DALLAS | Public Transport

[greg_christine]

Las Colinas has a people mover system called the Las Colinas Area Personal Transit System. Does any participant in this forum know if there is a convenient transfer to the people mover from the Las Colinas light rail station?

[dfwcre8tive]

Originally Posted by greg_christine

Las Colinas has a people mover system called the Las Colinas Area Personal Transit System. Does any participant in this forum know if there is a convenient transfer to the people mover from the Las Colinas light rail station?

Yes, the Las Colinas Urban Center station has a new direct connection to the APT. They've converted one of the unused guideways to a pedestrian walkway from the station to Tower on Lake Carolyn and added stairs/elevators at the end of DART's platform. There are potential plans to build out remaining APT stations and fully automate the system as connecting traffic picks up.

You can see one of the APT vehicles parked at the end of the guideway in the photos below.





Photos from jtk1519

[dfwcre8tive]

DCTA starts midday service on Monday. The commuter schedules have been adjusted now that the new Stadler vehicles have been delivered.

http://www.ridedcta.com/images/stori..._2012_r725.pdf



Photo Reference

[FM 2258]

DCTA uses diesel trains? If so I wonder why they did not electrify like DART.

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by FM 2258

DCTA uses diesel trains? If so I wonder why they did not electrify like DART.

All about the Benjamins. This line really is a commuter line rather than light rail like DART, so diesel makes sense as far to the way most American commuter rail systems are built. Love those GTW trains!

Steve

[FM 2258]

They are definitely nice looking trains. I've noticed in New Jersey quite a few NJTransit trains are diesel. Adding more frequency and new trains = good for DCTA.

[Woonsocket54]

Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/trans...fw-airport.ece

Big day for DART as routes are extended to Rowlett, D/FW Airport

By RAY LESZCYNSKI
Staff Writer
rleszcynski@dallasnews.com
Published: 03 December 2012 07:05 AM

Expansion of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system could be seen Monday in the form of three new rail stations and in higher user fees to board buses and trains.

A promise nearly three decades old was fulfilled in Rowlett, an original member city which saw its first day of Blue Line light-rail service. The Orange Line was extended into Irving with stops at North Lake College and Belt Line roads inching closer to the system-wide dream of rail service to D/FW International Airport.

From Belt Line at Valley View, the new Route 500 bus shuttles fliers and employees to the airport — a stop-gap measure until the Orange Line is completed in 2014.

“This is an experiment for me,” said Jim Lay, who caught the 500 to Belt Line Station on Monday morning after flying in from Baltimore. A frequent visitor to Dallas, he found the new rail system a welcome alternative to the $65 cab fare or multi-step transfer he used previously to get downtown.

At the opposite end of the platform, Gary Dudek was testing out the new rail line on his day off.

The airport employee's previous DART commute to work took at least 2 ½ hours each way, he said: a bus, then another bus to one of D/FW’s remote lots, then a shuttle, then another shuttle.

Even worse, he said, the buses often stopped running before the end of his night shift, forcing him to walk part of the way back.

“Hopefully I don't have to walk nine miles home anymore,” he said.

Gary Thomas, DART president and executive director, said success would be judged short-term by people being able to get where they needed to go.

Longer-term for Rowlett, which has paid $73.6 million into the system since 1984, Thomas looked at development opportunities along Main Street, State Highway 66 and the Bush Turnpike, all close to the station and its 750 parking spaces. While DART did not have ridership numbers to release, more than two-thirds of those spaces were occupied by 9 a.m.

“If you drive to downtown Garland and Rowlett, they’re hard to get to,” he said. “It is exciting to see these opportunities.

“I think this is going to be a great city for people to come to. Not just an origination point, but a destination as well.”

Greg Weiler, who has been taking the bus to commute to his job in downtown Dallas for 21 years, hopes it’ll be an immediate benefit to his favorite burger place on Rowlett’s Main Street.

The population of the city along Lake Ray Hubbard has grown five-fold to more than 56,000 during its tenure in DART. The transit agency was initially approved by less than 1,000 voters.

“The vision of the people that said then that ‘Yes, this is something we need to be a part of’ is remarkable,” said Rowlett Council member Donna Davis.

As expected, Rowlett’s first train also served residents from points east.

John Cothran, network services manager at El Centro College, had been commuting from Rockwall to the train in downtown Garland for about three years.

“When I started down there, I was commuting via car and realized there was a train station. I tried that and it was so much easier,” he said. “The traffic coming in from Rockwall starts at the George Bush, about a block from here. I’m going to save a ton of time.”

