DALLAS | Public Transport

[FDW]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yeah, that's the one thing I noticed when it rode it; that there was little in the way of anything around most stations in terms of buisness, but there are significant bus feeders to the stations, with most lines scheduled for timed transfers with the trains, but though there isn't much in the way of walkability with DART right now, it's still a young system, and there are examples of stations trying to buck this trend. (Mockingbird in Dallas, and I think a segment of the Orange line Irving if my memory serves me right)

[dwdwone]

You might consider adding the 15th St station in Plano to the list. The area around that station seems to have developed nicely.

[casinoland]

oh, the irony of the rail stations having giant parking lots...

[lkstrknb]

Here are some pictures I took a few months ago. Enjoy

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[Dan78]

Originally Posted by casinoland

oh, the irony of the rail stations having giant parking lots...

Well, in the suburban U.S., this is pretty much the only way to entice people who would otherwise use autos to instead use transit (especially in areas with poor feeder bus route service).

In D.C., you wouldn't believe the absolutely massive parking decks some suburban Washington Metro stations have...they look like a baby "Borg Cube".

And who knows? Maybe one day these enormous parking 'lagoons' in suburban Dallas can be converted to transit-oriented development.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by casinoland

oh, the irony of the rail stations having giant parking lots...

Hehe, says the forumer named Casinoland.

[YeahWho]

Originally Posted by FDW

Yeah, that's the one thing I noticed when it rode it; that there was little in the way of anything around most stations in terms of buisness, but there are significant bus feeders to the stations, with most lines scheduled for timed transfers with the trains, but though there isn't much in the way of walkability with DART right now, it's still a young system, and there are examples of stations trying to buck this trend. (Mockingbird in Dallas, and I think a segment of the Orange line Irving if my memory serves me right)

Brick Row @ Spring Valley and Greenville is in the making too.

[joshsam]

Originally Posted by casinoland

oh, the irony of the rail stations having giant parking lots...

As train stations in suburban area's and smaller towns have everywhere around the world. I live in a small town(pop 40.000) some 50km from Brussels in Belgium. My train station has big parking lots even when 24! buslines stop at the station that connects all the villages and towns around mine. Thinking that this is europe and we need so much parking at a trainstation I find it normal that, in the USA where an extensive bussystem is not that obvious, trainstations have big parking lots. At least people can now take a train towards their work instead of driving there....Some people can't just see any good...

[joshsam]

Even bigger Belgian towns and cities have giant parkings. They're just not visible because there was no room to create them above ground... They mostly have several layers of underground parking...

[dfwcre8tive]

--

[dfwcre8tive]

Updated aerial images from Orange Line construction.....

Bachman Station junction


Over Harry Hines Blvd.


Over Stemmons Freeway


Over Trinity River


Adjacent to Carpenter Freeway


University at Dallas Station


Las Colinas Urban Center Station


Irving Convention Center Station


Over Carpenter Freeway


Over MacArthur Blvd.


North Lake College Station


Crossing Bush Turnpike and Beltline Rd. Station (DFW Airport, future terminus, in the distance)


More photos: http://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp#orange

[tampasteve]

Is that the people mover in the middle right of the picture? If so, are there any plans at all to time the trains to make transit easier?

Steve

[dfwcre8tive]

Originally Posted by tampasteve

Is that the people mover in the middle right of the picture? If so, are there any plans at all to time the trains to make transit easier?

Steve

Yes, it is.

The Las Colinas Urban Center Station includes access to the APT system. It will include vertical circulation and a connection to the adjacent station at the Towers at Lake Carolyn.







City officials are also considering expansion plans for the system: http://www.dcurd.com/ Currently, it only runs during lunch hours but will be updated to a fully automated system to better connect with the Orange Line.

[greg_christine]

The following is some information on the light rail trains used in Dallas.

[MWC]

I wish every major city in America had or started building something like this. We can't afford subways or metros America is broke but this is better than just having car infested roads.

[FDW]

Originally Posted by MWC

I wish every major city in America had or started building something like this. We can't afford subways or metros America is broke but this is better than just having car infested roads.

Well the Largest Metro Area in the US without any sort of Mass Transit is Orlando. Every Metro area larger (and many smaller), have systems of some sort, for a total of roughly 3 dozen Mass Transit networks throughout the U.S. varying from little heritage trolleys, to the massive New York system, but more of not the standard is Light Rail, which is what it should be.

[Dale]

Orlando is getting both commuter rail and HSR. I believe that makes Indy or Columbus the largest without rail transport.

[FDW]

Originally Posted by Dale

Orlando is getting both commuter rail and HSR. I believe that makes Indy or Columbus the largest without rail transport.

Columbus and Indy are both in the process of planning for LRT (Though Colmbus's plan looks more streetcar-ey) so that would make the largest metro area in the US not doing anything on the rail front San Antonio.

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by FDW

Columbus and Indy are both in the process of planning for LRT (Though Colmbus's plan looks more streetcar-ey) so that would make the largest metro area in the US not doing anything on the rail front San Antonio.

San Antonio is planning a starter street car line. Lots of cities like to claim the "largest city without rail". Tampa, Detroit, Orlando, Indy, etc. the list goes on. With that said most of these cities are planning something, it just varies as to how far along their plans are. Orlando will get CRT and HSR in the next few years, if the referendum passes in Tampa we will get LRT (but if it does not pass...), Detroit is planning LRT and has the people mover (no matter what they like to claim, it is a real DT circulator system), basically America is waking up to using and building transit in cities that should have started planning decades ago.

Steve

[Dale]

Originally Posted by FDW

Columbus and Indy are both in the process of planning for LRT (Though Colmbus's plan looks more streetcar-ey) so that would make the largest metro area in the US not doing anything on the rail front San Antonio.

They probably just need to continue to improve their bus systems more than anything else. I like trains, but it's laughable that billions are being spent to build trains that few will use while the Orlando bus system has less than 200 buses to cover a sprawling metro of over two-million.

I live 8 miles from the CBD and I could almost walk to it in the amount of time it would take to get there by bus when you account for transfer time.