Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

electricron

Just got this link to an update on DART projects today Buried in the description for the D2 subway is this: Although DART did not receive funding from the FTA, DART is currently reviewing potential funding sources to keep development of the D2 Subway on track. http://dartdallas.dart.org/2018/06/29/...

electricron

The tiny percentage of transit funding dollars devoted to building public transit systems is criminal but I'm not surprised considering our current state leadership. What a disservice to the public. Dallas is ever densifying in the urban core neighborhoods. Traffic is already getting to the point o...

electricron

There are better, more impactful ways to spend $1.2 Billion besides a "look at us, we're a big city" subway for Dallas's insecure city council and DART board members... As long as city councils appoint DART board members, and as long as insecure citizens vote for city council members, loc...

electricron

Between this and Matt777's proposed streetcar plan, I think DART could manage both for less than the additional costs of a fully underground D2. There's even enough left over for the DART board to take a field trip to Portland or Denver to see how street-level LRT can work. The DART board wouldn't ...

electricron

Colleyville is likely acting like Corinth did about the DCTA A-Train and Knox-Henderson about the DART light rail subway section. They'll figure out later on (probably too late) that it'll be an asset, not a liability. You're probably correct, a decade or two from now they will probably wish they h...

electricron

Wow - what a shame we threw that away. Yes, a real shame. Up until 1964, the bus/streetcar system(s) was/were privately owned and operated for a profit. Here's a Wiki page listing all of them; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_transit_companies_in_Dallas Note that the City didn't purchas...

electricron

Heading towards north Dallas, the only streetcar to reach farther north than Mockingbird Lane was on Hillcrest, presumedly to reach SMU. Other lines heading further north towards Denton and Sherman were interurban lines, not streetcar lines. Here's a link to an old Dallas streetcar map dated 1925. h...

electricron

You can still see where the old Dallas streetcars turned around even though any signs of the old tracks are long gone. Few, if any, streetcars reached as far out as Loop 12, for several reasons. That's where the city limits reached, and that was also the limit where streetcars provided a great servi...

electricron

It makes complete sense to cut out the additional traffic conflicts (since trains would be heading north and south from the portal), however I've got to wonder how much realigning the tracks along Good-Latimer is contributing to the project cost, and why the original Green line design had the Deep ...

electricron

Building on some earlier comments, couldn't DART address their "congestion" issues quite easily and for probably at least $1.3 Billion less money by sending only some of each lines trains through the transit mall and turning others back to provide more service on each end of each line? As...

electricron

Rail ridership through low-density suburbs in North Dallas (which would also require a transfer to get to the primary destination) has a very high likelihood of being overestimated. How may ridership estimations has DARt made in the past, and how many of them actually overestimated ridership signif...

electricron

That's absolutely true but I would imagine that hurdle could be overcome (if there were any political will for it) with a cooperative agreement between DART and DCTA for trains between Dallas and Denton, similar to how the Trinity Railway Express operates between Dallas and Fort Worth and is funded...

electricron

Arguments based upon getting federal funds, and by what percentages, is slightly jumping the gun because neither project is guaranteed matching federal transit funding or low cost federal loans. And projects can change to get them, like the Green Line Love Field subway station being dropped during t...

electricron

A routing through Irving could physically be done, but not politically. Downtown Dallas is just too far into Dallas County for a transit agency based upon taxes from Denton County to support. Likewise, it's just as unlikely politically for DART to extend the Green Line into downtown Denton. I can se...

electricron

Whether ridership is high or low, it gives far more people more options than they have now. From central Dallas, you can ride the trains in many directions: SW, S, SE, NE, N, NNW, and WNW. Outside of let's say Loop 12 to keep it simple, you can only rdie the trains in one direction - toward central ...

electricron

I have a feeling that it's easier to drop stations after the initial Environmental Impact Report, than to not have them on there, and try to include them afterward. That is probably why we always see more initially, and they get deferred later. But most of these stations are marked as 'deferred' in...

electricron

It's an EIS, every possible construction item that might be built within the next 20 years is included. Not everyone of them will be built at startup. The idea that there will be train stations built spaced just one mile apart is very unlikely. One will most likely be set aside to be built later and...

