Houston Intermodal Transit Center
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The Houston Intermodal Transit Center (also known as Burnett Plaza) was a planned hub for local, commuter, and intercity transit in
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(
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,
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). The site is located adjacent to the campus of the
University of Houston–Downtown The University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) is a public university in Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1974 as University of Houston–Downtown College (UH–DC), it has a campus that spans in Downtown Houston with a satellite loc ...
(UHD). The center would have eventually replaced the Houston
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
, as well as various bus terminals throughout the city such as
Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. is an American operator of Intercity bus service, intercity bus services. Greyhound operates the largest intercity bus network in the United States, and also operates charter and Amtrak Thruway services, as well as interci ...
.


Design

The transit center was designed by EE&K. The plan for the structure would have been a modern glass and steel building surrounding a "great space". Because the facility would have been built over the tracks, one of the dominant features would have been a grand staircase. The center was designed as a multi-level station with
heavy rail Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleratio ...
(commuter,
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
,
Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...
freight) running under a large public space with
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
running via an elevated structure. Main Street would have been split into Upper Main Street, with access to the station at the level of the public space in a loop, and Lower Main Street, which would have gone underneath the entire station and continued on as North Main Street.


Cancellation

Following METRO's 2010 annual audit, the agency decided to cancel the project as part of a
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168 million write-down of worthless or non-existent assets. The value of the land
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
21 million was to be recorded separately as a remaining asset. A smaller
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
station and
bus terminal A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...
, named Burnett Transit Center, opened in 2013 on the southeast corner of Main and Burnett.


References

{{Houston METRORail METRORail stations Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United States