Various Rail Transit Modes in Dallas (DART and beyond)

[CMStPnP]

Video of various rail transit modes in Dallas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWhVvjkq1ng

DART Light Rail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6oY4ZfYmc

Trinity Railway Express (Herzog Rail Services):

Former Rock Island trackage, you can see how much money they spent pulling it out of the mud and fixing it up.     I don't think the voices you hear are in the cab, rather in the passenger seat behind it using a zoom lens.    Some of the Herzog Engineers are really young but not this young.     The last bridge crossed in the very last few minutes of the video before Union Station, immediately right after the wye is the rail bridge over Dealy Plaza where JFK was shot.......Book Depository would be on your left but out of sight of the camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVKmyH6wdqw

 

 

 

[daveklepper]

COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – Call it a bit of positive growth in a growing Collin County. After years in the discussion stage, the plan to link Plano and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport with a rail corridor is gaining momentum.

City leaders say completing the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Cotton Belt Corridor would ease up a lot of traffic and congestion issues.

The Plano City Council got their first look at the plans during a meeting Monday night. The east-west light rail route would run from Plano at Shiloh Road to DFW Airport, with 11 stops in between.

The Plano Council agreed to put up $12 million for the project, using money raised through tax increment financing (TIF) that would cost about $1 billion to complete. Since the line will cross through several cites those municipalities will have to figure out how to pay for their sections.

Planners say if construction is started soon the line could be complete by 2023.

 

 

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[CMStPnP]

daveklepper

The Plano Council agreed to put up $12 million for the project, using money raised through tax increment financing (TIF) that would cost about $1 billion to complete. Since the line will cross through several cites those municipalities will have to figure out how to pay for their sections. Planners say if construction is started soon the line could be complete by 2023.    

$12 million is enough to preserve the ROW and pull the rails out of the mud through Plano but little else.     I believe this line is having such a difficult time because the cities along it do not want to dedicate money to it annually.    

So unless a Regional Transportation District along the lines of METRA is formed in the Dallas areas this project will probably go nowhere.    Have my doubts DART will contribute much to it either as it benefits only about 50% of the DART subscribers and would not be part of the light rail network downtown.     They really need a METRA like organization at the county level and it needs to collect the fee from Collin County vs. individual cities along the line because primarily Collin County is the beneficiary of this line vs just Plano.     Should also be collected via property tax than sales tax.

[schlimm]

CMStPnP

So unless a Regional Transportation District along the lines of METRA is formed in the Dallas areas this project will probably go nowhere.    Have my doubts DART will contribute much to it either as it benefits only about 50% of the DART subscribers and would not be part of the light rail network downtown.     They really need a METRA like organization at the county level and it needs to collect the fee from Collin County vs. individual cities along the line because primarily Collin County is the beneficiary of this line vs just Plano.     Should also be collected via property tax than sales tax.

Metra (and PACE and the CTA) gets its tax funding through the six-county RTA, in the form of a sales tax of 1.25% in Cook County, 0.75% in the collar counties.

[CMStPnP]

schlimm

Metra (and PACE and the CTA) gets its tax funding through the six-county RTA, in the form of a sales tax of 1.25% in Cook County, 0.75% in the collar counties.

OK well in the case of Texas they tried the Sales tax route and it was a non-starter so all we have left that will raise the required funds is property tax.    It also seems more fair to base it on property tax as most will see an increase in home valuation based on the increased ability to be mobile.   In Collin County we already get assessed seperately for the County Community College system....which is pretty good and has campus extensions just about everywhere.