Thank you sir, you just made me the happiest boy in the world. See ya out there, I'll be rockin' the Quakes scarf/United shirt.
Based on the line waiting for the train approximately 5 minutes after the final whistle, driving and parking was a good call. Only $20.
geez, you guys shoulda followed my example and left that debacle at 60'. yes, I just missed Chingy's goal, but I also didn't have to see ManUre's last three, and I rode an empty train back downtown...
If they didn't charge $20 for parking then there wouldn't have been such a crowd on the lightrail. God knows there were plenty of open parking left.
A few observations: Thank God for the A/C in the stadium. To the Dynamo fans yelling "Hey Chicago Boy . . . .etc. (explicatives), thank you. The train is a complete joke. The 70,000+ fans were loud, the atmosphere was fun. The ManU fans from England were pretty fun to be around, the Fox Soccer Channel watching, American ManU fans were douche-bags. Did I mention the train is a joke? Good to see some of you at the Flying Saucer, now back to my air conditioning. Night all.
7 goals and I got to meet Chapulin Colorado and I learned that Uncle Sam is Hispanic, doesn't get any better.
The conspiracy theory gene in me has always maintained that the reason that they so heavily promote/scare folks into taking the rail ("Traffic is expected to be heavy; you may be maimed or killed if you drive and park; we encourage you to take MetroRail") is to artificiallly pump up ridership because the line cannot and will not ever sufficiently support itself with normal traffic. Its the same reason they discontinued many bus lines and routes to the Medical Center and replaced them with routes to the Fannin lot or Downtown with a transfer to the rail line for the final leg. Get folks on the rail one way or the other even though the line runs between two employment centers only (plus Reliant). But when we left a bit early and saw the stream of folks headed for the station while almost no one was going to the cars, I knew it was going to be a long wait for most.
It's funny, I've heard and read a lot of complaining about the trains. I don't get it, but maybe I'm just delusional. We got to the Fannin P&R at 3 PM. Took the train to Reliant and spent a couple of hours at the festival playing games and getting free stuff. Took the train back to our car dropped off our stuff, sat in the A/C for a while and had a couple of drinks. Took the train back to the station and got their just when the doors opened. After the game we hung out in the stadium until about 10 then walked back to the train and got in line. We were back in our car and travelling down 610 before 11. Honestly pretty painless, and we spent way less than the $25 they were charging for parking. I would definitely do it the same way again.
We rode to the game from our hotel with no problems either, bet we left a little before 10 and the line looked ridiculous. But seriously, it might have only been one or two trains to knock it down. I don't know, cause our hotel was just one station away and walked, no big problem. A lot better than paying $25.
We took the train downtown all the time. Parked by the Southmore station and rode down for a night out or for an Astros game. Not only painless but much better than finding parking and having to worry about who drives after a few "pops"
If it makes u feel any better the rail is always that bad after a big event. Rodeo, Texans(if its a close game), etc. its like they are clueless to the extra traffic. Metro is a great example of what happens when government gets their hands in something
Or New York after a Mets/Yankees/Giants/Jets game. Only the Knicks/Rangers (in the heart of the city with lots of lines) have it easy.
Read your own post and maybe you'll get it...You arrived very early and stayed inside the stadium fairly late. We left the stadium just after the trophy presentation and the lines at the train were ridiculous. Actually to clarify, there were two problems, not enough trains, and NO organization. They were attempting to funnel both North and South bound passengers through one gate. But there were no clearly marked lanes to seperate North bound from South bound passengers. Houston Police Officers (NOT Metro police) on hand were giving conflicting directions and it shouldn't be HPD's job to give Metro directions in the first place! A bunch of hot, sweaty, smelly, half inebriated people ended up walking through, over, around and in between each other trying to find a quick path to the train. Frustrated with this crowd, at least hundreds of people ended up walking back to the Fannin South park and ride. I'm assuming most of these people had purchased round trip tickets which meant that Metro can count them as paid riders. In reality, since the tickets were unused, they were all making cash contributions to an inept transportation authority. My wife and I came out of the game with huge smiles on our faces. 30 minutes later I was about to punch the next person who tried to shove ahead in the Metro line. Metro is joke and it always has been. The train was far and away the worst part of the All Star experience.
Well in Seattle there was a big crowd waiting for the train after the MLS Cup game but theY all pretty much fit on one train once it got there. Maybe that happened at Reliant too, but we didn't stick around to watch. It seems like they wood have had more trains running after the game was running though.
I paid $20 and parked. It seemed to me Houston underestimated the crowd. I've had a much easier time getting out of the parking during the Rodeo. The times I've used the train it's been chaos getting on the train after an event, but I've never had to wait for more than one train to get on.
Don't use the train then, pay the 20 bucks and press your luck trying to find a parking space. We had no problems, because we planned and arrived early, when I can't find parking tickets for Texans games, I ride the train,, knowing that a lot of people will. This was a soldout game, 70,000 fans, not a texans soldout game in which they sell all tickets but lots of STH don't go and many corporate tickets go unuse. Lots of people, lots of cars, if you are not expecting parking/train/traffic/problems, then you just don't get it when you go to an event in which pretty much will arrive and leave at the same time. If the US gets the WC and Houston gets a few games, don't plan on attending if getting early, lots of traffic, lots of people is something you dislike.
The issue is that they heavily promote and push the MetroRail then basically neglect the actual operation of it. Since I got the heck out of there it wasn't an issue, but it did not seem to me like they had added extra trains just for this based on what I saw driving up Fannin. The Rodeo is pretty well organized with it (they have to since so much parking is eliminated by the carnival, etc.) but you do have a more spread out outflow of folks. It's a really large glorified shuttle bus, not a efficient rail operation.
I wouldn't compare the Rodeo to a sporting event. People show up at different times throughout the day and a dcent portion stay after the performance. I would use a Texans game as a decent comparrison - never been to one so someone else would have to compare.