Dallas light rail
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| Basic information | |
| Country | United States |
| city | Dallas , Dallas County |
| opening | June 14, 1996 |
| operator | Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) |
| Infrastructure | |
| Gauge | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Power system | 750 volts = overhead line |
| Stops | 64 |
| Tunnel stations | 1 |
| Depots | 2 |
| business | |
| Lines | 4th |
| Line length | 150 km |
| Clock in the peak hours | 15 (with double traction) |
| Clock in the SVZ | 20-30 |
| vehicles | 163 |
| statistics | |
| Passengers | 29.76 million annually (2017) |
The light rail Dallas or DART light rail , in English DART Light Rail or full name Dallas Area Rapid Transit Light Rail is a light rail system in the Texas city of Dallas and surrounding communities. As one of the first light rail systems after the tram renaissance , it enables rail-bound commuter traffic to downtown Dallas, where all lines go. It is built and operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) public transport company that was founded for this purpose.
The system currently consists of four lines (as of 2019). The Red Line and Blue Line (Red Line and Blue Line) were planned in the 1980s and subsequently extended further and further into the surrounding area. In the 2000s, the establishment of the Green Line and Orange Line (Green Line and Orange Line) began, including a direct connection to the airport. The system is being expanded, in particular a second route through the city center is planned, which is expected to be built as a tunnel. So far, all lines share a trunk route between the high-rise buildings in the business district of Dallas ( Central Business District ).
history
After the abolition of most streetcars in the US in the mid-20th century, local public transport using buses reached the limits of its capacity in the city centers. In Dallas, too, considerations were made of how commuter traffic from the surrounding communities could be reorganized by train. The initial plans included a 160-mile (257.5 km) network, but after a referendum in 1983 it was decided that the communities of Duncanville , Grand Prairie and Mesquite did not want a connection. The 1987 referendum on funding was thus limited to 93 miles (149.7 km), which should be operated by light rail vehicles. After numerous counter motions for financing and the clarification of pending legal proceedings, the groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1990.
In June 1996 operations could then begin. To the astonishment of the city government, the local transport system was very well received, and the number of passengers was well above the forecasts from the start. 1996 was also the last time that attempts were still made in some suburbs of Dallas to prevent the connection with a counter-referendum, but this was rejected by the population.
The starting system included the Red Line and Blue Line . On June 14, 1996, 20 miles could be put into operation, with the Red Line beginning on Westmoreland Road, the Illinois Blue Line , which then met West End and drove to the terminus at Pearl Street on the other side of downtown. In January 1997 the Red Line was extended east to Park Lane, with a tunnel being built to Mockingbird Lane. The Blue Line continued to end at Pearl Street. This was then extended on May 31, 1997 in the other direction to Ledbetter Drive.
Together with the light rail, DART had also developed the Trinity Railway Express , which developed on the existing tracks of the freight railways heading west. The first section was put into operation on December 30, 1996, but only led to Irving. It was not until September 18, 2000 that it was extended to Richland Hills, giving the Dallas Fort Worth Airport a direct connection when changing from the light rail at Dallas Union Station (from the Blue Line ).
On December 18, 2000, the underground Cityplace station (now Cityplace / Uptown) in the tunnel between Pearl and Mockingbird went into operation, with direct access to the Tower at Cityplace (a 171 m high-rise building) that had existed there since 1988.
On July 28, 2001, the Victory station was opened and then allowed a transfer directly from the Red Line to the Trinity RE. On December 3, 2001, the Trinity RE reached downtown Fort Worth, with which you had a rail-bound connection from there to downtown Dallas with their light rail.
As early as 1999, they had also been working on extending the lines to the suburbs. On December 24, 2001, the extension of the Blue Line from Mockingbird to White Rock was put into operation. On May 6, 2002, the Blue Line then reached the LBJ / Skillman station outside the LBJ ring road (Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway). Shortly thereafter, on July 1, 2002, the extension of the Red Line from Park Lane to Galatyn Parkway was put into operation, which was the first time a suburb (Richardson) outside the city limits of Dallas was connected. On November 18, 2002 the Blue Line was extended to the suburb of Garland, with two stations from LBJ via Forest / Jupiter to Downtown Garland. On December 9, 2002, the Red Line to Plano was put into operation six months earlier than expected , with this line having reached its final state.
