Light rail boosts business downtown

06:35 PM CST on Monday, January 12, 2004

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

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Houston's light rail has been up and running for just over a week.

It’s too early to judge its success, but some business owners say they’ve already seen a dramatic change that is bringing its own kind of challenge.

Mid-morning on a Monday isn't the time to expect peak ridership but there were some passengers.

"I'm a regular almost every day," said Robert Grassmyer.

Others are still first-timers.

"I drove a bus for Metro for 18 years,” Mike Hughes said after trying out the train. “I wish I hadn't retired so soon."

Many have come for a reason.

“I'm coming down here to see my daughter to eat lunch,” said rail rider Bobbie Young.

Restaurants tell us after years of complaining, they have seen a dramatic difference.

At the Dancing Marlin, they've even added staff. The pressure is now on them to succeed.

“It's scary,” admitted John Zotos with St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin. “Actually the servers we've had here for three years haven't seen it like this in three years so we're actually retraining the beast. Everyone is having to concentrate more on the fundamental things."

Metro says it doesn't have any hard and fast numbers on ridership yet. It won't have them until the first week in February.

But by the middle of the lunch hour, ridership is visibly up, including a group from a church in the Medical Center.

“We've gotten to enjoy all the construction so we thought we'd enjoy the product and ride down and enjoy the city, have lunch down here,” said William Vanderbloemen.

For the first time in a long time, businesses here are already projecting growth instead of just trying to hang on.