less than a multibillion-dollar, 100-mile rail system to be constructed immediately.”

Metro still is straddling those two positions, not to mention its pocketbook. The long-range plan is a reflection of what Metro can build in the next two decades, officials said. Metro chairwoman Carrin Patman noted many people throughout months of public meetings have said light rail to Bush Airport should be a priority. It also is pricey.

“With this first bonding, I don’t think we get there,” Patman said.

According to Metro estimates, extending the Red Line north from the Shepherd Park and Ride to Bush would cost $2.2 billion. Plans for bus rapid transit to the airport are estimated to cost $242 million, or about 10 percent the price of rail.

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A BRT project also can piggyback on the Texas Department of Transportation plans to add managed lanes along I-45 from downtown to the Sam Houston Tollway. The massive freeway rebuild, which includes a total redesign of downtown freeways and is expected to cost at least $7 billion, allows for two-way lanes similar to the Katy Managed Lanes along Interstate 10.

“That Interstate 45 project bears a huge percentage of the cost that would not be passed on to Metro,” board member Jim Robinson said, noting the highway widening would save Metro the cost of building the lanes.

Bus projects do not always come in cheaper than rail, however. As officials assessed the idea of extending light rail to Hobby Airport, estimates for bus rapid transit as a replacement soared in cost. Staff estimated a cost of $1.6 billion for two-way bus rapid transit service from downtown to Hobby, mostly along I-45.

The difference, officials explained, is the Bush bus line factors TxDOT bearing much of the cost, while the Hobby lanes would be completely paid for by Metro because there are no current plans to widen that portion of I-45.

All factors and projects considered, officials said Houston’s transit future will be on rubber wheels for the most part.

“Where it is a new line, absolutely we should build BRT,” Ramabhadran said. “It is cheaper, quicker to build. Folks will get to use it a whole lot sooner than building a new light rail line.”

That was one of a handful of selling points officials used to excite voters and riders about the Orange Line BRT project in Los Angeles, said Dave Sotero, spokesman for Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates most of the transit service in the county.

“You can make bus rapid transit extremely attractive,” Sotero said. “It depends on how you design the service.”

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L.A. Metro, he said, made a point to use sleek buses powered by compressed natural gas and to sell the service — which runs entirely in its own lanes and has priority at traffic signals to avoid most red lights — as rail service on rubber wheels.

The line was successful from opening day in 2005. Now L.A. Metro’s upcoming plans include converting the route of the Orange Line to light rail. Sotero said that is a demonstration that BRT can be a catalyst.

“If it can work in L.A., it can work anywhere,” he said.

Houston just is not there yet, something that informs where local leaders are leaning rail and banking on buses. Where Houston officials are proposing rail, they said, it is focused on extensions of the existing system, such as taking the Red Line north to the Shepherd Park and Ride, or adding another 0.1-mile of track and one station west of the downtown on the Green and Purple Lines to link to Houston’s municipal courthouse and the parking area for jury duty.

BRT is much more flexible than rail — buses can move to another road or planners can adjust routes to reflect changes in demand. For Houston, a more flexible transit option may be the better bet.

“I personally think it is the wave of the future,” Patman said. “I certainly hope so, given we have 75 miles of it in our plan.”

dug.begley@chron.com