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Whether DART is accelerating transit projects near downtown Dallas or anywhere else in anticipation of the Texas Central Railway project is not clear. DART has a long wish list of projects that it would like to implement, but whether it can get the funding is problematic.  In any case, completion of most of the projects, according to DART's executive director, may be decades away.    There are a number of enhancements underway that were started before the plan for the Texas Central Railway was announced, i.e. completion of the McKinney Avenue Trolley loop, the Oak Cliff streetcar line, and the replacement of the rail along the light rail transit way in downtown. The extension of the McKinney Avenue Trolley tracks has reached Federal Street, which is one block short of the St. Paul light rail station. It will be another six to nine months before the project is completed, and cars can begin to run to Federal Street, where they will loop over to Olive Street, and run back towards McKinney Avenue.  The line will not come close to any likely high speed railway station in Dallas, even if the Texas Central Railway uses Union Station. The Oak Cliff streetcar line runs from Union Station - not the convention center - across the Houston Street Viaduct to Colorado Blvd, where it turns to go a block or two to North Beckley Avenue, where it ends.  Which is great if one is gong to El. Fenix - one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in Dallas, Methodist Hospital, or CVS Pharmacy!    There is been a lot of chatter about building a second transit way through downtown Dallas for the light rail system.  Unfortunately, no one has found the money to fund it.  As the Dallas Morning News opined in a column several months ago that there is not likely to be any money for it. If the Texas Central Railway uses Union Station, passengers would be able to connect to the TRE, Oak Cliff streetcar, and DART light rail, as well as several bus routes.  How many of them would do so is problematic.  As it is only 1.8 per cent of the people who live in the cities served by DART's light rail system use it. If the Texas Central Railway decides on a terminal in the southern part of the county, the number of people who might want to connect to public transit is questionable.   To put it bluntly, most of those who will be able to afford to ride a high speed railway train from Houston to Dallas are not going to ride on a transit vehicle used largely by low income people, which is most of the population in southern Dallas County. The number of airline passengers who use the Orange Line to get to and from DFW Airport to downtown and vice versa could provide some indication of whether people coming from Houston on a train would use public transport.  I rode the Orange Line a month or so ago.  Very few passengers went to the airport, although the service is still new, and many people probably are not aware of it.
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