This rendering shows what you'll likely see running on the Downtown-Oak Cliff streetcar line when it commences operations.
The line is expected to open in early 2015.
Downtown Dallas to Oak Cliff electric streetcar to open in early 2015;
part of much larger transportation plan to connect Downtown/Uptown/Oak Cliff
hotspots to each other and to regional rail
By Brandon Formby, Dallas Morning News, 02-24-14
When streetcars begin running across the Houston Street viaduct next year, Dallas will have a quick public transit connection from Downtown Dallas to north Oak Cliff.
The $51 million price tag and months of rush-hour delays may seem like heavy prices to pay for a 2-mile route from Union Station to Methodist Dallas Medical Center.
But city and regional transportation planners see the line as the first phase of a larger street car network.
They say going over the Houston bridge was going to be the most expensive and complicated phase in the system.
....
Officials have spent almost a decade planning improvements to public transportation Downtown. The matter became more urgent after Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s light-rail system reached critical mass. That 85-mile network connects Downtown to the suburbs in all directions. The trains run along Downtown’s edges, but not deep into its business, government and entertainment hubs.
“The conversation came up that DART rail will take care of regional transportation. But what about in and around Downtown?” Manoy said.
That’s when the idea of electric streetcars started to gain momentum.
....
Meanwhile, both Oak Cliff and Downtown Dallas were changing.
The Bishop Arts District blossomed into one of the most popular restaurant and shopping destinations in the city and put Oak Cliff on many people’s radar for the first time. The convention center’s new Omni Dallas Hotel and its planned cluster of restaurants are turning southwest Downtown into a new hub.
Officials decided to begin with the Union Station-Methodist connection that will open in early 2015.
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The second phase of the streetcar project will extend the line on both sides of the river and add a convention center stop in Downtown and a Bishop Arts stop in Oak Cliff.
Manoy doesn’t know when construction on the extension will begin or how much it will cost. There’s already $30.8 million in grant funds set aside for the project.
From there, planners want to go through the center of Downtown and eventually tie into the McKinney Avenue trolley.
There would be various transfer points along the way that tie DART’s light rail, the streetcar and the trolley together. The result would connect regional transit to Bishop Arts, Downtown’s hot spots and Uptown.
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Full article:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/commu...ssStory1464955
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