There has been a lot of chitter chatter here regarding DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), mainly from people who live outside the DFW area. Some of it is informed, and some of it is highly uninformed. You have to understand facts about Dallas' past and future to fully comprehend what DART means to the city and its future, including the possibility of Amazon locating HQ2 in the city and changing the status quo. DART has its issues, but some problems are being addressed and the system has massive potential as the urban core densifies.
Most people probably don't know this (including many present day Dallasites) but Central Dallas and the many surrounding neighborhoods were built as streetcar neighborhoods. In fact, Dallas had a very extensive streetcar systems in the first half of the 20th century. Supplementing the streetcar system was a the "Interurban" network which connected cities and towns across North Texas to Dallas' streetcar system. Believe it or not, this was the Dallas Streetcar map at one point:
SOURCE:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid...78833853159589%2C-96.78434943575076&z=13
As you can see, it was quite extensive. The first mule-drawn streetcar line opened in 1872 and the first electric line in 1891, and the system grew with the city. Neighborhoods such as Oak Cliff, Oak Lawn, Deep Ellum, East Dallas, Knox/Henderson, Fair Park, Junius Heights, Cedars, present day Uptown, and others were all connected to the bustling Downtown. These neighborhoods have changed over time but they have the bones of streetcar neighborhoods and many have seen huge resurgences over the last couple decades. More than 300 streetcars were running in Dallas by 1936. Unfortunately, the powers that be in the 1950's decided that buses and personal automobiles were the future, and the streetcar lines started disappearing. The decision was shortsighted and destructive, and expressways were plowed through once vibrant and healthy neighborhoods which would take decades to overcome.
More Dallas Streetcar history:
http://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2015/01/old-dallas-streetcars-stopped-running-59-years-ago-today/ and
https://flashbackdallas.com/category/transportation/streetcars/
Since then, DART was created in the 1980's with a vision of whisking workers from the suburbs to Downtown Dallas. The light rail system was does not circulate people within the urban core. Later, we will get to how that is changing. The DART light rail system does what it does pretty well, transporting 100,000+ people mainly from the outlying areas to the urban core in Dallas and back. A tiny amount of rail opened in 1996 but most of the system as we know it has opened in the last decade or so, and it is still a very young system. A big flaw in the rail design is that ALL lines meet downtown and then ride along a single line, which means that frequency is limited to the current service window.
However, this will change as a new "D2" subway line starts construction soon and will split the downtown lines in half and add 3 or 4 new subway stations. After that, frequency of trains can be increased across the network.
Current Streetcars:
-The historic McKinney Avenue Streetcar line which just underwent a large expansion into the Downtown area. It may eventually be converted to a "modern" streetcar line.
-Another (modern) streetcar line to Oak Cliff opened recently.
-Another (modern) streetcar line for a "Downtown circulator" is in final design stages and will start construction soon, hopefully.
-A streetcar extension from Uptown to Knox/Henderson will start construction soon.
-Hopefully more lines will be planned soon, in a return to the historic form of Dallas' urban neighborhoods being connected by streetcars. A Ross Avenue to Lower Greenville line is on some people's wish lists.
The Bus System:
It sucks. This cripples the rail and streetcar network. A complete 180 redesign of the bus system is currently underway. No details have been released yet other than that it will be a huge undertaking.
Regional Rail:
-The TRE double decker trains are still a great way to get between Downtown Dallas and Downtown Fort Worth.
-2 new commuter rail lines are being built, one from Fort Worth to DFW airport and one from Plano, Richardson, Addison, and a couple other places to DFW Airport, and they will provide an east/west link for the DART Red and Green lines.
-DCTA operates a commuter rail from Denton and links with DART in Carrollton.
-High Speed Japanese bullet trains will link Downtown Dallas (and DART) and Houston if everything goes well with that project. It is looking very likely.
In a nutshell, there are certainly problems with the transit network as-is but it is almost a miracle what has been built in just a 20 year span. Name another subelt metro that has developed more public transportation options in the last 20 years. No others come close to what DFW has accomplished. The bones are in place, and development around new stations and changing attitudes towards transit will increase ridership. Amazon locating HQ2 in the urban core, along with the coming expansions, would be the catalyst needed to kick the system into high gear and drive it towards its full potential.
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