HOUSTON – It's the usual Monday morning rush with an once-in-a-lifetime, confusing change that's pushing some riders toward their boiling point.
"I want to cry!" Fela Gonzalez, a bus rider, said Monday morning.
"Some buses stop where they used to go and this… it's a hassle, man," Sylvester Davis, another rider, added.
Metro says they expected the confusion and put extra staff at the Texas Medical Center Transit Center Monday morning to help riders through their first weekday commute on Metro's new redesigned bus system. It is an overhaul Metro admits means longer commutes for some.
"It's taken me an hour and 30 minutes, whereas it was 40 minutes," another rider said.
But a faster, simpler, more direct ride for most of the more than 200,000 daily riders.
"Yeah more frequent so I'll appreciate that," Francisco Figueroa said.
Under the new system, more than 20 routes now come every 15 minutes or less. There are more crosstown routes that avoid downtown gridlock and more weekend service.
"I don't think there's another US bus system this size which has done a change like this since the 1980s," Christof Spieler, a Metro board member, said.
Spieler says he's heard from several other cities that now want to follow Houston's lead, including Austin.
"When Austin says, ‘We want to be like Houston', that means something!" he said.
Columbus, Ohio is launching a similar network in 2017.
"A couple of my colleagues and I are here to take everything in, see how everything's going, learn from everything that Metro is doing," Lisa Myers, with Central Ohio Transit Authority, said.
Now Metro is hoping riders to get on board with the changes to help the new system take off.
Monday through this Saturday you can ride all buses and trains for free. Afterwards you will still pay $1.25.
