Can Dallas Make Rail Transit Work in Texan Sprawl?
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2023
- The Dallas-Fort Worth region is the fourth-largest metro area in the United States, and perhaps because of this, they've bucked the Texan trends and invested heavily in rail infrastructure, ranging from the DART light rail to a plethora of new commuter rail systems. But are they...you know, good?
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Classy Whale - at-least-weekly misadventures with trains and transit!
Growing up in Dallas, I lived in the suburbs where there were no lines. They've since expanded and I hope to see the day where I can actually use a train to get where I need to go.
Truer words have never been spoken, I hope one day to be able to make it from one side of Dallas to the other side of fort worth
Of course with the ability to get off at ‘poi’s
"Austin's...trying"
Truer words haven't been spoken.
They won't even add the new bus lines from the big multibillion dollar transit bond
They should try so much harder, but the state chose the backwards route and now they wanna turn the city into a highway . Wooooo :((
I don’t see it, I see the opposite. Refusing to expand the highways unless it’s a toll lane or toll roads entirely. Refusing to build a proper rail system despite having the resources and builds one rail with an awful route. Keep Austin weird = keep it the same despite the population tripling since 1980. Horrible planning.
@@veganmax8015the bus lines are in fact under construction. I live in Austin and have seen the construction (slowly) progressing. The two initial lines are scheduled to open next year, and as it currently stands they most likely will.
The light rail, on the other hand, has been more of a mess. Being the flagship project of the transit expansion plan (and thereby garnering the most publicity), it’s attracted the ire of anti-transit activists and state legislators alike, both of which are doing everything they can to kill the project. It’s been a wild ride so far and we’ve definitely dodged some bullets, but we just have to take it one year at a time until construction starts and people realize that it’s happening whether they like it or not. Oh, the perks of building transit in a state so hostile to it!
I guess “trying” is a 15 year old, underdeveloped metro line that doesn’t even run through a very busy downtown, or connect with the Amtrak station, and the airport…
Dallas resident and frequent rider of the DART system. The reason they play the opera music is to annoy the homeless people and make them leave.😥
No, the music just makes them get on the DART cars where they ride for free
Seems like they would do better to just Carter to them they are the only customers I see getting on or off them and I work across from mockingbird station
@@lilkris3008 "Carter to them"?
DART trains are a rolling homeless shelter, and the MBStation is filthy and feels unsafe. Vandalized non working ticket kiosks. Blind zombie "police" , sleeping cleanup crews on their phones more than brooms. Rivals Forest Lane for "ambiance". DART thinks rider safety is an app.
@@lilkris3008 "Carter to the them". ?
DART is just a rolling homeless shelter.
I mean, its better than the homies beating them up for being dumb on the trains.
They play opera in the stations to keep people who've taken drugs away, when you are high, opera music is very scary for some reason.
As in completely stoned on something and listening to The Ride of the Valkyres
Btw, Dallas had a subway many decades ago, 20s and 30s. It was abandoned with the cars left inside. There are very few entry points this days that are very secure. It was under Main St. Downtown.
As a current rail operator for Dart, i just wanna say thanks for speaking positively about the system. We’ve got some kinks to definitely work out and it should’ve been heavy rail but it’s here nonetheless and not going anywhere! Quality of service will only increase and changes are coming 😁
Thanks for watching! We really appreciate what you do.
Rumor has it the passive aggressively timed automated smoking announcement was manually triggered by the operator, is this true?
@@ClassyWhale so they were actually automated to be way more frequent during/right after covid because the homeless as well as people who have no regard for actual passengers sorta took over the trains as ridership decreased due to the pandemic. As of now, those announcements are triggered by operators when needed!
Nice video. Dart rail operator here as well. I’m glad that you were able to read the map and explain the system properly!
@@davidbullock4246hi there, I just moved to Dallas and I would love to work for DART, how do u recommend getting a job as an operator?
Any talk of bringing back the D2 subway project? Or is it officially dead?
I haven’t seen a good quality video of DART on RUclips yet so thanks for releasing this!
DFW may lag behind many other US cities of its size but it’s definitely the leader in Texas when it comes to transit. It’s not without its challenges though as many of DFW’s northern suburbs don’t want the light rail to expand there so definitely a lot of NIMBY opposition to overcome there. There are also issues with sketchiness and frequency as well as a genuine love for cars that the area still has to overcome. But it’s made some great strides in comparison to Austin and Houston (which are either expanding slowly or adding BRT instead) and San Antonio (which looked into LRT but is literally doing nothing other than expanding 1604 and hoping that would solve the problem). All the DFW area needs to do is add some BRT lines to its newer suburbs and it should be fine. Texas is still the epitome of car-centric sprawl though, and it’s still dominated by Republicans, so it’s got a long way to go.
