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These numbers, which are taken from Page 49 of the May 2014 DART reference book, will give you an approximate idea of the percentage of DART's light rail system that runs on former railroad rights-of-way or in the street median.  At the end of 2013 DART had 84.6 miles of light rail in service and 61 operational stations. Except as shown below, all of the light rail was built along rights-of-way that were or are existing railroad rights-of-way.  The Blue Line shares some right-of-way with the Dallas, Garland, and Northeastern Railroad, which is based in Richardson, TX, and the Trinity Railway Express, which is owned jointly by DART and the T, which is Fort Worth's public transit agency, but they don't share tracks as far as I know. The downtown transit way, which is used by the Red, Blue, Green, and Orange trains, is approximately 1.5 miles long. It runs from the Central Expressway Tunnel entrance to Union Station.The tunnel is 3.2 miles long. The Blue Line runs on 2.5 miles of street median in South Oak Cliff. The Red and Blue lines run on approximately one mile of track from Union Station to the Oak Cliff viaduct.  This track was built on a former street, I believe, and was not a former railroad right-of-way.  The Orange Line from Bachman Lake to Belt Line, which is 9 miles, is not built on a former railroad right-of way.  It was built from scratch, I believe, as will be the remainder of the line when it is completed into DFW Airport.  The airport extension opens in August. If my numbers are correct - they are pretty close, approximately 80 per cent of the light rail system in operation today was built along former or existing railroad rights-of-way. As I mentioned in a previous post, a major cost for the starter system was the need to build the tunnel under Central Expressway. That had not been part of the original plan, but became necessary because the powers that be in the Park Cities did not want the light rail system running along the former MKT tracks, which they described as their backyard. They had the political power to kill the original route.  The tunnel is used by the Red and Blue line trains.
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