The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County approved a $1.89 billion budget Sept. 26 for fiscal year 2024-25.
METRO Chair Elizabeth Brock said the budget will focus on initiatives that increase ridership, improve transit services and enhance public safety.
Brock said the board intends to use this budget to shift the focus of the transit authority away from its current status as a “needed” mode of transportation to one that people would “want” to use.
“We want to build up our ridership so that people say, ‘I prefer to ride METRO because it’s easier, it’s cleaner, it’s safer, it’s more reliable and it’s a better choice,’” she said. “We want to make it a choice rather than people being transit dependent.”
Two-minute impact
The $1.89 billion budget is a 15% jump from FY 2023-24’s approved budget of $1.6 billion. In total, METRO’s spending increased by approximately $255 million over last fiscal year.
According to METRO’s budget documents, the increased spending comes from capital project expenses that fall under what officials call “core business items,” such as vehicle maintenance, vehicle acquisition, facility maintenance and technology projects. The capital budget—which is 42% higher than the previous fiscal year—accounts for $598 million of the total budget.
Brock said one of the most notable capital projects includes purchasing roughly 280 new buses, which comes with a $209 million price tag. Seventy of those vehicles are anticipated to be on the road by the end of February and the remaining 210 by December 2025.
Also listed under capital programs are expansion and enhancement costs, which account for $242 million.
METRO’s FY 2024-25 budget is one of the largest budgets passed in the transit authority’s history as officials aim to increase ridership.
Overall annual ridership has risen since the pandemic, but numbers still remain below pre-pandemic totals. In 2019, combined METRO services, including buses, light rail, park and ride, and curb2curb, were boarded over 85 million times.
That amount steadily declined throughout the early 2020s, falling below 70 million. However, METRO officials are predicting that number to increase to nearly 80 million in FY 2024-25.
METRONext is a $7.5 billion plan that was released in 2019 to enhance mobility in Houston. Harris County voters approved a $3.5 billion bond referendum that year to support the $7.5 billion plan.
Projects included bus stop enhancements, improved park and ride lots, new circulator routes and the implementation of three bus rapid transit, or BRT, lines.
In June, METRO officials announced they would not proceed with the federal grant process for the University Corridor BRT line, arguing funding would be better spent elsewhere. As of Oct. 14, none of the $3.5 billion of bonded funds from METRONext has been used. Brock said the agency will focus on increasing ridership before taking another look at building new infrastructure.
A METRONext BRT line serving the Gulfton area remains on track, with METRO waiting to hear back on a grant application, Brock said. She said it made sense to keep that project since it was smaller in cost and tied to a larger revitalization effort in Gulfton.
METRO rider Courtney Winton said he uses the agency’s bus service to get from the Gulfton and Bellaire areas to Downtown Houston. He said he believes METRO should focus on services to help empower residents who rely on public transit.
The shift in focus toward ridership is what METRO officials are referring to as METRONow. METRONow investments account for $173.4 million in the capital budget and will focus on three main priorities: providing cleaner buses, boosting service times and enhancing public safety.
METRO aims to add 33 new police officers to patrol bus stations, improve on-time services from 70% to 100% and implement cleaning inspections.
Also of note
METRO’s FY 2024-25 budget does not include plans to revive the agency’s bike share program, which went bankrupt in 2024. For the time being, the city of Houston will continue to operate without a bike share program.
The previous METRO board approved a $10.5 million contract in September 2023 with Canada-based PBSC Urban Solutions to jumpstart the defunct bike share program by summer 2024. However, funding for that contract was not included in the 2024-25 budget, according to METRO documents.
The bike share program would've included:
- 140 e-bikes
- 20 grid-connected charging stations
- 200 charging dock points
Peter Eccles, director of policy and planning with the nonprofit Link Houston, said he hopes to see METRO bring back the bike share program.
"Bikes can help expand the reach in METRO's network," he said. "It puts so much more of our region in play for you."
Looking ahead
With the FY 2024-25 budget now adopted, Brock said all METRO initiatives this year will be directly tied to increasing ridership. She emphasized that paused BRT projects will come back for consideration in future budgets.
“If you have to choose between building infrastructure into the future and taking care of your existing infrastructure, those are choices that need to be made,” Brock said. “It’s hard to support both, so what we’re saying is that we need to focus on what is important to riders and to build that ridership before we move on to building additional infrastructure.”