DART trains are a rolling homeless shelter, filthy and feels unsafe to ride. IMAGE IS OF BAD EXPERIENCE.
Vandalized non working ticket kiosks.
Blind zombie "police" , Dirty station with sleeping cleanup crews on their phones more than their brooms.
DART thinks rider safety is an app, customer service an email.
Loved your video! As someone who worked on the DART rail project over 45 years ago (my first job after college), I am just amazed at how the DART System has found a way to actually work. Anytime I'm in Dallas, I am drawn to ride the rails as I find doing so relaxing. In fact, a few years ago, I was able to complete riding all 93 miles of DART rail (It took a few years since the Orange Line was completed to DFW about 2 years ago) which was a dream of mine. I was an engineering assistant while working on the DART rail project which involved field survey work on proposed lines and the creation of drawings for many of the stations such as Mockingbird Station that the engineers used for final design of the stations. I still have a few of these at home. I feel DART has made a very positive impact on the area and has pulled many commuters out of their cars. (VERY HARD to do in the Big D!!) By The Way - Plano is pronounced "Plain-O." Hope you can do more DART videos!
And don't forget the tour of the Forest Lane Station Homeless camp
So the connection to the DFW airport is technically new 2 years ago?
Man, thank goodness it was finished when I first visited Dallas, saves me renting a car
great video, but *eye twitch* it's Plano with a long a, ("Playno"), not a short a ("Planno").
I was thinking in Spanish, haha!
I was thinking this too😭
@@ClassyWhale Now try pronouncing Amarillo 😃
@@danatronics9039ah-mah-ree-oh
It is Spanish but the Gringos pronounce it “Playno” you actually pronounced it right.
I'm sorry to DART, but I hate the way that they did the maps on the light rail cars. Multiple lines literally go in the opposite direction that the map conveys it does, it's so misleading and I hate it
North is right but also down. How hard is that to understand?
I think the horizontal maps on the trains are moreso just meant to convey the connections between the stations and not the literal geographical positions of them. They don't have much space to work with in the spot they put those maps in, so they get the most important points across.
No it's not 😂 I always understood dart just doesn't go everywhere it needs to but it is clutch
It's not meant to be a literal map, just a sequence of stations so you know how soon your stop is coming up.
I love that you can ride rail all the way from Dallas to Denton, Texas
Now we just need to bring back interurban service to Waco and other outlying cities.
@@danatronics9039Waco would be huge cause then college kids could go to both north Texas and Baylor
Dallas is actually doing not bad when it comes to Public Transport Globally. Whilst, true, there is a lot more they can do, they are really expanding, especially between Dallas and Fort Worth. And they also have many lines in planning, which is better than other american cities, such as those who have given up after building a little light rail line or those who completely gave up in the too hard basket. Dallas is not one of those two.
It is doing good for American standards but it's below average for a first world country city. Lol. There are plenty of Japanese cities & Korean cities that are very spread out but they are extremely properly planned. I guess the biggest difference is that Japanese & Koreans don't live in a big house with huge backyards. Their house is very small & even their apartments are very small compared to the US. All the apartments & housing are built right next to each other. The result is hundreds of extremely densely populated residential areas. It's just much easier to build lots of stations all over the place and you are almost guaranteed to have high riderships in each & every station. The only way for public transport to have really high ridership is by creating many highly densely populated areas around Dallas. In which I am not sure Texans are ready for that. Many West Americans are so obsessed with having a large backyard, I doubted the culture will ever go away
Dallas really impresses me as a lifelong Texas native. I wish the Rio grande valley of South Texas had a similar system, allthough all our working class economy would need to get the most efficiency and beneficial aspects of rail would be a a train type line going from mission to Brownsville, with a light rail extension from the McAllen airport to utrgv in north Edinburg and stops along the way. Unfortunately, our leaders are essentially bought out by big oil and suspiciously after Elon musk abuse of our area , all light rail talks from officials (various articles) went completely silent. Dallas , relative to Texas standards , is a miracle. Especially considering how much it will expand. Most Texas cities are made to bake you in the oven during the summer , or kill pedestrians trying to walk across 8 lanes. Dallas still has these qualities , but so does Houston and Austin. They aren't doing anywhere near as good of a job at providing alternatives as Dallas is. Props to dart ! Really cool system
@@secrets.295 It’s actually below average for American standards too. Dart loses more money (in negatives) than a lot of LRTs. San Diego’s Trolley with only 65 miles of track has 200k riders. Dallas with 93 miles of track has 153k riders. This is based on the company’s website of Dart & Trolley. Keep in mind, both cities are sprawled. Yet, San Diego places their stations in dense areas & retail stores. Dallas for the most part has giant parking lots with empty warehouses surrounding some stations.
