{"id":454105,"date":"2026-10-02T08:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454105\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T08:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:32:15","slug":"metro-passes-1-7-billion-budget-with-40-million-in-road-improvements-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454105\/","title":{"rendered":"METRO passes $1.7 billion budget, with $40 million in road improvements \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/series\/hot-stops\/2023\/09\/07\/461283\/its-like-a-sweatbox-houston-bus-stops-reach-dangerous-temperatures-this-summer\/attachment\/173a8398-1-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-461644\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/173A8398-1-1-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"METRO bus stop\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lucio Vasquez\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n<p>Pictured is a bus at a METRO bus stop.<\/p>\n<p>The METRO board approved a roughly $1.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, with $40 million set aside for road, sidewalk and bus stop improvements.  <\/p>\n<p>The board approved the budget at its Wednesday meeting. <\/p>\n<p>Several members of the public spoke out against the budgeting decision to set aside funds for road improvements. They said that repaving roads was not the responsibility of the transit authority and should be left to the city of Houston instead. Some attendees expressed frustration with what they said was a lack of access and service, while others questioned the shelving of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/transportation\/2025\/02\/25\/514702\/houston-transit-authority-unveils-metronow-initiative-focused-on-cleanliness-safety-and-ridership\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">METRONext Project<\/a> from 2019. <\/p>\n<p>Robin Holzer, executive director of transit advocacy group LINK Houston, was among the critics of METRO&#8217;s allocation of funds to road improvements.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Using this $40 million instead to buy more buses, expand service hours or build safer transit infrastructure into great streets, could all make real improvements for the people who ride every day,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>After hearing the public&#8217;s comments, METRO Chair, Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock, said that the budget allocation was part of keeping METRO services in a state of good repair. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is making sure we give just a basic standard of ridership. People deserve to have good roads to ride on and deserve to have the bus shelters in place &#8230; and sidewalks,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We also owe it to our riders to make sure they are safe.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The budget marks a slight decrease from last year&#8217;s roughly $2 billion budget.<\/p>\n<p>METRO originally planned to reduce bus and transit services, but reversed course after public backlash, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/politics\/article\/houston-metro-budget-transit-service-22416101.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucio Vasquez\/Houston Public Media Pictured is a bus at a METRO bus stop. The METRO board approved a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3766,405,56,58,57,66,5761,41110,155999,223,287,7559,70592,840],"class_list":["post-454105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-city-of-houston","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-local","tag-metro","tag-metro-bus","tag-metronow","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-public-transit","tag-road-improvements","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}