Morgan Lyons

DART Predicts Traffic Tweaks on Central Will Save $26 Million Per Year

Head down Central Expressway at or near rush hour, and you're guaranteed to spend awhile sitting in traffic. There's no guarantee, though, that any other route will be quicker, so drivers are left to sit and wait and wonder. You won't have to wonder for much longer. DART is rolling out a system nex ... More >>

DART is Mulling Domestic Partner Benefits, Thanks to a Former Employee's Petition

This summer, Andrew Moss, a former DART police officer, launched a petition urging the transit agency to offer domestic partner benefits. Moss had worked for DART until health problems forced him to step down in 2008. Though his husband continued to work there as a police officer, their marriage is ... More >>

Rules Schmules: DART Still Looking to Sell the Naming Rights to its Stations

A while back, DART was toying with the idea for a while of auctioning off naming rights to some of its stations to the highest bidder. Such measures have proved to be relatively painless ways to generate cash for some transit systems in places like Philadelphia, and DART estimated it could bring in ... More >>

Former Cop Wants DART to Offer Domestic Partner Benefits

Offering benefits to the partners of LGBT workers is gradually becoming a standard thing for large public employers in North Texas. The city of Dallas included domestic partner benefits in 2004, DFW Airport in 2010 and Parkland this year. Dallas County is poised to follow suit at the first of next y ... More >>

Wi-Fi Will Return to Trinity Railway Express. Eventually.

Five years ago, the Trinity Railway Express signed a deal with 4G Metro "to provide the nation's first comprehensive wireless broadband solution spanning the entire length of a major public railway." Impressive, right? But by last year, it had become not so impressive. "The contractor wasn't able t ... More >>

DART is Expanding Paid Parking to the DFW Station, So Good Luck Finding a Free Spot

I know what you're thinking: Come December, when DART opens its station at DFW Airport, you'll just slide your luxury vehicle into one of the 597 brand-new parking spaces at the Orange Line terminus while you hop on Lufthansa for your European ski holiday. After all, there's plenty of space. DART sa ... More >>

Hell To The Bus Driver: How This DART Operator Got Into It With a Rider Last Night

​Below you'll find one Dallas Area Rapid Transit customer who won't be so upbeat if he's ever asked to fill out a rider satisfaction survey. But that's only because he's at Lew Sterrett right now, after having been arrested last night for assaulting a public servant, a felony offense. And that hap ... More >>

DART Wanted $130 Mil In DOT Funds For Line to DFW. It Got Much Less. But Anything Helps.

​Only yesterday we noted the Dallas Area Rapid Transit is ready to go on that final leg of the Orange Line that'll connect with Terminal A at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The price tag's steep: $149,750,000 for the third section of the Orange Line, from Belt Line Station to DFW. And t ... More >>

Census Report on Transit Use Puts Dallas Area Near the Bottom of List. DART Explains Why.

​The Census Bureau released a lot of data this morning, including the 2010 American Community Survey Single Year Estimates; we'll get to that once we look over the charts and graphs -- fun! But among the docs dumped is Commuting in the United States: 2009, which says, among other things, it takes ... More >>

Imagine a DFW With Significantly Eased Traffic Congestion. In, Say, The Year 2035. Maybe?

North Central Texas Council of GovernmentsThink traffic is bad now? Click to embiggen the infographic of the future.​Speaking of mass transit ...Today the Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments met with the local citizenry at a public meeting at the p ... More >>

DART's Keeping an Eye on ERCOT's Warnings, But TRE's Gonna Have to Slow 'Er Down Now

​With each passing day this week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas sets a new record for peak demand -- and today is no different. One day after hinting that rolling blackouts may be headed our way, ERCOT sends word that at 2:50 this afternoon it initiated Energy Emergency Alert Level 1, ... More >>

A Sneak Peek at the Cotton Belt Regional Rail Corridor. One Day. Fingers Crossed.

Friend of Unfair Park BigJonDaniel passes along the video you see above: a Dallas Area Rapid Transit-produced sneak peek at the Cotton Belt Regional Rail Corridor, which would stretch from Wylie to southwest Fort Worth. Of course, right now it's closer to concept than reality: Last summer, the North ... More >>

Converting Central's HOV Lanes to Managed Toll Lanes a "Possibility" Down the Road

​The Dallas Area Rapid Transit board's meeting today, and top o' the agenda is the FY 2012 Budget and Twenty-Year Financial Plan, which factors into this news brief concerning Fitch's decision to downgrade DART's sales tax revenue bonds. Says the rating agency, the small dip from AA to AA- "reflec ... More >>

To Boost Revenue, Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board Will Consider Selling Beer, Wine Ads

Via.​Right now, Dallas Area Rapid Transit policy prohibits the sale of booze ads on its trains and buses for no reason other than earlier boards thought that'd just be a good idea. Or, as it was explained during a DART board meeting last month, its "predecessors determined that alcoholic beverages ... More >>

DART, East Texas Transit Officials Sign Letter They Hope Leads to Light-Rail Love Affair

DART chair Bill Velasco, left, and North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority's Jeff Austin III look at the line that could one day connect their parts of the great state.​Ever wished you could take Dallas Area Rapid Transit to ... oh ... let's say Tyler? Or Canton? Or Shreveport, even? Because ... More >>

Panhandlers on DART Trains: In Your Face NYC.

