The light rail has so much potential, but totally useless for most

Does anyone have any insight as to why there is no light rail west of I45? I'm a recent transplant and live right on Memorial Park. I chose this area due to its (relative) walkability and biking/jogging options. Went to an Astros game last week and wanted to take public transit so I could have some drinks at the game. My two options seemed to be Uber or Bus. I opted for Uber as I didn't want my first experience with the bus to be late at night in an unfamiliar area. Is there any plans to expand the light rail at all? It seems wild to me that the city's only rail system can't get me from within a 5 mile radius of the city center to downtown. If you aren't going north or south, the system is worthless.

Also, I would really love to see a rail connection to IAH. The Hardy Toll Road seems redundant and underutilized with I45 and I69 both going from downtown to the airport. And there's already train tracks along the entire road! Why in the world is there not passenger trains on these tracks? The current bus solution just loses all of its value when it takes 3x as long as an uber and gets stuck in the same traffic.