2030 plan
In October 2006, the DART Board of Directors presented a plan with long-term goals, which they called the “2030 Transit System Plan”, or “2030 Plan” for short as an update to the Transit System Plan from 1995 that had a horizon until 2010. It described further options for expanding local transport, including new lines for the light rail. In the course of the financial crisis in 2007 , however, a number of savings were made, so that the majority of the proposals will no longer be pursued.
What remained, however, was the already decided establishment of a Green Line and an Orange Line (freely translated as "Green Line" and "Orange Line"), for which federal funding was approved on July 3, 2006. The $ 700 million should help meet some of the estimated $ 2.5 billion cost that should make the light rail twice its size. In the old planning documents, reference was made to the "Orange Line" and the "Purple Line". At that time the Trinity RE was still marked on the maps with the color green.
On September 14, 2009, the Green Line went into operation from the city center to the Fair Park station . Fair Park is a recreation area as a holdover from the 1936 World Exposition ( Texas Centennial Exposition ) and this stub section is additionally served at events with special light rail rides. On that date in September 2009, the State Fair of Texas began , the US Fair of Dallas. The actual opening of the Green Line took place on December 6, 2010 in full.
On December 3, 2012, the extension of the Blue Line to Downtown Rowland was put into operation, which is a lot further away than Downtown Garland. In the other direction, there are several proposals for the Blue Line in Plan 2030, which branch off at Ledbetter and continue along Bonnie View Road.
The first stations on the Orange Line were served from July 30, 2012. Irving was reached on December 3, 2012. And the extension to the airport will open on August 14, 2014. With a distance of 150 kilometers, the light rail transit system is the longest light rail transit system in the USA, at least if you consider the real New York subways (380 km / 1355 km), Chicago (171 km / 357 km) and Washington DC (213 km) do not count. In total, the construction cost about 5 billion US dollars over twenty years.
D2 inner city tunnel
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With the expansion of the Green Line in 2009/2010 and the connection of the Orange Line to the airport in 2014, the planned network has largely 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. This second route through downtown is known as "D2".
The first D2 plans were presented in spring 2008, and the last extensions were discussed again. In 2015, the city council voted in favor of building a surface track along Jackson Street. After numerous protests by residents, however, variants with a possible tunnel are now being discussed. There is currently no funding for the estimated costs of one billion US dollars, also because the expansion of regional railways is given greater weight (especially the Cotton Belt Rail Line ). The construction of the D2 tunnel is therefore not expected before 2025.
The “Locally Preferred Alternative” (LPA) of the residents is the basis of the second D2 route, which branches off the Green Line behind Victory (and before Westend) and reaches the west side of the city center via Lamar Street. Near Westend it crosses the old trunk line in the tunnel and then leads south under Young Street to directly in front of the city hall (Government Center station). There it could be on the surface again and join the Green Line on the other side of the Commerce Street junction . Alternative proposals envisage letting the railway run completely in the tunnel along one of the main streets in the city center (Main Street, Commerce Street) and only building a ramp beyond the motorway junction. The Commerce Street variant was preferred by the city council in 2017.
The refinement revealed until September 2018 that operates near the ramps in open construction, while at large intersecting streets a cover method uses. The tunnel boring machine can be lifted into the first station Metro Center, which can be turned at the last station Central Business District / East Transit Center, which can also be erected using the open construction method. Commerce Street will be deeply driven under with the train station approximately 60 feet (20 meters) down. At street level, the extension of the Dallas tram can then offer a transition there. The eastern ramp near Swiss Street is still unclear, and Deep Ellum station is likely to be removed or relocated.
Platform extensions
In order to cope with the increased number of passengers, the extension of the platforms will be tackled before the construction of the D2 tunnel so that they can be served with triple traction . For the renovation of the affected 28 stations of the "Red Line" and the Blue Line , 129 million US dollars are estimated. The planning of the so-called “Platform Extensions” began in 2014 and has been approved for implementation since 2017; commissioning is expected in 2022. In March 2018 the company Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN) was commissioned with the construction. Construction work began in July 2019 and is expected to last until August 2022.
