The Only Dallas Project in Obama's Transportation Budget Is DART's Green Line

The Inwood Station, part of the Green Line expansion, as it looked in November

​I saw early this morning that Michael Lindenberger was teasing potentially big news for Dallas via U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pending announcement concerning FY2011 budget expenditures. Which I thought odd, given that the budget, already posted online, said Dallas was simply getting $86 million in Section 5309 New Starts and Small Starts Projects money for "Northwest/Southeast LRT MOS." In other words: the Green Line.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit knew this money was coming -- after all, the $1.8-billion Green Line is being funded in part with $700 million in federal money that's being doled out in chunks till around 2012 or '13. (DART spokesman Morgan Lyons isn't sure of the exact cut-off, since the Green Line received an early payment courtesy the stimulus package of 2009.) "It's a binding contract," Lyons told Unfair Park this morning. (Lindenberger posted an update to his update while I was on the phone with Lyons.)

Lindenberger earlier had suggested that maybe LaHood would drop some news concerning downtown streetcars. But, no, Lyons says -- if Dallas is to receive any money from the feds, that'll come next month, when the Obama administration releases its list of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (or TIGER) grants.