DALLAS | Public Transport

[dwdwone]

I'd read that the Orange Line out to DFW Airport has been delayed, yet construction seems to be continuing. What's up with that?

[ssiguy2]

Those are very attractive stations.

[dfwcre8tive]

Originally Posted by dwdwone

I'd read that the Orange Line out to DFW Airport has been delayed, yet construction seems to be continuing. What's up with that?

Due to utility relocation issues with TxDOT (the new SH114 and LRT are under construction in the same right-of-way) the line now has an 8-month opening delay of August 2012 instead of December 2011. But construction is not slowing down on the line to Las Colinas.

The extension to DFW Airport will open sometime around 2013. For a while it was rumored that this would be delayed indefinitely due to funding problems, but DART has promised Irving that this extension will receive priority over all other LRT projects (downtown D2 line, etc).

[dwdwone]

D2 is a much needed, worthwhile project, but I don't know how they can possibly pay for it.

Am glad they are not indefinitely delaying the line to DFW. This has incredible ridership potential. Almost a captive audience. I've often wondered why the Trinity Express didn't run a spur up to the south entrance. It's not that far and would do wonders for TRE ridership as well.

[dfwcre8tive]

^ Well, now DART has changed its mind...

Transit agency can't afford final segment of Orange Line to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
11:56 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 22, 2010

By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER/The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....cc08752e.html

Dallas Area Rapid Transit can't afford to build light-rail service to D/FW International Airport by 2013 as it has long said it would, the agency's chief financial officer said Tuesday.

The news comes as a sharp reversal, but CFO David Leininger said the only way the project can be built in the near future will be if new revenues can be found, either through a new tax or, more likely but still uncertain, a federal grant that would cover the approximately $275 million cost of the final leg of the Orange Line.

...

[dwdwone]

I'm not surprised. They are running out of money. Not, I think, because of poor ridership but because the tax base is eroding due to a poor economy.

[dfwcre8tive]

An update on the OCTA Streetcar (won $23 million in TIGER grants back in February)

Downtown-Oak Cliff streetcar line in planning stage
07:52 AM CDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010
By ROY APPLETON / The Dallas Morning News
rappleton@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...r.1cb6837.html

Five-plus years from now, streetcars may be carrying passengers daily between Union Station downtown and Methodist Dallas Medical Center in north Oak Cliff.

That's the vision detailed in a federal funding agreement for the project.

In February, the U.S. Transportation Department awarded a $23 million stimulus grant for a starter streetcar system in Dallas.

And a memorandum of understanding between the federal government and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the grant recipient, includes some ideas to get the project rolling. Such as:

• Streetcars would cross the Trinity River on the Houston Street bridge, linking downtown and Methodist in a 1.5-mile line. The streetcars would run every 15 minutes during peak periods (30 minutes nonpeak) on a single track that would be doubled across the bridge for passing.

• After crossing the river, the cars would travel on Greenbriar Lane to Methodist and backtrack to downtown with a possible spur there to the convention center.

• Besides the stimulus grant, another $12 million from regional toll road revenue and other sources would fund the $35 million project.

• The city of Dallas would own the line. Dallas Area Rapid Transit would operate it through an agreement with the city. Streetcar fares and revenue from parking, tax-increment financing and public improvement districts would cover annual operating and maintenance costs estimated at $1.5 million.

• Groundbreaking would be on July 1, 2013, with a system launch on Oct. 1, 2015.

...

MATA Streetcar & FWTA Streetcar (won $4.9 million and $25 million today)

McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, Fort Worth Receive Millions in Urban Circulator Grants
By Robert Wilonsky, Thu., Jul. 8 2010 @ 9:42AM
Categories: News
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa...sit_author.php

​A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing the future of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority -- specifically, its plans to create a "connector loop line down St. Paul and up Federal to Olive," in the words of MATA's chief operating officer, John Landrum. MATA and Dallas Area Rapid Transit were hoping that the feds would help pay for some of that so-called urban connector -- and, sure enough, this morning U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the MATA connector loop will indeed get $4.9 million of the $293 million handed out today as "part of the Obama Administration's livability initiative to better coordinate transportation, housing and commercial development investments to serve the people living in those communities."

But the big winner is Fort Worth, whose Fort Worth Streetcar Loop will get $25 million -- a far cry from the nada it received in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds back in February. There's a conference call with LaHood shortly -- I'm on hold with some funky lite-jazz -- but according to the release, Dallas and Fort Worth are but two of six cities receiving so-called Urban Circulator Grants -- meaning, 59 other applicants didn't receive anything.

...

Now let's go to the breakdown:
Project: Fort Worth Streetcar Loop (Urban Circulator)
Sponsor: The City of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority
Amount: $24,990,000

The City of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority will construct a 2.5-mile one-way streetcar loop with between 20 and 25 stops and three vehicles to connect a Trinity Railway Express commuter rail station and Intermodal Transportation Center with the central business district. This will be the hub of a planned streetcar network connecting six designated "urban villages" targeted for redevelopment to the city's major employment centers, such as downtown and the Near Southside Medical District. Ultimately, the streetcar system will connect residents in four economically disadvantaged areas to job opportunities in major employment centers, while stimulating the redevelopment of walkable urban neighborhoods with a variety of housing choices.

Project: Olive/St. Paul Street Loop (Urban Circulator)
Sponsor: Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority (DART)
Amount: $4,900,000

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority (DART) will build a 0.65-mile urban streetcar track extension to an existing system. This project would link the current McKinney Trolley to the existing DART light rail St. Paul Station and to the McKinney Trolley Olive Street Extension in the heart of Downtown Dallas. The connection to the Olive Street extension would form an entire reversing loop for the trolley, making operations safer and more efficient, while connecting downtown destinations such as the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center to Uptown Dallas.