Because of a two-week test train period, riders in Downtown Garland had gotten used to the fact that trains arrived from an overpass to the east and that they had to wait in the wind instead of the warmed rail cars.

What they weren’t used to was a shorter walk from the parking lot. Maybe not the 200 fewer cars DART predicted once Rowlett opened, but certainly there were spaces available both near the bus connections and at Garland’s Performing Arts Center.

At the Downtown Garland station ticket machines, the roughly 25 percent fare increase wasn’t being discussed as much as the change in the touch-screen options. Those looking for reduced fares paused as the former “reduced” option had been broken down into child, senior/disability, high school and college/trade categories.

Dawn Swinburne, one of a half-dozen people jumping on in Garland to ride against the mid-morning flow to get to work in Rowlett. But she missed a train by half a minute.

“It went up to $5 instead of $4, but I’m still saving $330 a month by not driving by my figures,” she said. “Even though there’s some inconvenience, if I’m saving money, I’m happy.”

The train ride from Garland to a new station on Monday was 40 minutes longer than the commute two North Lake College students had by car, they said. And they weren’t looking forward to trekking across North Lake’s massive parking lot each morning. But they considered such inconveniences a fair trade for saving $40 a week on gas.

“And now I get to study on the train,” said Shasta Massey.

But back at the platform, the Orange Line had deposited a dozen riders trying to get to work in Valley Ranch, a few miles north. None of them were happy to be there.

The workers hadn’t known DART would be reshuffling its bus routes on Monday. So they took the train to Las Colinas Urban Center Station only to find their usual bus didn’t stop there anymore.

They said a DART hotline misdirected them to another station. Several train rides and more than an hour later, they had finally found their new bus stop but many were already late for work.

“I don’t want to complain,” said Alex Flores, a waiter at Mattito’s Tex Mex. “I’m only going to ride it another week. Then my car gets fixed and I don’t have to ride a train anymore.”

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[WanKenobi]

Today in Vienna (Austria) was partly open completely new main railway station.
it's really nice station:

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by WanKenobi

Today in Vienna (Austria) was partly open completely new main railway station.
it's really nice station:

Wrong thread

[FM 2258]

Originally Posted by Woonsocket54

Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/trans...fw-airport.ece




https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

I'm very impressed with DART Rail and have used it several times while in Dallas. I can't wait until they get the connection to DFW airport completed. I feel that a rail connection from the airport to the city is essential for large cities. Buses can get stuck in traffic, taxi's are stupidly expensive and also get stuck in traffic. 2014

[Dale]

Very impressed with what a 'poster child for sprawl' is doing in terms of local rail. Doesn't Dallas now have the most extensive light rail system in North America ?

[Woonsocket54]

There are many children on such posters, not just Dallas.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Woonsocket54

There are many children on such posters, not just Dallas.

Huh ?

[diablo234]

Originally Posted by Dale

Very impressed with what a 'poster child for sprawl' is doing in terms of local rail. Doesn't Dallas now have the most extensive light rail system in North America ?

Something like that, DART already has 80 miles or light rail completed with more on the way (although I think Denver's RTD is a close competitor).

Anyways what was not listed on the map is that a southern extension of the Blue Line to the University of North Texas-Dallas is currently being planned.

[Woonsocket54]

Perhaps Dallas has the most LR mileage, but the ridership lags behind smaller systems.

Average weekday LR ridership in 3Q 2012

Boston MBTA - 231.7k
LA Metro - 200.3k
SF Muni - 173.5k
Portland MAX - 129.6k
SD Trolley - 95.7k
Philadelphia SEPTA trolleys - 94.9k
Dallas DART - 78.8k

[TexasBoi]

Originally Posted by Woonsocket54

Perhaps Dallas has the most LR mileage, but the ridership lags behind smaller systems.

Average weekday LR ridership in 3Q 2012

Boston MBTA - 231.7k
LA Metro - 200.3k
SF Muni - 173.5k
Portland MAX - 129.6k
SD Trolley - 95.7k
Philadelphia SEPTA trolleys - 94.9k
Dallas DART - 78.8k

Update for weekday LR ridership in 4Q 2012
01. Boston - 222,500
02. Los Angeles - 203,400
03. San Francisco - 160,100
04. Portland - 115,400
05. Philadelphia - 113,900
06. Dallas - 103,100

Dallas has improved.

[phoenixboi08]

Originally Posted by Dale

Huh ?

Los Angeles is one other city undertaking "Sprawl Repair" as well as some municipalities in the Phoenix area.

There are others (that I can't recall), but LA and some of these other South/Mountain West cities are the most prominent.