In addition to increasing capacity, which will help especially in rush-hour traffic, the project allows the stations to be equipped for barrier-free boarding even on the oldest routes (for the low-floor middle compartment of the SLRV vehicles with a floor height of 40 cm). Therefore half of the financing could be secured from the mobility fund of the state of Texas, almost the other half could be raised from federal funds, DART itself mainly bears the planning costs of less than ten million dollars.
Correspondingly, in the first phase the platforms are raised by 20 cm (7.5 inches) so that they have a height of 40 cm (15.5 inches) over their entire length. The second phase will extend the platforms, which were originally 91 meters (300 feet) long. A typical street-level station would then have side platforms 137 meters (450 feet) long, 117 meters (385 feet) high for barrier-free access, and followed by ramps and crossings.
The Orange Line and the Green Line were equipped with long platforms when they were built. So far, however, this could not be exploited in cycle operation. Only on the Green Line were longer trains deployed to Fair Park during the festival. The "Platform Extensions" for the old lines were already included in the planning in the 1980s, so that sufficient space was reserved for the extension of the platforms - at that time, however, with the prospect of a possible quadruple traction of the LRV vehicles whose total length is achieved with a triple traction of the SLRV vehicles. Elevated and tunnel stations were already equipped with 120 meter (400 foot) long platforms during construction, which, however, have to be laboriously adapted in the first phase due to the stairs.
vehicles
With the first new light rail systems in the USA in 1981 (San Diego), Siemens Duewag U2 cars were introduced, which were operated together with elevated platforms based on the German model. In the years that followed, alternatives were looked for, and the VTA Light Rail in Silicon Valley , for example, came up with the need to procure cars from Kinki Sharyō that could be accessed from elevated platforms and steps from the street.
The first generation of the Kinki Sharyo cars for Dallas were two-part articulated railcars with four doors on each side. At DART, these vehicles were then called "LRV" (Light Rail Vehicle). The floor height in the interior is about one meter (39.5 inches).
The second generation was necessary because more passengers were expected with the new routes. Instead of a complete new acquisition, the LRV was revised to "Super LRV" - or "SLRV" for short. By means of a low-floor center section, the LRV was extended to three-part articulated multiple units with a basic length of 37.7 meters (123 feet 8 inches). Four of these vehicles can be coupled together, which would result in trains up to 150 meters long. However, since the network was designed for a quadruple LRV unit, which provides for a platform extension to a maximum of 120 m, a maximum of one triple unit SRLV will operate accordingly. The low-floor middle sections with a floor height of 40 cm (16 inches) allow barrier-free access to adapted platforms.
The SLRVs were also modernized in other ways, with each old vehicle having to go to the workshop for six weeks. The first prototype of an SLRV was tested from 2002, and from June 23, 2008 SLRVs were used in regular operation. From 2007 DART began to extend the platforms in order to be able to stop the now longer trains without restrictions. That is at least 75 m for the usual double traction during rush hour. The reconstruction of the platforms was completed in 2010. At this point, 84 of the old 115 LRVs had already been overhauled. In August 2014, DART reported that all of the old LRVs had been modernized and, with 48 additional SLRVs, a fleet of 163 SLRVs is now in use.
Like the LRV, the SLRV are 2.69 m wide, but now have five (instead of four) doors on each side. The new door in the middle section also runs in door pockets. A three-part SRV now has 96 seats and a total capacity of 209 passengers. An SLRV is 37.7 m long, an LRV was 28.3 m long. The SLRV accelerate strongly with 1.0 m / s² up to 65 mph (100 km / h). The LRV indicated 70 mph (110 km / h). The braking effect of the SLRV is 1.3 m / s². While an LRV had three bogies , the SLRV had four - with the LRV the two car parts were supported on a common bogie. In the designation, A and B are the two railcar parts, while C designates the middle part. The car parts are equipped differently, each with ventilation, heating and cooling. Together with train protection (ATP), localization (GPS) and other extensions, a vehicle comes to a total of around 7.3 million dollars.
Passenger numbers
When it opened in 1996 there were 1.4 million passengers, 7.97 million in 1997 and 10.94 million passengers from 1998. After that, the number of passengers increased by a few percent every year. After the opening of the basic system in 2002, the number of passengers in 2003 reached a level of 17 million passengers a year.
