METRO Goes to Emergency Service in Face of Hurricane Rita

Sept. 21, 2005

METRO will operate on an emergency schedule Thursday, Sept. 22, and suspend service from Friday, Sept. 23, until it is safe to resume.

HOV lanes will be open to evacuating motorists on the Gulf Freeway beginning Thursday and carry traffic inbound only, with occupant restrictions waived. Also beginning Thursday, Sept 22, the HOV lanes on the North, Katy, Eastex, 290 and Southwest freeways will be open outbound only, without occupant restrictions.

Bus service will operate on normal schedules today. Thursday, Sept. 22, buses on all routes will operate once per hour, with service ending at 9 p.m.

METRORail will operate at 12-minute intervals Thursday.

There will be no rail or bus service Friday and thereafter until it is safe to resume.

Sept. 22, 2005

Effective at 2 p.m. today, Thursday, Sept. 22, METRO will suspend bus service until further notice. This will allow more buses to be used for evacuation purposes.

Rail service will continue today until 9 p.m. At that time rail service will be suspended until further notice.

METRO To Begin Priority Bus Service On Sunday;

Rail Service Expected To Resume Monday

Sunday, September 25th

METRO is working hard to restore transit service as rapidly as possible.  However, accomplishing this goal currently is hindered by access to reliable fuel supplies.

Until normal fuel supplies are secured, METRO will operate its bus service on a limited basis. We are working to have full bus and rail service on Monday.

Our service plan calls for resuming limited bus service today, Sunday, September 25th by opening 12 priority routes that are expected to carry approximately half of our normal Sunday ridership.

METRO will continue to evaluate bus service options for the coming work week and will make announcements regarding service as soon as possible.

Service on METRORail is unable to resume on Sunday due to lack of power from our supplier.  METRO is working to restore normal rail service on Monday, September 26th.