Narrative:

Air carrier X and air carrier Y were head on at FL390 during a very busy and dangerous session with thunderstorms. I assumed the vuh sector 68 area with a significant line of weather from approximately the lla VOR extending north northeast. Tops were above FL400. The trios departures were deviating south head on with the wolde arrivals. I asked the flm (front line manager) to please stop these departures and have them routed out the bolos gate. I had to vector the wolde arrival south so the trios departures could climb and the wolde arrivals could get down. I also asked if we could get the arrivals on the kaboy arrival so they would stay south of the deviating departure traffic. All the arrivals going over das/rokit was routed south over the wolde and clmba arrivals; along with the cleep departures being routed out the trios gate. This made for very heavy traffic that was head on with each other due to the fact of weather in the departures and arrival corridor. This mixing of climbing and descending traffic was very dangerous while deviating for weather. The flm's tried to get tmu (traffic management unit) to reroute the arrival and departure traffic to no avail. I estimate that it took over 45 minutes before something was finally done to help the situation. It was all this deviating traffic and amount of very heavy traffic that I almost missed the air carrier X and air carrier Y head on situation. The workload should not have been this complex with simple reroutes over available routes; but the tmu said we did not have the big picture. Well I say when you put aircraft head on for no reason then you have no picture. This situation should never occur. If there was an error; who do you think would be called to the floor for it? Certainly not the tmu controller who says we do not have the big picture; but I would; who only has the picture in front of him. When a controller asks for help on routes then tmu should provide the help requested. The common sense thing to do was to reroute the arrival and departures. Houston approach should be more compliant with our requests to reroute arrival and departures.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU Controller voiced concern regarding the TMU's refusal to re-route HOU traffic during a very complex and weather deviation period; resulting in arrivals and departures being placed head-on.

Narrative: Air Carrier X and Air Carrier Y were head on at FL390 during a very busy and dangerous session with thunderstorms. I assumed the VUH Sector 68 area with a significant line of weather from approximately the LLA VOR extending north northeast. Tops were above FL400. The TRIOS departures were deviating south head on with the WOLDE arrivals. I asked the FLM (Front Line Manager) to please stop these departures and have them routed out the BOLOS gate. I had to vector the WOLDE arrival south so the TRIOS departures could climb and the WOLDE arrivals could get down. I also asked if we could get the arrivals on the KABOY arrival so they would stay south of the deviating departure traffic. All the arrivals going over DAS/ROKIT was routed south over the WOLDE and CLMBA arrivals; along with the CLEEP departures being routed out the TRIOS gate. This made for very heavy traffic that was head on with each other due to the fact of weather in the departures and arrival corridor. This mixing of climbing and descending traffic was very dangerous while deviating for weather. The FLM's tried to get TMU (Traffic Management Unit) to reroute the arrival and departure traffic to no avail. I estimate that it took over 45 minutes before something was finally done to help the situation. It was all this deviating traffic and amount of very heavy traffic that I almost missed the Air Carrier X and Air Carrier Y head on situation. The workload should not have been this complex with simple reroutes over available routes; but the TMU said we did not have the big picture. Well I say when you put aircraft head on for no reason then you have no picture. This situation should never occur. If there was an error; who do you think would be called to the floor for it? Certainly not the TMU Controller who says we do not have the big picture; but I would; who only has the picture in front of him. When a controller asks for help on routes then TMU should provide the help requested. The common sense thing to do was to reroute the arrival and departures. Houston Approach should be more compliant with our requests to reroute arrival and departures.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.