HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Monday, May 14, 2007, on KPRC Local 2 at 5 p.m.

In 2003, Houstonians voted on a mass transit system that would use light-rail to help unclog our freeways and streets. The Main Street rail-line was built. But, as METRO is about to break ground on four new lines, it won't be light-rail as we were told, it's going to be Bus Rapid Transit, or B.R.T. KPRC Local 2 investigative reporter Robert Arnold shows us what led to the change.

B.R.T. is a diesel bus on rubber wheels that's similar to light rail in that it follows a fixed guide-path and makes far fewer stops than a regular bus.

Here's how B.R.T. came about. METRO can't build these lines without funding from the federal government. In 2003, METRO officials predicted the number of riders would justify the expense of light-rail. Except that predicted number of riders didn't hold true -- meaning, to get federal funding, METRO had to go with the less expensive alternative of B.R.T.

"If we don't get federal dollars on these lines, it's not going to happen and we're not doing anybody any good to go down a road that isn't going to happen," said David Wolff, METRO's chairman.

"We want to ask officials under oath how they can go from rail to bus rapid transit without seeking voter approval for that change," attorney Andy Taylor said.

Houston Attorney Andy Taylor says that switch violates the 2003 vote.

Chairman David Wolff says B.R.T. allows METRO to live up to the spirit of the referendum. And notes as METRO's building these lines, it will lay down tracks so it can switch to light-rail if ridership numbers justify it.

"That's an additional expenditure which we wouldn't have to do, but we want to show people that we want to get to light-rail as soon as we can," Wolff said.

Houston Congressman John Culberson …

"The reason METRO had to switch from light-rail to B.R.T. is that the old METRO board inflated revenue numbers and ridership numbers," Culberson said.

Culberson points to this chart.

He says the green line shows what METRO predicted it would get in federal funding, the red line shows what's it's getting.

METRO disputes these numbers saying Culberson is comparing spending to revenue -- except we came across this tape of a news conference from two years ago.

"I want to recognize in particular Congressman Culberson -- he came up with numbers. He said the METRO numbers were inflated. Congressman Culberson, the benefit of history shows was right. The METRO numbers were wrong," Houston Mayor Bill White said on June 13, 2005.

Still, neither Culberson nor White are opposed to B.R.T.

"I think most citizens want us to do what we can to get the federal funds to build rail cost effectively, and I think this is a means to do it," White said.

White is troubled, though, by the ongoing feud between Culberson and METRO that is holding up the start of work on this proposed route, part of which is on Richmond.

"They will not build it on Richmond," Culberson said.

"John should pay attention to other things," Wolff said.

"There is a dispute and it's a hard and serious dispute about two miles of a 10 mile line," White said. "There's going to have to be a resolution and I just ask everybody to listen to each other."

Which now puts Mayor White in the position of referee in a battle many thought was settled four years ago.

Current METRO leaders say they are committed to providing conservative funding projections. During the 2003 election, Arthur Schechter was the Chairman of METRO. He vehemently denies Culberson's claims.

In a statement to Local 2 Investigates, Schechter writes, "(Culberson) is now wrong in attacking METRO for shortfalls that result from his failure to honor his word in bringing to Houston federal dollars commensurate with his promise and with the needs of our community."

Full Statement From Arthur Schechter

Thank you for forwarding to me the numbers and Congressman Culberson's explanation.

It seems that the prior boards sales tax numbers were right on target. We were promised cooperation and full federal funding by Congressman John Culberson and his mentor, Congressman Tom Delay, if we passed the referendum.

Our board worked closely with John Culberson's office, and bent over backward to try to accommodate his frequent and often baseless criticisms of both the plan and our board.

However, we naively believed that Congressman Culberson would keep his promises if we met his objections and passed the referendum after all his promises were public. We did both and when our board went out, we believed that Congressman Culberson would do what he had promised to do.

We would have been entitled to money from the "New Starts" funding at a hundred million dollars per year to do our rail construction, and to do what the public had voted for us to do.

I also would like to point out that our board and the outstanding staff at METRO conducted over 500 public meetings and spent countless volunteer hours and enormous personal resource putting together the plan that was submitted to the voters, bearing in mind the needs of our community in the future to be more than a solid piece of concrete, as Houston continued to grow.

Congressman Culberson failed to keep his word, and only by the intervention of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was Houston able to receive a small fraction of the money committed by Congressman Culberson, who allowed hundreds of millions of dollars of Houston-based tax payer dollars to be sent to every other transit authority in the country, including substantial dollars to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In addition, a second pot of money, the "Formula" dollars that our board believed we were safe in projecting that we would receive was based on the funds authorized by Congress from what is in essence a second pot of money available to public transportation. As it turns out, Congressman Culberson was not able to get Congress to appropriate the amount of money that had been authorized and thus, Houston's share was diminished further.

Congressman Culberson cried "foul" when our board published its sales tax projections prior to the 2003 referendum. These numbers were exactly on target. $1.7 billion over the last four fiscal years (2004-2007).

John Culberson was wrong in attacking that amount of money, and is now wrong in attacking METRO for shortfalls that result from his failure to honor his word in bringing to Houston federal dollars commensurate with his promise and with the needs of our community.

As nothing was delivered while his party was in power, I doubt that Congressman Culberson can deliver now, particularly in light of the fact that other communities have unified congressional delegations that seek to do good for their communities.

Houston's federal dollars are distributed to these communities. In other words, Houston and its taxpayers who pay federal gasoline taxes on every gallon of gasoline that we purchase, basically sees our dollars sent elsewhere for public transportation needs.