Dallas Area Rapid Transit

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Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
Logo from DART
Basic information
Company headquarters Dallas , Dallas County
Web presence DART.org
founding 1983
Lines
tram 1
Light rail 4 (LRT)
bus 121
Other lines 1 regional railway
number of vehicles
Light rail car 163
Omnibuses 649
statistics
Passengers 65.7 million annually (2018)
Stops 14,000 bus stops with 14 bus stations, 64 LRT stations, 6 tram stations, 10 regional stops
Network plan
Dallas railway network - the thick lines are the four lines of the light rail system to the center, at the end of which some regional railways continue

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit , or DART for short , is the public transport company for the Texas city ​​of Dallas and twelve other communities in the surrounding area. In addition to Dallas, the cities of Addison , Carrollton , Cockrell Hill , Farmers Branch , Garland , Glenn Heights , Highland Park , Irving , Plano , Richardson , Rowlett and University Park are members of the company.

The company has been operating a standard-gauge light rail system since June 14, 1996, currently with four lines and, in cooperation with the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, a regional train to Fort Worth called the Trinity Railway Express . In downtown Dallas, the lines are built similar to trams . The railway is financed by a special tax that all residents of Dallas County have to pay.

The planning for the railway began as early as 1987. Construction of the 32 kilometer long basic network began in 1992. On January 10 and May 31, 1997, two further sections of the Red Line were put into operation. The Blue Line has been running since September 1999, some of which runs in a tunnel in the city center . Two more sections followed on May 6 and November 18, 2002. Within six years of opening, the railway had more than doubled its network and became the second largest light rail operator in the USA after San Diego . The length of the network at that time was 45  miles (about 72 kilometers).

Another possibility for network expansion was created in 2001 with the purchase of three routes from the Union Pacific Railroad . These are the routes from Plano to Sherman , Rowlett to Rockwall, and Carrollton to Denton . Since these routes connect to existing or planned endpoints of the railway, the network can be expanded by a further 120 kilometers with the construction of short connecting routes.

As decided in 2009, the plan was to build two more sections 67 kilometers in length by 2013. On August 18, 2014, the extension of the Orange Line (Orange Line) to Dallas / Fort Worth Airport went into operation. From there, Fort Worth can again be reached via the Trinity Metro's TEXRail since 2019 .

Dallas light rail

A DART light rail articulated tram in downtown Dallas

Since 2014, the Stadtbahn has covered a network of 150 kilometers, which are served in four lines. Before the 1983 elections there were plans for a route network of 160 miles (about 258 kilometers) in length. With the expansion of the Green Line (Green Line) in 2009/2010 and the connection of the Orange Line (Orange Line) to the airport in 2014, the planned network has essentially been completed.

However, there was already an agreement in the 1990s that when the network was fully expanded, the main route of all lines through Downtown Dallas would be expected to be too scarce, so that a second route through the city center should be built when the corresponding number of passengers is reached. The first variants for the D2 planning were presented in spring 2008 and the last extensions were discussed again. In 2015, the city council voted in favor of a surface stretch along Jackson Street, but after numerous protests, a possible tunnel is now being discussed. There is no funding for the estimated one billion US dollars, also because the expansion of regional railways is weighted higher (especially the Cotton Belt Rail Line ). The construction of the D2 tunnel is therefore not expected before 2025.

Dallas tram

There are two tram lines in Dallas.

The older route is the M-line Trolley , a tram operated by the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority . This is a non-profit subsidiary of DART, which is run jointly with the uptown development company. Replicas of historic cars are used on this line, and their use is free of charge.

The newer route is the Dallas Streetcar , on which modern articulated railcars operate. Construction began in May 2013 and commissioning took place in April 2015. So far there have been six stations on the four-kilometer route. DART wants to extend the railway in order to connect it with the M-line, and a transition to the light rail in the D2 tunnel could also be created on Commerce Street.

Web links

Commons : Dallas Area Rapid Transit  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DFW Airport Station Connects DART to the World: Orange Line now direct between the airport and downtown. Dallas Area Rapid Transit, August 18, 2014, accessed August 18, 2014 .