If You Happen to See a Streetcar Downtown Today, No, You're Not Hallucinating

Via.Downtown denizens, do not be alarmed when you see one of these rolling through the city in about three hours.​There's an intriguing item on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit's board agenda this morning: "DART Board of Directors' Streetcar Tour." Which is exactly what it sounds like: At 11:30 this ... More >>

Game Delay: With Fresh Snow, Fresh Problems For Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Light Rail

Dr. Chris DreilingThe DART light-rail station across the street from Presbyterian Hospital, where not much is moving at present​Morgan Lyons, director of media relations for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, says this morning that he too is "ready for some warmer weather." Certainly would take some of th ... More >>

Putting the "Green" in Green Line, as Feds Give DART a Surprise Belated Christmas Gift

Dallas Area Rapid TransitThe North Carrollton/Frankford Station as seen during the early morning hours of Opening Day on December 6​A little while ago, the Federal Transit Authority announced that it's advancing around $182 million in New Starts grants to a handful of transit projects already unde ... More >>

Green Line This Close to Green Light

I had something reasonably newsworthy with which to end the day. But it'll have to wait till morning -- I need one more confirmation. (How's that for a tease?) So instead I'll leave you with this just-posted ad for the DART's Green Line, set to open all the way on December 6. Cute. Catchy. Name of t ... More >>

But This Downtown DART Bus Fire Had Nothing At All to Do With a Television Series ...

​We've already seen a phony downtown fire this morning. But this one at left, captured moments ago by a good Friend of Unfair Park on Main Street not far from Old Red, is quite real. Or it was: Though the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department Active Incidents page shows this to be a work-in-progress, Dall ... More >>

Billboard's So Close to Woodall Rodgers Because Access Ramp Ain't a "Travel Lane." Say What?

Patrick Michels​Don't know what to tell you -- certainly didn't think we'd be into our third item about that Woodall Rodgers billboard. But Frank Librio, the city's spokesman, has, as he promised last night, looked into how it got there; so too Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's chief talke ... More >>

In the Loop: A Closer Look at MATA's "Urban Streetcar Track Extension" Downtown

Click to embiggen: DART sends this map of the MATA's downtown loop​Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's spokesman, and Jay Kline, DART's streetcar liaison with the city, were kind enough to forward along this map of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority's "0.65-mile urban streetcar track exte ... More >>

Look, Streetcars! Or: You Find the Most Amazing Things While Stuck on a DART Train.

Photos by Harry Wilonsky​Took the boy to get some "rare miles" this morning. Took Morgan Lyons's advice too -- stopped at It's a Grind, then caught the train at the Baylor station to make the Texas-OU loop. We were joined by two, three other homegrown tourists out for the morning jog 'round Fair P ... More >>

Another Chance to Pick Up Some "Rare Miles" As DART Will Again Test Run Texas-OU Route

​Dallas Area Rapid Transit was awful happy with the outcome of April's test run of the "reconfigured" Green Line, intended to alleviate the f-bomb that was last year's Texas-OU train ride to nowhere. For the first time since its opening, DART had the Green Line going in one direction -- clockwise, ... More >>

Texas-OU's Five Months Away, And DART Wants to Work Out the Kinks Way Early

​Speaking of Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Green Line ...You won't be able to catch it at the Victory Park or MLK Jr. stations Sunday between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. DART's got a very good reason: It's trying to see if it can reconfigure the Green Line in order to avoid the clusterfudge that ... More >>

Everything You Ever Needed to Know About the Second Downtown Light Rail Line and Didn't Know Was Available

Click to enlarge: From the new D2 Alternatives Analysis and Draft Environmental Impact Statement​Late last night I was looking at the agenda for tomorrow's Dallas Area Rapid Transit board meeting when I noticed this: The Planning Committee is scheduled to be briefed on the Alternative Analysis/Dra ... More >>

How At-Risk is Second Downtown Light Rail Alignment Given DART's Shortfall?

