Houston METRO offers a new service called IAH Direct (or Route 500) that travels between George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston and George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH Airport) Terminal E. Houston has two major airports, IAH Airport (that is located north of Houston) and William P. Hobby Airport (or HOU; located southeast of Houston). This blog will detail the experience in riding the IAH Direct from Downtown Houston to IAH Airport Terminal E.

This bus departs every 30 minutes, everyday (including holidays), between 5:35 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The travel time between those two destinations is around 40 minutes.

Baggage is allowed on the bus. But if it is an oversize baggage, please contact METRO at 713-635-4000 to confirm.

Fares

As of April 2025, the full adult fare to ride the Airport Direct Bus is $4.50. There are three ways to pay the fare: cash, METRO Fare Card or METRO Fare Mobile App.

Cash

Bus does accepts cash. Please pay in exact change. Bus operators or fare box does not provide change. In addition, bus operators does not provide transfer tickets if planning to transfer to another METRO Bus Route or Rail Line.

METRO Fare Mobile App

METRO has an option to purchase fare ticket(s) onto your mobile phone. The official app(s) is called RideMETRO App or METRO Q Mobile Ticketing App. Both mobile apps accepts major credit cards (including mobile payments).

When boarding the bus, demonstrate the mobile app (with the purchase ticket) to the bus operator. The mobile ticketing app allows transfers to other METRO services (up to three hours).

If purchasing a ticket from the mobile app, the fare zone is 4.

METRO Fare Card

Houston METRO has their own fare tap card. Fare Cards can be purchase at the METRO’s Ride Store Online, METRORail Ticket Vending Machine, or participating retailers in the Houston area. After purchasing a fare card, METRO will mail you the tap card.

When boarding the bus, tap the card to the fare card reader.

You can also transfer to other METRO services up to three hours.

En Route

The bus ride between those two locations is around 30 minutes. In addition, the bus travels on Interstate Highway (IH) 69 or U.S. Highway Route 59 Eastex Freeway between those two locations.

Locations

Downtown Houston

IAH Airport Direct Bus begins and/or terminates at the George R. Brown Convention Center Parking Garage (first floor or street level). The address of this airport bus stop is 1807 Rusk Street Houston Texas 77002. The stop number of this bus stop is 13205.

Around the bus stop is George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB), hotels, Discovery Green Park, Daikin Park (baseball stadium) and METRORail Convention Center Station (serving METRORail Green and Purple Lines).

IAH Airport Terminal E

IAH Airport Direct Bus begins/terminates at IAH Terminal C Passenger Pickup area (which is located at the first or ground level floor; baggage claim area).

The major airline hub in Terminal E is United Airlines (mostly flying domestically).

Other terminals

IAH Airport has five terminals, there are Terminals A, B, C, and D/E. Since IAH Direct stops only at Terminal E, there are two ways to travel to other terminals, using the Subway or Skyway.

Bus Model

For this route, Houston METRO uses a Motor Coach Industries (MCI). This bus can carry luggage/bags on top of the seats or below the bus compartments. Each seats has a USB Type A charger and standard power outlet (to recharge phone devices or laptops).

The seating configurations is two by two.

Opinion

I am glad that METRO has resumed an airport direct bus service that travels between IAH and Downtown Houston. IAH Airport Direct bus was started in the early 2010s but service was later terminated due to low ridership (although, ridership was slowly growing).

This express bus ride is cheaper than using ride share (like Uber/Lyft) or taxi services. Hopefully METRO would expand the airport direct to William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) soon. In addition, I hope that METRO would expand the airport direct buses to other major districts, such as Texas Medical Center (TMC), Greenway Plaza and Uptown Houston. Not everyone travels to Downtown.

IAH Airport Direct Limitations

Sadly, Route 500 hours of operation is limited (5am – 8pm). There is one simple case that if you landed after 8pm at IAH, then Route 500 is not available option to travel to Downtown Houston. However, Route 102 is an alternative option. The cost to ride the 102 is $1.25 and Route 102 travels between Downtown Houston, Greenspoint and IAH Terminal E. The hours of operation of Route 102 is between 4am – 1am. Checkout my blog about Route 102 Bush IAH Express Bus Route.

Reference

METRO Bus Text Message

You can text METRO at 697-433 and enter the stop number 13205 (if departing from Downtown) or 11657 (if departing from IAH)to view upcoming bus arrival on your text message. The screenshot below is a sample of the next bus arrival text message. In the text message entry field, I have enter stop number 811 and in seconds, I have received the upcoming bus schedule of that bus stop.

In the response message, SC stands for Schedule (no real-time information is available, however, the schedule time is in place) and RT stands for real-time arrival.

External Links

• Official IAH Airport Direct Schedule, Maps and Fares
  • Visit the official METRO Route 500 IAH Airport Direct Bus webpage. On that webpage, you can view schedules, maps and fare information about the service.
• Houston METRO Fares
  • Visit the official METRO Fares webpage about the latest fare information (prices, transfers, and purchasing options).