electricron

I thought I'll show you what is really required to have an express train service. Here's mostly a rear window 40 minute video from White Plains to Grand Central in New York City. The cameraman moves to the back of the train around 7 and a half minutes. Pay close attention to the number of tracks, an...

electricron

Is it too much to hope that enthusiastic partnerships will extend TRE to Kaufman County, using that subway plan? DART is not going to extend the TRE into Kaufman County anytime soon. First, no city in Kaufman County pays DART sales taxes. Second, even if the entire county paid DART a full penny sal...

electricron

Presumably via the BNSF line from Irving to Carrollton. Would be quite out of the way though, not to mention having to deal with freight trains. I wonder why Carrollton is so opposed to the site that was proposed as the Cotton Belt yard facility. While the BNSF may be the major user of this section...

electricron

With frequencies of 8 trains per hour on the red/orange line in north Dallas, there should be a train every 7. 5 minutes. Without additional passing sidings, a third track, the most savings in time an express train can make is at most 4 minutes - depending upon the size of the signal blocks. When tr...

electricron

Well, I guess it's good we don't have express trains then..haha. I had not considered how unfair it would be to certain paying cities of DART, and also how it would encourage even more sprawl up north, so, with that said, I'm thinking this isn't my best idea. I think, even with all the points outli...

electricron

I don't think it negates your idea... If the trucks are automated as well, they simply take up TWO of the new smaller lanes (at least for interstate travel), and all the autonomous vehicles can still fill in around them. You can still have smaller local delivery vehicles. How annoying is it to see ...

electricron

I don't think it negates your idea... If the trucks are automated as well, they simply take up TWO of the new smaller lanes (at least for interstate travel), and all the autonomous vehicles can still fill in around them. You can still have smaller local delivery vehicles. How annoying is it to see ...

electricron

Lanes are wide more so because semi-trucks and their trailers are wide. A typical large sedan is 6 feet 3 inches wide, a typical large SUV is 6 feet 8 inches wide, a typical 18 wheeler trailer is 8 feet 6 inches wide. A typical city street width can be as little as 10 feet wide, leaving 18 inches le...

electricron

Can we get this thread back on the trains instead of hotels? Potentially 100,000 DART passengers ride through Union Station, how many of them use the Hyatt Regency Hotel? It's completely unrelated! Especially considering amongst the reasons why Texas Central uses in its social media is a day trip be...

electricron

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/traffic/your-commute/article202845654.html Fort Worth's transit has changed names, and has a new logo also. Spokespeople for the transit system try (in vain?) to explain the reason for the logo and the name change. The explanation for why the name change is easy, t...

electricron

I'm confused...I was under the impression DART wanted to do both D2 and Cotton Belt simultaneously, but Dallas put its foot down and said "NO, D2 is the priority" and won the vote in the DART board inasmuch, then the suburbs got pissy and threatened to leave DART. So now why are we talkin...

electricron

Once daily and monthly passes were implemented, making it just as cheap to ride the trains all day long as two trips, once for the morning commute and another for the evening commute, they invited homesteaders or squatters to move in. To eliminate this they will have to rethink how they collect fare...

electricron

Why would anyone ride a train from Houston to Dallas and then stay in a hotel at the train station? I've ridden a train from Fort Worth to Chicago, spent a night in a hotel near the train station, and rode another train to Seattle the next day. I can see the possibilities of people riding the train...

electricron

I've always thought the idea of a 'wheel' transit line, that connects all the lines further out from the hub, is a good one. But to me, I think BRT along the Loop 12 corridor is a better approach than 635. The whole idea of serving Galleria area is a difficult one... No doubt it has the density and...

electricron

DART to date has avoided routing light rail lines down the middle of expressways, preferring to route light rail lines down one side or under. Any light rail line near LBJ will probably be very expensive and routed under it, just like DART subway under US-75. Building a subway a couple of miles lon...