​One of the projects most threatened by Dallas Area Rapid Transit's sales-tax receipt shortfall, announced yesterday, is the second downtown light-rail alignment -- the so-called D2 that's been under consideration since at last the fall of 2007 and which, in January 2008, the Dallas City Council d ... More >>

Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Drop in Sales Tax Receipts Prompts "Review of Operations, Future Capital Projects"

​Dallas Area Rapid Transit's board of directors met this afternoon to discuss the ramifications of a significant decline in sales tax receipts. Originally, DART had budgeted for $387.8 million; the numbers, according to the transit agency, are presently looking $15 to $20 million short of that. Th ... More >>

To Avoid "Costly Duplications," DART Wants You to Know About Big Route Changes A-Comin' By Year's End

The Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station, scheduled to open in December​When Dallas Area Rapid Transit completes the Green Line by year's end, it anticipates making dozens of changes to its bus service, among them: discontinuing service to the Bachman Lake area, shifting downtown pick-up ... More >>

DART Rethinks Its All-Star Weekend Schedule Yet Again: Now, the Trains Will Run Till 3 A.M.

​Forget what Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokesman Morgan Lyons said on Tuesday. He sends word this morning that DART has decided to go even deeper into the wee small hours of the morning during NBA All-Star Weekend: "We're extending DART rail service even later, until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday ... More >>

DART Rethinks Its All-Star Weekend Schedule

Patrick Michels​A few weeks ago, you may recall, I asked with Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokesman Morgan Lyons why DART wasn't expanding service for the NBA All-Star Weekend. Said Lyons at the time, there just wasn't the need. DART has since rethought that policy."We just looked at it some more, a ... More >>

Just Tell Your Fellow Passengers, "But DART Wants Us to Photograph Our Love."

Justin TerveenThe great Justin Terveen captured this couple (in love?) riding DART a while back.​I've asked Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokesman Morgan Lyons if he wants to rethink this idea:Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is inviting its customers to show off their love connection this Valentines ... More >>

The Only Dallas Project in Obama's Transportation Budget Is DART's Green Line

The Inwood Station, part of the Green Line expansion, as it looked in November​I saw early this morning that Michael Lindenberger was teasing potentially big news for Dallas via U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pending announcement concerning FY2011 budget expenditures. Which I thought odd ... More >>

DART's Still Sorry for Saturday's Snafu

Flickr user: clockwerks​Many Friends of Unfair Park have sent word that they too missed kick-off of Texas-OU Saturday due to Dallas Area Rapid Transit's slow ride to Fair Park; DART spokesman Morgan Lyons spent most of his weekend apologizing and explaining ... and then explaining his apology. (Fl ... More >>

Lord, He Was Born a Traveling Man

​Ah, good ol' Morgan Lyons over at Dallas Area Rapid Transit. He noticed that we'd posted a few of the agency's very well-done in-house videos and very kindly sent over the very latest: this time-lapse featuring the construction of the Traveling Man sculptures Brad Oldham and Brandon Oldenburg are ... More >>

DART Launches "Where's My Bus?" to Make Riding "Less Intimidating." And, Less Sweaty.

Morgan Lyons at Dallas Area Rapid Transit sends word today of a new cell-phone "customer service tool": the "Where's My Bus?®" app, which allows bus-riders to track their rides to and fro with "a near-real time estimate." Lyons tells Unfair Park it was an in-house creation -- "so we're pretty proud ... More >>

Because, Look, Sometimes There's Just Too Much Sideboob For the Side of a DART Bus

DART opted not to run this ad, which you can click to enlarge. The ad, I mean. Wha?Saw a "story" in the no-relation New York Observer this morning concerning the "yanking" of a "racy" movie ad from the side of Dallas Area Rapid Transit buses, and I thought it might be a good idea to ask DART spokesm ... More >>

Get Rail: DART President to Testify Before U.S. Senate Tomorrow Concerning "New Starts"

DART president Gary ThomasTomorrow, Dallas Area Rapid Transit president and exec director Gary Thomas will be in Washington, D.C., to talk -- what else? -- transportation. Specifically, he's been invited to appear before a U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee, chaired by Chris ... More >>

Dallas Area Rapid Transit Points to Green Line as Proof That Infrastructure Is Stimulating

Dallas Area Rapid TransitThe under-construction Fair Park station, part of the new Green Line expansion scheduled to open in SeptemberDallas Area Rapid Transit today issued a media release that says the 28-mile, $1.8 billion Green Line expansion, scheduled to open in September, "is proving to be the ... More >>

From Outside Dallas, A Campaign Against Family Place's Ad Campaign

Low-Bid to No-Bid

Don't have a clue how DART could bust its budget by a billion bucks? Here's one.

Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Downtown Trolley, Just Maybe?

Bridge to Be Abridged

Falling Down, Falling Down

A Bridge Too Low

In East Dallas, truckers have a new kind of trap to worry about

Bus Gestapo

DART cops put a guy in jail 11 days for jaywalking

Good-Latimer Golly

A tunnel crumbles and a record store escapes the wreckage

Fallout

DART removes ads for a charity accused of links to terrorists

Warrior Reporter

Channel 4's Becky Oliver is queen of ambush journalism, wielding her microphone like a sword. Sure it's cheap and sensational. It's also a lot harder than it looks.