Train Travel

After Three-Year Delay, DART Resumes Study for Second Downtown Light Rail Line

For years, DART's been planning to stick a second rail line downtown, the better to handle the convergence of what is now four separate rail lines. A three-year study was completed back in 2010, and the list of possible routes was whittled down to four alternatives, all traveling through Victory Par ... More >>

DART Scales Back Expansion Plans in Hopes of Improving Current System, Upping Ridership

When DART last sat down to update its long-range plan in 2006, the agency was thinking big. With the recession still beyond the horizon, planners envisioned 86 additional miles of rail and 121 miles of new bus routes. Since then, the agency has added the bus routes, opened up the Green Line (making ... More >>

North Texas is Angling for a Light Rail Manufacturing Plant (Translation: Jobs!)

When the Denton County Transportation Authority was shopping for rail cars for its A-train commuter line in 2009, it settled on 11 diesel-electric vehicles manufactured in Europe by Stadler, a company based in Switzerland. The cars are quieter, more fuel efficient and more spacious than the light ra ... More >>

Cotton Belt Regional Rail Project Now Has Someone Who Wants to Pay For It

For a few years now, DART and its neighboring transit agencies have been drafting plans for the Cotton Belt Corridor project, a 62-mile passenger rail line that will, if things go according to plan, someday stretch Wylie to Fort Worth. The only thing standing in the way? Just the small task of findi ... More >>

Call Me When DART's Orange Line Gets to the Airport

DART already had the longest light rail system in the country before the $1.3 billion Orange Line added another three stations and several miles with its debut this morning. Sure, DART's soon-to-be 90 miles of track are dwarfed by the subway system in New York City, the L in Chicago, and Washington ... More >>

That Dallas-Houston Bullet-Train Proposal Needs More Money Before it Can Start Costing Money

There was a lot of buzz back in May when a group led by the Central Japan Railway Co. and former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels announced plans to raise $10 billion in private funds to establish a bullet train linking Dallas and Houston. TxDOT, too, has been looking at high-speed rail, and is in ... 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 >>

DART Still Badly Aimed

The longer the Dallas-area light rail system is around, the less of a habit it becomes, according to a story in this morning's Dallas Morning News. The trend over the years has been for ridership to diminish at many stations after people get over the novelty of a train station nearby. In Michael A ... More >>

DART Celebrates 250 Million Rail Rides by Making Man Late to Work, Probably Hiking Some Fares

When the 3-year-old and I took the DART train to free day at the Nasher on Saturday, little did I know we were on the cusp of history. Ridiculously early this morning, some 36 hours after we stepped off the train, DART accosted feted one Don Johnson as the 15-year-old light rail system's 250 million ... More >>

Kevin Roden on the Loss of Friday Night A-Train Service: "It's Not a 'Fiscally Responsible' Argument. The Money is There."

That pop you heard May 24 was the sound of a bubble bursting, one full of potential for expanded night service on the A-Train, Denton County's commuter train service. The bullies holding the pin were the Denton County Transit Authority (DCTA) board, who voted 6-5 to kill Friday night service instead ... More >>

If Amtrak and TxDOT Can Swing It, You'll Be Able to Take Train From Dallas to Shreveport

​Saw that AP piece this morning about how Amtrak and the Texas Department of Transportation are looking at connecting Dallas-Fort Worth to Shreveport-Bossier City, which would involve inserting a stop at the Trinity Railway Express's CentrePort/DFW Airport station. But the piece isn't clear: Shoul ... More >>

Pants? They Don't Need No Stinkin' Pants to Ride Dallas Area Rapid Transit Light Rail.

I'd forgotten all about Dylan Hollingsworth's shoulda-been classic photo taken in January 2010, during what turned out to be the First Annual No Pants! Ride on Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail. Then a Friend of Unfair Park shot me this video from yesterday's third-annual balls-out trip on a trai ... More >>

With $15 Mil From Feds, TxDOT Is Seeking Bids for Dallas-to-Houston High-Speed Rail Study

​It's been quite some time since last we discussed the long-proposed high-speed rail line between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, which Jennifer Moczygemba, who oversees the Texas Rail Plan at the Texas Department of Transportation, called in April "definitely a priority" for TxDOT. This morning, s ... More >>

Choo-Choo Goes Boo

Transportation News is Bad, But the Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

​Straws in the wind: 1) Rick Perry, toll czar of Texas, still pushing private highways; 2) DART a dismal failure; 3) North Texas Tollway Authority still run by the good old boys. This could all be good. You know where we need to wind up with all this? A toll road from Dallas up to Lake Texoma ... More >>

"Station Domination," Paid Parking and More Money-Makers the DART Board Will Consider

Pulled up behind one of these two weeks ago. The 7-year-old in the backseat thought it was hilarious.​Last month we noted that the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board is considering selling ads for beer and wine on buses and light rail -- which, right now, is prohibited by policy just because. After t ... More >>

Feds Roll Out $15 Million to Begin Studying Feasibility of DFW-to-Houston High-Speed Rail

​About a month back we looked at docs the Texas Department of Transportation submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in the hopes of landing some federal money dough for that loooooong-discussed Dallas-Fort Worth-to-Houston high-speed rail line. Long story short: The state wanted $18 mill ... More >>

What's Wrong with DART? The Suburbs.