With the Green Line the numbers for 2011 rose to 22.3 million, and from 2014 with the Orange Line to the airport to around 30 million passengers a year. Compared to other cities, this is still low. The Washington Metro has around 50% more infrastructure in terms of route length and number of stations, but transports six times as many passengers every day. The clock there is only 4 minutes on many lines in the morning. The light rail transports just 100,000 of the millions of jobs in the greater Dallas area every day. However, many comparisons are also weak, since half of downtown Dallas traditionally consists of parking lots, and there are many single-storey buildings between the high-rise buildings of the business district, so the density of jobs is nowhere near as high as in other cities. The light rail is actually designed so that there are large parking spaces at the stations on the outer branches - instead of parking fees in the city center, you pay a ticket for the light rail if you work in the business district. Around 100,000 passengers a day continue to travel by bus, although a ticket costs only half that.
Cycle times
Until 2010, the tram was operated every 10 minutes during rush hour and every 20 or 30 minutes during off- peak times.
With the opening of the Green Line , the 10-minute cycle was changed to a 15-minute cycle. At noon and in the evening you stayed at 20 minutes and in the weekend traffic at 30 minutes. The overlapping of lines creates a 7½ minute cycle at morning rush hour on the jointly traveled sections. This condition was also reported in 2017.
| Time in h | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th | 21st | 22nd | 23 | 00 | 01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| mo – fr | 30th | 15th | 20th | 15th | 20th | 30th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sat / Sun | 30th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line network
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Hints
- On the conservative side, DART is described as a prestige object that is heavily subsidized for construction and operation. The $ 6 day pass is actually missing $ 10 to cover costs. Nevertheless, the city invests over one hundred million dollars annually in the expansion, which is justified by the fact that an economic upswing is taking place along the stations, especially in the city center, which brings the money back.
- Along the M-Line, designed as a museum tram, there has been a significant economic upswing in Uptown north of the business district / business district. Accordingly, work is underway to return a real tram to the downtown business district. A section south of Union Station already exists. The M-Line starts at the St. Paul light rail station, where the transition to the Dallas tram is also planned.
- While drilling the tunnel from the east end of the trunk line to the north, the Cityplace station was set up (later renamed Cityplace / Uptown with the development of Uptown). The shell for the Knox-Henderson tunnel station has actually already been completed. It has been a political issue in the city for decades when the station will be expanded as a light rail stop. It is also currently (2019) not included in any plans.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 995 DART Transit System Plan Map .
- ↑ https://de.scribd.com/document/8728311/DART-2030-Transit-System-Plan
- ↑ a b DART Has Spent $ 5 Billion on Light Rail. Is it worth it? . Dallas Observer. June 10, 2016.
- ↑ https://www.dart.org/about/expansion/d2history.asp
- ↑ https://www.dart.org/about/inmotion/february18/2.asp
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/v=V73tP5zdAMo
- ^ DART Red and Blue Lines Platform Extensions . Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- ↑ DART awards Red and Blue Line Platform extension contract . Railway Technology. 5th March 2018.
- ↑ Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc .: Construction begins to extend platforms at DART Red and Blue Line stations . Mass Transit Mag. July 26, 2019.
- ^ Raising the Bar: Platform Extensions - Getting ready for three-car trains . DART Daily. 4th December 2018.
- ↑ http://dartdallas.dart.org/2018/11/20/platform-extensions/
- ↑ https://dartdallas.dart.org/2018/11/20/platform-extensions/
- ↑ a b c d e f DART Rail Facts . Retrieved January 27, 2019.
- ↑ Jim Schütze: DART Worst Transit Agency in America, Thanks to Dallas' Suburban In-Laws . Dallas Observer. 22nd June 2017.
- ↑ a b DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT REFERENCE BOOK 3.0 . April 2012.
- ↑ DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT REFERENCE BOOK 8.0 . March 2017.
- ↑ https://www.dart.org/schedules/w600no.htm
- ↑ https://www.dart.org/schedules/s600no.htm
- ↑ http://dartdallas.dart.org/2015/01/29/ask-dart-is-there-really-a-hidden-knox-henderson-rail-station/
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