[dwdwone]

Is there any way, I wonder, to integrate the streetcar system with the old Fort Worth subway? It could make for some interesting possibilities.

[loaked]

whats with the park and ride, is it suppose to be a light rail commuter train?

[dwdwone]

Which park and ride?

[dfwcre8tive]

DART Green Line aerial photo updates:

Photo updates from July 2010 (larger versions here ):

Frankford/North Carrollton



Trinity Mills







Downtown Carrollton









Farmers Branch





Royal Lane





Walnut Hill/Denton







Bachman





Northwest Rail Operating Facility





Burbank





Inwood/Love Field





Southwest Medical District/Parkland







Market Center





Hatcher





Lawnview







Lake June





Buckner

[dfwcre8tive]

DCTA A-Train construction:

A few photos from the WEBSITE :

[dfwcre8tive]

DART Blue Line extension to Downtown Rowlett

Photo updates from July 2010 (larger versions here ):

Downtown Rowlett







Downtown Garland

[dwdwone]

Here are a few pics of the construction in Irving. As you can tell by that last image, nothing pleases a metrophile more than being able to trainspot and hit balls at the same time.

[dwdwone]

PS Sorry about the image sizes. I have no idea how to size them down or edit them.

[dfwcre8tive]

Originally Posted by dwdwone

I'd read that the Orange Line out to DFW Airport has been delayed, yet construction seems to be continuing. What's up with that?

Looks like it's back on now, with a slight delay...

DART uses new financial assumptions to revive D/FW airport rail plan
07:16 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 11, 2010
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.3585d08.html

Just six weeks after telling board members that it couldn't be done, DART executives on Tuesday presented their bosses with a 20-year financial plan that keeps the Orange Line rail service on track to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

They also presented a $1.25 billion budget for 2011 that cuts 87 jobs next year but will delay, for a year at least, layoffs.

The 20-year plan would allow room for a second major rail project, an extension of the Blue Line to southern Oak Cliff by the end of this decade. That's a possibility that promised to draw a fight, or at least a debate, from some board members who think the agency should save its money to build a long-promised second downtown Dallas rail line that is now on hold.

The draft budget for 2011 calls for trimming 87 full-time jobs at DART, few enough to be handled by attrition. It also anticipates some reduced bus and rail services, including having light-rail trains run through downtown every 15 minutes instead of every 10.

...

In addition to the basic assumptions about sales-tax revenue growth, the new 20-year plan assumes a host of other factors that were not part of the plan Leininger presented June 22. Among them:

• The agency will begin tolling high occupancy vehicle lanes within a few years.

• It will begin charging at least some drivers to park at a number of station lots.

• DART will find $100 million or so in unexpected funds, either from federal grants or other sources, to help pay for the extension to Oak Cliff.

• Passenger revenue will rise again, despite having fallen significantly since 2008.

Downtown line

If the bets are well-placed, one big payoff could be the Oak Cliff extension of the Blue Line. But several DART board members said they were eager to hear from Dallas officials about the DART staff's proposal to give that project a higher priority than the second downtown line. The downtown line has been seen as a way to accommodate the extra trains anticipated once the full Green Line service, between Carrollton and Pleasant Grove, opens later this year and Orange Line trains begin arriving from Irving in 2012.

Mark Enoch of Rowlett said DART might be better off saving the money it would spend on the Oak Cliff extension until it finds the rest of the money needed for the second downtown line.

"I am concerned that we are limiting our ability to grow as a system," Enoch said. "We can't clog downtown Dallas."

But other board members, including Pamela Dunlop Gates of Dallas and Irving's John Carter Danish, said the southern extension of the Blue Line is just as important to the development of southern Dallas as the completion of the Orange Line is to Irving.

"If we are stretching ourselves to pay for the Orange Line on the basis of its economic development potential to Irving, then I think we should also stretch ourselves to make this happen for south Dallas," Gates said.

...

[dwdwone]

They can expect lower revenues if the status quo remains for the economy, Charging for parking spaces will probably be a shot in the foot. Running more trains through an already clogged infrastructure (downtown) will affect service quality, which will in turn affect ridership as well. Extensions large or small will mean nothing if people stop using the service. There are more creative ways to deal with budgetary concerns than the panacea of passing the costs on to the consumer, especially while at the same time cutting or permitting service degradations.

[dwdwone]

One other comment, really more a question.

DART has a congestion problem because everything "centers" around downtown. But what if the system were redesigned - tweaked more than redesigned actually - to shift the thru-traffic to a different area. With all the decentralization that has occurred, I can see a second hub established in areas like Oak Cliff, Deep Ellum, even Bachman. It's as if we keep putting pressure on the downtown Dallas corridor without really asking why everything needs to run through there. I question how big a destination downtown Dallas is. How many DART users are traveling between suburbs? How many of those are "forced" to travel through downtown because that's where all the trains go. I'm not suggesting that downtown Dallas is a secondary destinqtion. Rather, that a double or triple bypass for DART does not have to occur in downtown to relieve downtown congestion.

[dfwcre8tive]

Here's a video animation of the DFW Airport rail station:

http://www.star-telegram.com/videos/...ia_id=17287641

[Svartmetall]

Really does seem like a "park and ride" system. Are there decent bus feeders to the light rail? It seems a shame that walk-up patronage will be so low due to the desolate nature of the station locations. Few seem to be ideally located for anything but bus-feeder and park-and-ride.