​No, no, no -- not that same old crap again about how we need to get more suburbs to join Dallas Area Rapid Transit, our regional rail system. The suburbs are what's wrong with DART. Screw the suburbs. Dallas needs to quit DART and let the suburbs go build their own damn rail system. There's ... More >>

A Former Public Transit Whore Gets Religion

​I used to be such a mass transit whore. I had this post-'60s idea that cars and highways are bad, which they are, so that must mean trains are good. I examine that reasoning now, and I think, "So if smoking crack is bad, does that mean meth is good?" Two days ago I had the pleasure of talkin ... More >>

TxDOT Really Wants to See That Whole Dallas to Houston High-Speed Rail Line Happen

​I just stumbled across this piece out of Houston, which says the Texas Department of Transportation has submitted docs to the feds asking for around $43 million to expedite that long-discussed and even longer-debated Dallas-to-Houston high-speed rail line. I called Jennifer Moczygemba, who overse ... More >>

Panhandlers on DART Trains: In Your Face NYC.

Chugga Chugga Chugga

Get Moving! High Oil Prices Good (For Texas), More Rush-Hour Red Line ... and Streetcars

Dallas Area Rapid TransitThe Mockingbird Station along DART's Red Line, which will see expanded rush-hour service beginning April 11​Bloomberg News says this morning that higher oil prices may be bad for Texans, but are good for Texas -- especially the so-called Rainy Day Fund Gov. Rick Perry does ... More >>

Dallas, The Next Portland! You Too, Fort Worth!

Via.​No, seriously. Says so right here, on the DC Streetsblog site, where today they're handing out best-and-worst-of-2010 nods. Something to do with streetcars and bike lanes and Dallas Area Rapid Transit's Green Line expansion. Well, all right. To the kudos!We give our 2010 Streetsie for The Nex ... More >>

U.S. Department of Transpo Forks Over $5.6 Mil to Study OKC-to-DFW High-Speed Rail Line

U.S. Department of Transportation​This morning, as expected, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood passed out $2.4 billion in funding to 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states. Among the recipients: the Texas Department of Transportation, which'll take home $5.6 million intended to allow a fu ... More >>

Do You Have What it Takes to Complete Dallas's Streets? Then Submit Your Bid Now!

Jason Roberts/Go Oak CliffA look at Davis during the second round of Better Block-building in Oak Cliff​Speaking of the city's Strategic Plan Update ...It's been exactly one year since City Hall hopped aboard the Complete Streets Initiative, first rolled out at the initial Ride to City Hall and th ... More >>

Mayor Tom: "Dallas Is At the Heart of What is Happening in the U.S. Economy Today."

Chris Heinbaugh​On the other side is the final dispatch from Chris Heinbaugh, Mayor Tom Leppert's chief of staff, who's among the traveling party wrapping up that trade mission to Spain and France. The quote in the headline comes from the release that follows, in which Leppert says the Euros are r ... More >>

Unwrapping the "Lead Gift" That'll Help Move Museum of American Railroad Outta Fair Park

​At right, that's Amtrak's Texas Eagle -- or, at least, the coach car and first-class sleeping car that pulled into the Museum of the American Railroad at Fair Park yesterday. It's part of what the museum calls "its long-standing partnership with Amtrak to re-introduce the benefits of rail travel ... More >>

Railroad Museum in Fair Park Gets a Prized Piece, And It's Headed Straight to Frisco

​Once upon a time, the City Attorney's Office had hoped to get the Museum of the American Railroad outta Fair Park by August 1. But that was way back in February -- before the myriad court hearings and legal filings that ultimately led to Judge Martin Hoffman setting a January 2011 trial date in t ... More >>

All Aboard

From OKC to Fort Worth, Heartland Flyer's Cow Fat Test Run Gets Nod in U.K.

​Meant to point this out last week, when I first saw the story on Salon. But now it's made its way to the U.K. -- this story of the little train that could ... run on cow fat, that is, all the way from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth every single day. (Though "with stops along the way in Norman, Purce ... More >>

Thomas Ages Gracefully

What To Do About Interstate 35 Now? And: When Did NYC Want to Be Like Us?

​Two transportation items of interest this morning ...First off, in a subscription-only story The Bond Buyer wonders where in the wide, wide world of sports Texas is going to get $2.2 billion for an "expansion of heavily traveled Interstate 35 to six lanes from San Antonio to the Dallas-Fort Worth ... More >>

Railing On Transportation

Yet Another Argument Against a High-Speed Rail Line Connecting Dallas and Houston

​Speaking of traffic ... Megan McArdle, former Economist now at The Atlantic, is the latest to take up the issue of a hypothetical high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston, which ain't on the government's to-do list but oh well it's fun to argue anyway. This morning she more or less makes t ... More >>

Tracks of My Tears, | Slumming It, | Critics’ Pick: Tool,

According to UNT Profs, DART's the "Economic Engine Making Dallas a World-Class City"

Click to expland the image if you actually want to peek at DART's 2030 Transit PlanThis morning at Dallas Area Rapid Transit HQ, president Gary Thomas lauded the rail expansion as "on time and under budget," and presented a new study by professors at the University of North Texas's Center for Econom ... More >>

Are You Ready For Some (Preseason, At Least) Football?

Kiddies Tanking

Have a Day Out With Thomas in Grapevine

Get on the Bus

Letters

Slow Ride

Try getting to Toronto on DART light rail some day

All the Bells and Whistles

All aboard for Family Fun Day

Best Place to Get Wet

Oak Point Center

Best Sign That We're a Big City Now

The Opening of DART's CityPlace Light Rail Stop

Buzz

Digging in

Letters

Duncan snuffs the pests; Road warrior; Wichita Falls murders; Corrections

Highwaymen

San Antonio conservatives and a professional road warrior try to hijack a DART rail election

Hello, Dallas! DART Light Rail is here

Buzz