@@dontlookatmypants Very true, the oil and gas unfortunately are letting public transportation fall apart. Dart has potential to increase ridership but the stations are far from dense. A lot of commuters don’t have a car. Unlike the south, just recently many western states can extend their LRTs very long. Yet, in global standards we are now behind Morocco, Indonesia, Turkey and just recently MX. They are/have opened (ing) an HSR.
Yep.. Dallas actually understands that lines need to connect suburbs to the city and not just inside the city. They’ve also done a good job at providing parking and buses right at the train stations.
Also, another factor is that Dallas cost of living close to the train stations is actually pretty affordable in many areas unlike other cities. I took it quite a bit to get to downtown and Richardson when I lived there but what concerned me was the safety issues and the smell. It always smelled like pee and was always so desolate I was uneasy and on guard at all times.
“San Antonio never even got started”
Spoken with confidence
After two weeks in Europe it makes me sad that we don’t have high speed rail, trams or street cars in San Antonio
Just arrived back to New York from Austin...I felt in LOVE with Texas!! My God, best State I've ever been!! I want to move there so badly!! Love you Texans!!!
Stay up there
don’t love something just cause everyone else is,stay in New York
the Governor will be pleased to hear it.
Picked out the family guns yet?
Just don't make TX more like NY if you move here. Then again, Austin is not a good example of what Texas is about.
trust me, you’re not missing out on anything here.
The Oak Cliff street car might seem to be relegated to a “useless category,” but I know the guy who made the huge effort to get the street car in place. Those efforts to introduce better urbanism are ultimately setting good examples for future projects
From memory, the use of classical music to deter antisocial activities was pioneered in the underpasses of transit facilities in Berlin and select parts of the Eastern Netherlands \m/
Arlington really gums up the works when it comes to regional transit. The largest city in the US without public transit. 400k population and not even a single bus line. They're right in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth but will not join DART or Trinity Metro, which is one reason why the TRE veers so far north to go between downtowns. I don't know much about this, but it seems the Texas legislature could create a new transit authority encompassing the entire region and force Arlington into the mix, but even if that's possible they wouldn't do that.
Oh my GOD does Arlington throw a spanner in the works. They don't even run a bus from the center port station to cowboys stadium even though its right THERE. They do have a city run car service with very cheap rates. But a taxi does not a transit system make. Its such a pain to get to anything in Arlington or HEB for that matter
@@russianbear0027 People don't move to Arlington for mass transit. They know it has no mass transit, which makes it attractive to them. Keep the mass transit in the city and leave the suburbs out of it unless they specifically ask for it. Trying to cram it down their throats is not just a waste of time, but makes it tougher to get more built in the future.
@@starventure Get more of what built?
@@wren7300 Mass transit.
Local wisdom is that we'll never see good transit in Arlington because there's a General Motors plant there. Some of our previous mayors have tried to push for at least bus lines, but most attempts get shot down. It's a shame, because I'd really love more public transit options! 😢
Las Colinas APT System hasn't been demolished yet, which indicates that maybe they are going to keep maintaining it for when future growth demands its reopening
Go big or go home in Texas, and their barbecue is definitely out of the park! I don't blame Texans for loving their flag so much. It's simple, yet iconic. Blue stands for loyalty, white for purity, red for bravery, and the lone star represents Texan unity. Besides Texas, the other state flags I love are Alaska, New Mexico, Arizona, and Maryland. The copper star on Arizona's flag symbolizes Arizona being the largest producer of copper in the US, it shows the rays of a setting Sun because Arizona is a western state, blue and gold are the colors of Arizona, while red and gold are the colors of the Spanish flags that were carried by Coronado’s Expedition of 1540 to find the Seven Cities of Gold.
It's true that 7-Eleven started in Texas! Founded in 1927 as an icehouse. The company's first outlets were called "Tote'm Stores" between 1928 and 1946 because customers "toted" away their purchases. The name was changed to 7-Eleven in 1946 to reflect their new operating hours of 7 am to 11 pm, seven days a week. Wanna know the why the n in their logo is lowercased? It's because the first wife of John P. Thompson Sr., the company's president during the 1960s, thought the all-capitals version seemed a little aggressive and wanted it to be more graceful. While the Budd SPVs were used as the Moroccan royal train, but it was only used for Hassan II and under his successor, has since fallen into disuse.
And these rolling homeless shelters are the best in the world!