electricron

Recent speech by Tim McKay at SW Rail Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mx_6YQF5G4

electricron

Recent speech by Tim McKay at SW Rail Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mx_6YQF5G4

electricron

Recent speech by Tim Keith at SW Rail Conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLuOMhFgV9o

electricron

Come on guys and gals, if you're going to taking public transit to get to Houston you better be willing to walk a little bit. The only way I'm aware of that gives you front door to front door walkability for distances so large is with a private automobile or motorcycle. There's a very good chance th...

electricron

Tier 1 look promising, somewhat. Once D2 is finished, another light rail line west to Oak Cliff makes sense.:) The LBJ line makes sense between I-35E and US-75, but that's not where they are proposing to build it. It only needs to tie the Green Line with the Red Line, or at most to the Blue Line. Th...

electricron

They have drawings of all three stations posted under the Blog tab of their web site. https://www.texascentral.com/blog/ The general design, platform areas, and train tracks of all three stations are very similar. The main differences between them is where the parking garages are located and how the...

electricron

What? Are we looking at the same site plan? It looks pretty damn convenient to both Convention Center and Cedars stations to me... The only problem is that Houston is dropping the ball on their end. Three blocks at a typical 300 feet per block, is 900 feet. Add another block or two from the train's...

electricron

My thoughts exactly. This station is supposed to be a huge catalyst for development, and, while that will still be true, it's absurd that so much space is being taken up by an above ground parking garage. This should be more of an urban mall with an attached high-rise. Look at the new Miami Central...

electricron

I wouldn't go as far as to state projections on new ridership are suspicious - they were made using a calculation approved by the FTA and FRA. What's missing in the various arguments are that both D2 and the Cotton Belt have similar numbers in the projections - around 10,000 new riders per day (or ...

electricron

I wouldn't go as far as to state projections on new ridership are suspicious - they were made using a calculation approved by the FTA and FRA. What's missing in the various arguments are that both D2 and the Cotton Belt have similar numbers in the projections - around 10,000 new riders per day (or s...

electricron

Should have chosen Union Station for the Dallas terminal. Obvious, obvious, obvious. Where would they place the dedicated HSR tracks at Union Station? The latest NCTCOG funded DEIS for the Fort Worth HSR station places it 30 feet above the existing ITC station platforms, in a location with far more...

electricron

dukemeredith wrote:Are these numbers individual people?!

Those green line numbers are appallingly low.

Read the morning news article linked, it should answer all your questions.

I didn't invent them out of thin air!

electricron

The traffic counts for this useless line for 2040, not when built. 20 years from now: DFW: 1170 North DFW: 1320 Cypress W: 910 Downtown Carrollton: 1970 Addison: 1690 Knoll Trail: 530 Preston: 400 Coit: 760 UT Dallas: 850 CityLine: 1380 12th Street: 370 Shiloh: 680 I'm sure Plano is going to drop D...

electricron

Ellis County commuter rail has been pushed by the NCTCOG and RTC for years. but lets get a little realistic with the lack of population within Ellis County and it's ability to financially support a commuter rail line.... Various nearby County population data: *Dallas County 2,574,984 *Tarrant County...

electricron

It was an interesting presentation and study to read. It basically looked at improving three things; (1)drivability to the site including parking,(2) walkability to the site including aerial structures, (3) gettiing transit to the site. (1) and (2) was mostly accomplished by reinstating a street gri...

electricron

Here’s their names with links to their photos. The Crescent Rose or Rosie (Car 122) http://mata.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Uptown_Sept16_960-674.jpg The Green Dragon (Car 186) http://www.uptowndallas.net/assets/UDI-4106-1680x860-Trolley.jpg Matilda (Car 369) http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1...

electricron

Who is using the Virgin America gates today? Can’t Delta negotiate with them and leave Southwest alone? Additionally, it was Dallas that pushed for the 20 gate limit, there will never be more than 20 gates at Love Field if Dallas never builds more. Almighty god can grant Love Field permission and ca...

electricron

Praying for all the families affected apparently by a lone shooter. 2nd Amendment.... Today's Sutherland church shooting is going to bring it up again, at least at the State level if not nationally. Sutherland lies within a community that has a post office, a Dollar General store, two gas stations, ...

Search found 175 matches

Search

Statistics / Permissions

Login