Harris County uses Harvey disaster funding to get new bus...

Harris County has extended bus service to Channelview, Cloverleaf and Sheldon, using $3.8 million in Hurricane Harvey disaster recovery money to jump-start the new routes.

Service started Dec. 2, quickly getting about 500 riders in the second week along roughly 65 miles of new service.

“When you have that freedom to ride a bus, that opens up so many more services to you,” said Daphne Lamelle, executive director of the Harris County Community Services Department.

The need is especially pronounced in eastern Harris County after Harvey led to the loss of thousands of cars and trucks, Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said Wednesday as he and other county officials dedicated the five new routes.

“We don’t think about these things until we need them,” Garcia said, lamenting the need for cars in rangy parts of the county.

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As residents continue to rebuild, they are seeking alternatives to automobiles, Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis added.

“That access can make a world of difference,” Ellis said of the transit service that operates along major roads in the area, including Uvalde, Wallisville and Tidwell. “Expanding our mass transit system is a step in the right direction… I hear still about the struggles people in this area endure.”

The county transit agency operates outside the service area of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Though it took two years to launch service, following months of grant proposals and approval from the Texas General Land Office that did not come until November, officials said it is sorely needed. In some pockets of eastern Harris County, transit has been in the works for more than a decade.

For Adelina Mireles, 82, the new bus service came just in time.

Up until two weeks ago, her regular trips to the Sheldon Senior Center in northeast Houston required a car. Her children were busy and her friends at the center were too far away.

“The transit bus will give me more time to spend with new friends,” she said.

Future money to operate the service will come from federal sources, doled out locally by the Houston Galveston Area Council, said Ken Fickes, transit services director for Harris County.

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The new county service operates every 30, 60 or 90 minutes, depending on the route, and many connect to Metro at the Mesa Transit Center along Tidwell and along Uvalde at Woodforest Boulevard.

Transfers to Metro, at least for the foreseeable future, will be free, said Metro Vice-chairman Jim Robinson, who represents Harris County on the transit agency board.

“We have pulled out all the stops to make this a going thing,” Robinson said of the desire to extend transit to more places.

Garcia, whose district largely lies outside Metro’s service area, said he is interested in having further discussions about expanding transit service into his precinct, something eastern county officials and many voters in the past rejected.

“The needs have changed, the system has changed,” Garcia said.

There are numerous points that would have to be cleared to before residents will see Metro buses bouncing along roads across Harris County. Local officials would need approval from state lawmakers to extend the boundaries and adjust some of Metro’s existing rules and regulations as set by the Texas Legislature. Local voters also would have to approve taxing themselves at the ballot box by OKing a 1 percent sales tax for transit and road repairs.

dug.begley@chron.com