I’m currently an intern at DART, in their Materials Management department(warehouse holding all their vehicles parts and materials that are shipped and received to and from other DART warehouses) and having been to other cities with massive rapid transit programs it’s weird. Dallas is the tip of the spear here in Texas and is really really trying to make the most of what it’s given. Currently DART is constructing the Silver Line which hopes to connect Plano to DFW, it would be a commuter train. Although this expansion is going ahead, DART is facing budget cuts from its member cities. If these budget cuts go ahead the consequences would be devastating to DART. DART also had plans of continuing its development of a subway system in Dallas, but has apparently been placed on hold. It’s a unique situation, especially with the sheer amount of freeways there are, but I hope DART pulls through.
Lamar Hunt first coined the term Super Bowl in 1966! Hunt was originally born in Arkansas but was raised in Dallas. Lamar was once the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt later said the name was likely in his head because his children had been playing with a Super Ball toy, which said toy is displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The championship was officially called the Super Bowl starting in 1969 with the third edition in Miami, Florida.
Another DFW invention is liquid paper! Bette Claire Graham invented it while working as a typist in 1951 and searching for an easier way to correct mistakes. She started out in her kitchen, mixing tempera paint in her blender and providing small bottles of the product, first called Mistake Out, to co-workers. She would later call it Liquid Paper and sold her company to Gillette in 1979 for nearly 50 million with royalties. Her son....is Mike Nesmith of THE MONKEES!
I see you everywhere
A subway through downtown Dallas has been in planning in order to improve frequencies on all lines (the max is 15 min frequencies on all lines at once because of the downtown transit mall limiting capacity), but recently has been shelved in favor of building a few improvements to the downtown transit mall to accommodate 10 minute frequencies.
I will hope for more light rail lines, but considering the current system has really consumed DARTs debt capacity, nothing new aside from the already under construction Silver Line is going to be opening any time soon :(
That said, the current CEO has been really committed to improving the ridership experience. The bus network was redesigned for 20 minute frequencies (huge improvement for us), with plans to improve frequencies further when rail lines get improved frequency. Stations and trains regularly get cleaned every day, they just hired extra security so every train or every other train gets a security guard on board. It's been super nice.
The problem has been the stations. Dallas Dart surveyed its riders, most of them do not have a car (I believe it was 90%). Most stations are placed in low density including the TRE, A train & TEXrail, making it difficult to commute there. Take Trinity Mills, LBJ/Skillman, White Rock, Lake Highlands (prior) Arapaho, UD, Hidden Ridge & many more a placed in the middle of giant parking spots with rarely any density to go anywhere. Some stations for example, Downtown Carrollton & Downtown Rowlett are placed by a dangerous highways that is diffcult to cross to the retails, bars or restaurants without an UBER. I rode all lines, and I can tell that is the reason.
Now, take for instance, San Diego trolley, just as sprawled. Google their trolley stations, Hazard, Fashion Valley, UCSD,SDSU, Old town, UTC & many more. Their stations are placed by retail store, malls, in univeristy campuses & the border. It does need an airport line though. This will help DART.
@@jeSuisbar I 1000% agree that land use is the biggest problem facing DART, but it's also something DART can't control directly. City of Dallas in particular has been very bad about encouraging TOD near stations (or even building sidewalks)
@@nihouma11 I think it’s a TX problem. Houston can’t get a rail separate LRT for its own trains. San Antonio doesn’t any rail at all. My thoughts are any high speed rail will be placed somewhere remote from civilization. While this is happening, many underdeveloped countries currently have an HSR. Indonesia 🇮🇩, Morocco 🇲🇦, Turkey 🇹🇷, Mexico (high speed commuter rail) & Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (being built by China). We’re lagging behind
I ride the Dallas Streetcar (when it's operational), whenever I gig in Bishop Arts district. I can confirm the system.....exists sometimes, and could be so much more than it is
Don't buy 1st generation prototype trains...
You definitely don't think of Texas when you think of places with good transit, but the Dallas-Fort Worth Area definitely excels. That tower with the ball at 0:22 is the Reunion Tower! Called such because it's in the Reunion district, which in turn is named after the La Réunion commune. Which was a utopian community founded by French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists in 1855. It dissolved in 1857 and most of it was incorporated into Dallas by 1860 while the rest was incorporated in 1940. The sculpture you saw at Deep Ellum at 2:04 is called the Traveling Man, it's a series of three different sculptures. They represent the history of rail transportation in the area and its more recent development as an artistic community.
Kinki Sharyo is the same manufacturer that worked on rolling stock for the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, Sound Transit's Central Link/1 Line, the Cairo Metro, different types of Shinkansen, Doha Metro, Dubai Metro, the Manila Light Rail, and VTA Light Rail to name a few.
I mean, the DFW area also contains the largest city in the US without any scheduled public transport.
@@AutoGamerZ_ Yeah that's fair, and twenty minute headways is a yikes, but considering this is Texas....Dallas and Fort Worth having all this rail in use is definitely better than nothing. But still a way to go.
