Dallas l DART Light Rail Expansion Updates

[electricron]

Great video, thanks for posting the link.

The DFW transportation agencies have been making great strives the last few years, and are planning to finishing projects in the next few years. DART's Green Line stretches 28 miles and costing $1.8 billion, will be completely finished and will open this December. DCTA's A-Train stretches 21 miles and costing $312 million, is under construction too and should be finished this winter and open next spring (date still fluid). DART's Orange Line stretches 14 miles and initially projected to cost $1.3 billion, is to open in phases in 2012 and 2014. DART's Blue Line extension stretches 5 miles and costing $188 million, is scheduled to open December 2012. FWTA, DART, and NCTCOG are seeking PPP builders and operators for the 28 mile (DFW to Red Line) Cotton Belt line, with the FWTA is willing to join its 37 mile (SW2NE) rail project, for a total rail corridor of 65 miles. The entire Cotton Belt project is waiting on finishing its EIS and hopefully some private funding befre proceeding.

Never-the-less, without the Cotton Belt, DART is building 47 miles of light rail for an estimate cost of $3.3 billion and DCTA's additional 21 miles of commuter rail for an estimate cost of $312 million; means the total being spent on 68 miles of rail projects in North Texas today is $3.6 billion...

That's a lot of cash.....

[mfastx]

Originally Posted by electricron

That's a lot of cash.....

Yes, finally the people of north Texas are spending similar amounts of money on rail as they have been spending on freeways for the last 40 years...

[Lyly]

I'm really excited for the DCTA's A-Train. Any word or photos regarding how it's coming along?

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Lyly

I'm really excited for the DCTA's A-Train. Any word or photos regarding how it's coming along?

Construction is well underway along the entire 21 miles of the A Train corridor. Construction is projected to be completed by the end of the year, with track and signal testing continuing until spring 2011. The actual date for start of service hasn't been finalized, but should be immediately after testing has been completed. Initially, leased TRE RDCs will be used as the railcars, new Stadler GTWs should enter service around September 2012.

You can find some construction photos at the DCTA's facebook website, follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lewisv...=photos&ref=ts

DART has one aerial photo taken July 15th for the A-Train posted, that shows the first mile or so north of DART's North Carrollton/Frankford Station.

The railroad bridge in the photo crosses the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, which lies between Carrollton and Lewisville. The major highway intersection in the background is at I-35E (Stemmons Freeway) and SH-121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway).

One might wonder why DART cares enough to release an aerial photo on their web site for the DCTA's A-Train? Well, the railroad corridor is owned by DART afterall, although DCTA will provide all the financing needed to build, operate, and maintain the A-Train tracks and rolling equipment.

[electricron]

Lots of aerial photos were taken in July, I'm surprised no one has provided a link to them yet. I must be slacking badly...
Here's a link where you can find all of them... http://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp
Here's a few of my favorites (so it will not take forever to download all of them).
Trinity Mills Station (where the A-Train passengers transfer to the Green Line)

Downtown Carrollton Station (Cotton Belt will also have platform nearby)

Bachman Station

SWMD/Parkland Station

Lake June Station

The entire Green Line is planned to be open for service the first week of December.
P.S. There's lots more aerial photos at the link...

[dfwcr8tive]

^ They were posted in this thread: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=147340

[electricron]

Originally Posted by dfwcr8tive

^ They were posted in this thread: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=147340

So I wasn't slacking after all.
Aren't you glad I didn't post every photo?

[mfastx]

I have to commend Dallas on this. They really have done well to bring rail transportation to north Texas, I especially love the fact that nearly all of it is grade seperated.

I hate that Houston is still struggling to open just a second line, at least we're trying.

[Lyly]

Originally Posted by electricron

Construction is well underway along the entire 21 miles of the A Train corridor. Construction is projected to be completed by the end of the year, with track and signal testing continuing until spring 2011. The actual date for start of service hasn't been finalized, but should be immediately after testing has been completed. Initially, leased TRE RDCs will be used as the railcars, new Stadler GTWs should enter service around September 2012.

Thanks for the info! Man, those RDCs and GTWs will be sexy as hell. I'm only getting more and more excited about this.
Apparently, they're also putting a bicycle trail along the right-of-way, so that will only add to the awesome.

[jamesinclair]

It's disappointing that the all the stations are just surrounded by parking lots

[electricron]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

It's disappointing that the all the stations are just surrounded by parking lots

I agree, it is disappointing, but you got to remember the northern sections of the Green Line parallels Stemmons Freeway about a mile to the east. So there was little high density buildings close to the tracks. Most high density buildings in Dallas are found much closer to the freeways. Never-the-less, the Southwest Medical Center and Parkland Hospital are planning major expansions near their new station.
The DART board is seriously considering charging for parking at the DART light rail stations. So all those parking lots could become new revenue sources.