I asked a security guard about the opera thing once, and he said that the 7-11 there played it because it kept vagabonds away. I don't know if that's true, but it would be a funny reason if it was.
Dallas has a lot of hope as some of the new people are surprisingly pro transit and nimby opposition is lighter than at least Austin (which granted, low bar.) Right now its not great because of odd location for the stops, but I can see that changing real quick
The receptionist at my hostel said she'd been living car free in Dallas, which now that I think about it was honestly a feat. But glad to hear there are more like her!
Thanks for the great video on the my current town's transit!
5:05 This frame answers your question. The music is to try and keep homeless folks from sleeping there
Great Video Enjoyed It 😊
The opera playing at St. Paul is to discourage homeless from sleeping there. It's been there for years
Great video! The reason why the Amtrak Heartland Flyer doesn’t run to Dallas is because it would basically be running directly alongside the Amtrak Texas Eagle. Both the HF and TxE arrive in Fort Worth around 12:30-1:15pm, so it’s easier to catch the TxE as a connection train to Dallas, rather than run two trains right after one another to the same station
One thing to note about DART's bus network. Around the time you visited (saying it was filmed in 2021), a new person on the DART board was Patrick Kennedy, an urbanist and local commentator who advocated moving in a different direction, got walkability to be a major concern, championed the growth of Oak Cliff and Deep Ellum, got the city to seriously consider removing the elevated highway between Downtown and Deep Ellum, AND once on the board, got DART to radically redesign the bus network in a similar manner to what Houston did. So some changes are certainly happening.
From what I have found out from talking to other passengers,DARTZoom is not a popular idea with all riders(mainly due to the route redesign). Not helping is that the quality of bus service also appears to have declined since then. This might only be an issue I have with DARTzoom,but it led to a lot of 2017 built buses being withdrawn from service after about 5 years in service(why those buses couldn't be used on lower frequency and lower ridership routes,I don't know)
Poor connector service with infrequent connecting bus service.
Designed as transport for the poor. Little thought for more.
Just serves to tell people they need something else or go away.
@@whazzat8015 You are so off base! Have you even ridden on the system? I feel TOTALLY safe on DART and all kinds of folks rich and poor ride DART.
I live in the DFW area car-free. I commute mainly by cycling, but the rail transit here is a good model for other sprawling US sunbelt cities. Looking at you, Houston and Tampa...
The heat scares me lol. I live in LA and I commute here using public transit but Dallas is def much more humid and hot
Cool. I had no idea Dallas had so much.
Must try the Grapevine Vintage Railroad!!! Some excursions feature a “holdup”, where masked riders on horseback, get the train to stop and board the train. Instead of taking your money or belongings, they hand out coupons to area businesses. Also explore the Fort Worth Stockyards!!!
That sounds like a fun time!
YES! Thank you so much for making a video about DART! I love that someone *finally* made a video on DART, so thank you again! DART has been doing some upgrades on the system such as retrofitting the SLRVs with LED destination signs (the rollsigns you saw were getting really unreliable!), upgrading track, improving security and more, and is making a brand-new Silver Line commuter train in the north.
Fun facts about the SLRVs: They were ordered in 5 orders (Fleet 50 through Fleet 54), the Fleet 50s and 51s (101-174) have GTO-VVVF inverters which have a distinct sound that sounds a bit like a car with a ton of gears, while the Fleet 52-54 have IGBT-VVVF inverters that kinda make a howling noise. They've got 750 and 700 horsepower respectively. I like the old trains more, they sound cooler! They started off as two-section trains without the middle car, then were upgraded in the late 2000s and early 2010s with the middle section. DART trains can go 70 mph (but are limited to 65 mph), and they have the honk, toot and ding that I talked about on the St. Louis video comment section.
DART has also been making great moves on the bus network improvements with the Tier 2 network, improving frequencies and route coverage.
There's a whole lot more to talk about but I'd be here typing all day. Glad you could come down south to Dallas, Texas!
DART is shit. I tried using it. Its soooo empty. The stations are litterally meant to be accessed by car.
@@uzin0s256 it’s a lot better than most transit systems in the USA, and it’s getting better. You’ve gotta be more optimistic.
@@DFWRailVideos its really bad.. Plano doesnt even havbe access to it. I live in SF amd BART here is so much better.
@@uzin0s256 wow that explains a lot. You’re from SF, I’m from DFW. I live near Plano and they have two stations and pretty nice bus coverage. You live a couple thousand miles away. Please don’t make assumptions about our rail and bus nextwork without coming here and riding it within the past couple years.
Also Classy Whale literally explains that the Red and Orange lines go to Plano. Watch the video as well!
@@DFWRailVideosNo buut i lived there for a year and that was probabally the worst one of my life.
Nice to see it's finally starting to improve
Another oddity that doesn’t help ridership is they do special extra trains for various events like concerts. But you have to dig to find those schedules.
Next time you come to Denver, please come explore more of the RTD system, instead of being here for just a layover.
This was really great. Thanks for showing off DFW 👍
Dallas Streetcar may be mostly pointless, but I did manage to find a signle point for its existence. Back in 2021, I took it to get to the Methodist Dallas Medical Center to get my COVID Vaccine on the first day I was eligible. After getting my second dose, I have had no reason to ever ride it again. I mostly ride on the northern half of the Red Line, but I occasionally have a need for the other lines, too.
Streetcar is just more of Dallas saying recreational amenities for upscale real estate developers is more important than public transportation.
Can't wait for the North East-East Corridor series!
Thank you, young man.
Yes but need to do better about building density around stations ... Too many parking lots
I do think they need to merge it all into one major Transit agency, serving Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth. And it should operate every bus, Commuter Rail, Train, Light Rail, Trolley, Streetcar in the area.
Oh, you mean a "system"?
Martinez Mexican restaurant in Dallas also invented the frozen margarita (as we know it today) from a repurposed soft-serve ice cream machine.
The restaurant is called Mariano's. Martinez is the last name of the owner.
Hearing Plano pronounced that way was very funny. Also, 10/10 video, thanks for the deep dive
If you know about the politics of DART, the reason why the bus service lags behind other cities is because of the political fight between the City of Dallas and the 12 other Member cities which pay into the service. The City of Dallas has been fighting for the bus service for years and the Suburbs like Plano and Addison are saying that if we don't have rail service, they constantly threaten to leave DART. The Suburbs also control most of the seats on the DART board. So it's sort of a balancing act between Dallas and the others.
I mean, there is some DART rail in Plano, but not much. Allen refusing to join kind of kneecaps the Red Line from expanding northward. They really ought to build a line up the DNT and/or west across Plano to try to service the Legacy West area. As the northern suburbs continue to grow, I think expanding DART to accomodate them will help alleviate some of the traffic issues that come with it.
Your pronunciation of Plano is golden 😂
DART's rail network is practically a city in the Northeast compared to other Texas cities.
Some other notes: There's a 3.5 mile stretch of a former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in downtown that was originally intended for DART but was converted into a pedestrian trail, now known as the Katy Trail. It runs from Victory Park to Uptown and is worth a visit if you've ever in Dallas. It has paved lanes for bicycles that are separated from the walking lanes.
The T&P station in Fort Worth, in addition to operating passenger rail, was converted to have loft apartments during the renovation.
I didn't know that they had once planned to use the Katy Trail for DART. I can see why they didn't go with it, though, since it's basically just a connector. Heck, the first "connector" line they're actually building is the Silver Line, over 20 years after DART first opened. I think that legally, they still have the right to convert the Katy and SoPac Trails into rail lines, but I don't think they're going to do that to either trail anytime soon. The Katy Trail actually runs past Uptown to SMU and almost to Mockingbird, but there isn't a great pedestrian crossing over 75 yet. It's one of the few barriers from being able to bike all the way from Downtown Dallas to Frisco exclusively on bike trails.
@@metroidnerd9001 NO THE KATY IS FOR REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS.
DART is for the homeless
KATY trail is Dallas saying recreational amenities for upscale real estate developers is more important than public transportation.
As a resident of Dallas, it's nice to see a deep dive into the state of DART and the surrounding systems. That being said, it is extremely ham-strung by having neither supporting infrastructure nor interconnected lines. The Silver line is the first of its kind where two separate lines will be connected outside of the downtown stations. Other than that though you need to travel inward no matter where you are going to transfer and once again travel outward from the center. This severely limits usefulness for any of the surrounding suburbs and relegates it to a novel experience for families going downtown once every few months/years. Once there are more bus lines connecting suburban gathering spaces to DART stations and once there are more lines like Silver that connect the outer branches, I think that DART will be well on its way to becoming the premier public transit system in the south.
I forgot about the M LINE 🤦🏾♂️. I want to ride it again
Always appreciate it when there are videos of my hometown's transit system, but it still amazes me when someone get's on the train and is surprised when they smell cigarette smoke or see someone eating on the train. Like, I've ridden Dart every now and then and have gotten used to seeing people essentially breaking all the rules while riding specifically on the light rail. It almost seems that there is always someone one getting on the train just to smoke weed or just regular cigarettes which, in an enclosed train car, you will smell it and it will linger after they smoke it or leave.