[mfastx]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

It's disappointing that the all the stations are just surrounded by parking lots

Well I think it's okay if they're in a suburban area. Park & Rides in those area usually generate more ridership.

[dollaztx]

I guess it would be more expensive to build the tracks through well developed areas and also doing it this way leaves more space for TOD development which yields new property tax income for the city.

[jamesinclair]

Originally Posted by mfastx

Well I think it's okay if they're in a suburban area. Park & Rides in those area usually generate more ridership.

I disagree. New rail lines, just like new freeways encourage sprawl.

I'm sure you've heard of the concept "streetcar suburbs".

By extending these rail lines so far into exburbia, you're only encouraging even more people to live there, instead of closer to the city.

Mind you, this goes for Austins new commuter rail line as well, although of course, that line has a whole list of other problems.

[manrush]

One thing I've noticed about the DART trains is that they're the only kind in the United States that have an elongated midsection and four trucks/eight axles instead of just three trucks/six axles.

Also, I never understood why the A-train wasn't just another DART line.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by manrush

One thing I've noticed about the DART trains is that they're the only kind in the United States that have an elongated midsection and four axles instead of just three.
Also, I never understood why the A-train wasn't just another DART line.

Actually, that's a total of 4 trucks and a total of 8 axles on DART's SLRVs.

A-Train is ran by the DCTA that collects around $16 Million/year with half cent sales taxes from 3 cities (Lewisville, Highland Village, and Denton). DART collects almost $400 Million/year with full cent sales taxes from 13 cities (Addison, Carrollton, Cockrell Hill, Dallas, Farmers Branch, Garland, Glenn Heights, Highland Park, Irving, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett and University Park).

I see almost 384 Million/year reasons ($$$$$) why DCTA decided to build a $310 Million commuter rail line instead of an over $1 Billion light rail line. It's what they can barely afford. Doubling their sales tax rate is only going to raise another $16 Million for a total around $32 Million/year, no where close to DART's almost $400 Million/year.....
Additionally, there's more than one valid reason why DART terminates the Green Line in north Carrollton. (1) That's where DART's boundaries are (2) Projected ridership further north doesn't meet FTA's New Starts funding minimums. (3) DCTA commuter rail didn't meet these FTA minimums, and ridership numbers required for FTA funding are less for commuter rail than light rail. That's why Denton County funded 100% of the A-Train's construction with local funds. (4) Don't be surprised to find local government agencies take the cheaper solution without Federal funding.

Only one of DCTA's member cities was qualified to join DART, and that was Lewisville, and that's assuming Lewisville had a penny to give under the sales tax cap. At most, DART could have extended the Green Line through Lewisville, where DCTA is building the Lewisville Lake/Highland Village Station. Since DART doesn't really like to build its light rail lines all the way to its boundaries, more than likely DART would have terminated the Green light rail line near downtown Lewisville, a good 12 miles short of downtown Denton. With DCTA and the A-Train existing, commuter trains will reach downtown Denton, which was the ultimate goal of Denton County politicians.

They realize ridership on the A-Train will not be as high because there will be a transfer required to swap from the A-Train to DART's Green Line. But, looking far into the future, it may be possible to ride the A-Train all the way into downtown Dallas using the BNSF line to Irving and the TRE line to downtown Dallas, if DART ever upgrades the BNSF line from Carrollton to Irving.

I believe local leaders are fixed too much on the Cotton Belt, the dream of a crosstown rail corridor getting to DFW is hard to resist, but if DART concentrated on the BNSF line to Irving first, a far shorter line which should be far cheaper to implement, DCTA could extend their A-Trains to South Irving Station where transfers to the TRE could happen to reach both downtown Dallas and Fort Worth.....

[jtk1519]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

I disagree. New rail lines, just like new freeways encourage sprawl.

I'm sure you've heard of the concept "streetcar suburbs".

By extending these rail lines so far into exburbia, you're only encouraging even more people to live there, instead of closer to the city.

Mind you, this goes for Austins new commuter rail line as well, although of course, that line has a whole list of other problems.

The rail lines aren't going "far out into exburbia". Not even close. They're not extending out to Frisco, McKinney or Highland Village. There's extending to long developed, decades old (mostly) inner suburbs like Farmer's Branch, las Colinas, Carrollton, etc. They're also taking some pressure off of heavily burdened freeways (the Green line and 35E, the Orange line and 114, the Red line and Central Expwy., etc.).