I mostly blame Dart police having horrible response time or no response at all to reports of someone smoking on the train. That applies to all the rules that get broken with maybe the exception of someone getting in a fight or a medical emergency. I hear that they plan to have security guards in each train car to enforce the rules now, now that is something that Dart has been needing for a long time.
Dart is already amazing considering that most of the US doesn't have great transit, add clean trains and busses with rules being enforced and I'm sure more people will use it more. To an extent, it already has.
DART trains are a rolling homeless shelter, filthy and feels unsafe to ride. IMAGE IS OF A BAD EXPERIENCE.
Vandalized non working ticket kiosks. Blind zombie imitation "police" ,
Dirty station with sleeping cleanup crews on their phones more than their brooms.
DART thinks rider safety and security is an app, customer service an email.
I’m going to Dallas this month to ride all the trains!!
Just FYI Plano is pronounced play-no, not plah-no. Also, Buckner station is named for the road the green line terminates at, not a town. I doubt you could’ve know that without being local though, great summary of the network otherwise!
I always forget that Texans speak spanglish!
I had a good laugh when he said Plan-O instead of Plano like PLAIN O people. Also Buckner was named after Robert Cook Buckner who opened the Buckner Childrens Home in 1880.
I could drive to Dallas but this makes me almost want to fly there for my next convention.
McKinney needs a DART rail station.
Allen and McKinney were smart and didn't join. Never going to happen.
As a DART rail operator, you’re too kind to us. Be more critical!
I mean y'all have the worst smelling trains of any system I've ridden inside or outside the US - that enough realism for you?
@@ClassyWhale you’re not wrong.
The problem with the rail lines is that they go to the suburbs. Most people from there drive. If the rails went around actual Dallas it would be faster and more efficient. Instead you have to take rail and buses to get around Dallas.
I would claim the OPPOSITE problem. The system is completely based on downtown Dallas. If it had actually focused on where people in the suburbs needed to go, it wouldn't have been a huge worthless sinkhole of money.
“Play-no” (I’m a DFW local) 5:42
Also that one singular nip into Plano is basically all you get in Collin County. Frisco has absolutely nothing, not sure about McKinney/Allen/Prosper but it would be a DART bus stop there.
The parking lots are because people have to come in from other cities a lot and it’s kinda obvious most places are completely built around cars
Now if only the rest of the country could catch up in terms of public transport.
roses are red, violets are blue
there's trains and trams in my playlist two
there ya go, that somehow rhymed :))
8:59 That’s because it is newer. They just opened the route in 2019. The SLVRs are much older.
Nice video, thank you!
Also, strange hearing the Stadler door beeper in a video from America.
Greetings from Switzerland.
Omg we love the Stadler trains! I’m from Austin, which has some of the first Stadler trains built for the USA, and they’re some of the nicest trains I’ve been on. Denton, Dallas, and Fort Worth jumped on the Stadler bandwagon shortly after Austin and I’m so glad they did - once people realize how nice Stadler’s trains are, they’re going to want more of them. Texas is the unexpected hotspot for Stadler rolling stock in the United States, and I’m here for it!
@@OliversElevators glad to hear you like them.
I use them daily for my commute from school and work.
Hopefully more people get to ride them around the USA.
Will be interestimg to see, how the double deckers from Caltrain will be recieved by passengers
This was cool to see since I live in SW Arlington with no easy access to any of these lines and have never experienced them while living here. Kinda sucks since the traffic is horrible. A shame to see so many empty seats but makes sense when there's no easy access, DFW makes no logical sense when it comes to transportation
slowly tuning out until that sharyo bell at 4:00 activated my bostonian self like a sleeer agent
You forgot the Dallas Streetcar, the modern streetcar system that goes from the EBJ Union Station thur Oak Cliff.
It's......imperfect. I use it a couple of times a month to get to Bishop Arts, and while I'm thankful it exists, I wish it were better maintained, more frequent, and had fewer interfaces with cars
@@MatthewBanks100
Streetcar is just more of Dallas saying recreational amenities for upscale real estate developers is more important than public transportation.
I've read that you guys ordered the FLIRT160 from Stadler, a 100mph fast mid-high-speed rail vehicle. I ride it regularly from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart. Personally I find it very comfortable, smooth travel and isolated, you barely notice the speed. Especially for connecting two close cities quickly, it's the perfect choice. I mean, you could go for the FLIRT200 for 124mph, but that's more expensive, needs more expensive rail tracks, and is only worth it, if you have longer segments without a stop.
PS: I'm stupid. I just noticed, that yours is the FLIRT Diesel, which only makes 79 mph. Yep, that's only normal regional speed, no mid-high-speed. But I hope that still the train is comfortable to ride in.
It was a lovely ride, much nicer than the DART trains!