They're not encouraging sprawl. You would have to add a good 10+ miles to each line to get even close to adding to sprawl. If anything, they're encouraging infill development in some of these older suburbs. A lot is already going on in Las Colinas to fill in a lot of the empty spaces with TODs and I believe Carrollton has several, well thought out plans for some TODs surrounding the Green line stations running through their city.

[electricron]

I completely agree with your assessment.

Additionally, here's the latest news about the downtown Carrollton TOD.
http://www.cityofcarrollton.com/Modu...ocumentid=4900



The lead Developer and Carrollton are hoping to have the TOD completed by 2030 over three phases.

[jamesinclair]

Originally Posted by electricron

Actually, that's a total of 4 trucks and a total of 8 axles on DART's SLRVs.

A-Train is ran by the DCTA that collects around $16 Million/year with half cent sales taxes from 3 cities (Lewisville, Highland Village, and Denton). DART collects almost $400 Million/year with full cent sales taxes from 13 cities (Addison, Carrollton, Cockrell Hill, Dallas, Farmers Branch, Garland, Glenn Heights, Highland Park, Irving, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett and University Park).

I see almost 384 Million/year reasons ($$$$$) why DCTA decided to build a $310 Million commuter rail line instead of an over $1 Billion light rail line. It's what they can barely afford. Doubling their sales tax rate is only going to raise another $16 Million for a total around $32 Million/year, no where close to DART's almost $400 Million/year.....
Additionally, there's more than one valid reason why DART terminates the Green Line in north Carrollton. (1) That's where DART's boundaries are (2) Projected ridership further north doesn't meet FTA's New Starts funding
.

It's bad reason IMO. Theyre taking invisible lines and pretending they're solid boundaries, and they're refusing to work together, which means higher costs.

There are many examples of rail lines leaving tax funded areas into extended regions and having the extended region pay for that service.

For example, take the MBTA (Massachusetts) commuter rail system. it extends into Rhode Island. RI pays for the service, and "bought" three trains.

The same exact thing could have worked here. The three cities could have paid DART to run their trains out of DART areas, and paid DART for the construction.

You get much lower costs, for the very simple economies of scale. Bulk purchase of rail cars, less management, less overhead, a unified maintenance facility, etc.

Higher ridership too, because people dont want to transfer.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

There are many examples of rail lines leaving tax funded areas into extended regions and having the extended region pay for that service. For example, take the MBTA (Massachusetts) commuter rail system. it extends into Rhode Island. RI pays for the service, and "bought" three trains.

The same exact thing could have worked here. The three cities could have paid DART to run their trains out of DART areas, and paid DART for the construction.
You get much lower costs, for the very simple economies of scale. Bulk purchase of rail cars, less management, less overhead, a unified maintenance facility, etc.
Higher ridership too, because people dont want to transfer.

The example you gave really doesn't apply to Texas and Dallas...(with an exception). In Boston and Providence, States fund transit, not individual cities. But then, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are much smaller than Texas. Golly, there are Counties in Texas larger in size than Rhode Island. So, they don't have the problem getting every city and town onboard financing not only the trains but transit as well.....

The sole exception would be the Trinity Railway Express. In its case, two major cities in two different counties wanted a rail connection along the ex-Rock Island corridor. Their two transit agencies (FWTA and DART), which are financially supported with different sales tax rates, formed a third company (TRE) to make it happen. They agreed to a funding formula based upon percentages where the tickets were purchased. They also agreed upon the type of train service (commuter rail) to be implemented, which both agencies could afford.
That co-operation did not happen between DCTA and DART. First, DART owned or controlled the ex-MKT corridor, FWTA owned half of the ex-Rock Island corridor. DCTA was negotiating with the far stronger and wealthier DART, FWTA was negotiating as a peer with DART. On the ex-MKT corridor, DART wanted to build light rail, DCTA wanted to build commuter rail, which is what they could afford just like FWTA. So the result was two different type of trains were built on the ex-MKT corridor.
If DART had been willing to run commuter rail on the NW Green corridor, maybe a joint train operation like the TRE could have been made. But that wasn't done.......

New York's MTA is often referred as a great intra-state and inter-state operation. But it is ran under three separate train organizations, running different equipment. You have the MYA subways, Long Island Railroad, and Metro North. Even Metro North, a commuter railroad, runs different cars on different lines bought by different states....So this idea of yours that one rail solution is best is entirely incorrect....