I wish I could ride the M line trolley but I can’t because it’s not wheelchair accessible, thankfully the rest of the trains are
DART is the largest LRV operator with 96 miles, but LA could have recently taken over this title, I don't know. The reason the Amtrack train to OKC doesn't go to Dallas is that it is way out of its way and there is another Amtrak train that goes from Dallas to Fort Worth as well as the TRE commuter rail. One exciting prospect in the future of Dallas and DART is the D2 subway downtown, will be several new under ground stations relieving the bottleneck of traffic the downtown section has become with all lines converging. Soon we will have the new Silver Line commuter rail, the D2 Subway and some movement on high-speed rail between Dallas and Fort Worth as well as Houston, but high speed rail has quite the uphill battles to be seen through to completion.
Unfortunately, the D2 Subway has been delayed indefinitely, having been removed from their 20 year financial plan last August.
@@hrgx1981 I know, this makes me super sad. Leave it to Dallas to dangle candy in front of children to only take it away at the last second.
I see my favorite MATA car(4614 "Margaret") in the thumbnail and i like it.
Now I am thinking about making a stopover in DFW for the next time in the USA just to see the DART trains, interesting and somehow appealing...
Caught an error: I meant Dallas Ft Worth, not Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County...
You left out the Dart Silver line which will run from Plano to DFW. Construction is nearing completion with testing to begin July 2024
…and I happen to live in a city right in the middle of this without any public transit.
The classical music in the station is played by the 7-11 that is right there, as a means of keeping the "undesirables" from congregating. They want to push the problem down the (rail) road.
Would love to see you do Newark NJ
Such beautiful transit
lets hope.
Tre Will always have a place in my heart since they operated 2 ex amt f40s 310 and 330. Plus in 2022 I saw a TRE car on a CP freight in valois probably on its way back to texas
As a Plano resident it’s pronounced pl-A-no with a short a sound
6:28 Picking nits - (a) "PLAY-noh" and ("rao-LET").
The reason why the Heartland Flyer doesn't continue to Dallas is because the layover facilities are in Ft. Worth and would require a dead move. BUT, the Big Game Train continues to Dallas for the TX-OU game at the state fair.
Also during the state fair and especially on game days DART runs a wild service pattern which is far too complicated to describe
Amtrak's Texas Eagle stops in both Dallas and Fort Worth so technically you can travel by train from Dallas to Oklahoma City.
@@jamesgriffin8354 You can travel with it to Azerbaijan if you try hard enough.
Nobody does it except as a novelty.
Nobody does it twice.
5:02 opera music so to stop people from loitering. like the guy behind you
It is always assumed that everybody hates Classical Music and Opera and will not stay there to listen to it. I have seen it used like that in other places. Some of us actually like it.
I've always thought DART was cool. I remember visiting DFW back when I lived in Austin (former regular capmetro rider here) and being pleasantly surprised at how good the trains were, and how badly I wish Austin could say the same. Glad it's getting some attention in the transit space because Dallas has really been trying with their system and I think one day it's going to be one of the best in the country.
safety and hygiene(sitting in urine soaked seats) are the two biggest issues.
And here I thought it was the screaming psychotic homeless folks.
5:40 (Play-no)
Fun fact about City Place Uptown: It has elevators that travel at a 45° angle, like a funicular.
If you end up in Houston hit me up, I'm a local urbanist and know some esoteric weirdness about transit in Houston
The light rail cars are better looking than the San Jose light rail. But that isn't saying much.
Philadelphia is in the uk look it up
What I find interesting about DART in particular was how their LRV units were modified to become become the super Light Rail Vehicles (SLRV) that you see today. A C-Unit was added to the existing A and B Unit with an extra set of axles to accommodate thus adding to passenger capacity and level boarding for ADA accessibility. The cost to convert every unit to a SLRV was cheaper than going on and buying all new units. And as a St. Louis Operator, I have to say they use the same whistle as our LRV units 😎
Wait my mom’s family is from New Haven CT
the announcement is because many people smoked on Public transport or so, rich people think
Texas isn’t really known for good transit, yet I hope things will get better in response to the simply massive growth in all of its cities!
I’m really excited what the future will hold with Capital Metro, The Silver line and D2 Subway, Texas Central High Speed Rail, better Amtrak service, and possibly more we don’t even know about…
Hey it’s my metroplex
Actually use dart to get to denton
Unfortunately, part of the stink in the DART trains is from... uh... a certain yellow liquid. There's a reason I only stand when I ride the train even if it's empty, and it has to do with a run-in I had with a damp seat. Fortunately they're replacing the cloth seats with plastic but the trains are still old and disgusting.
Play-noh
The opera is homeless prevention and it accually works really well.
Forth worth has the yard. You can ride the to Dallas or wait for the eagle