Funding Still Uncertain, DART Continues Planning For Cotton Belt Rail Corridor

By Eric Nicholson Wed., Jun. 27 2012 at 9:00 AM

DART

Proposed stations and projected daily ridership for the Cotton Belt Rail Corridor.

The Cotton Belt Regional Rail Corridor, will someday stretch some 60-plus miles from Wylie to southwest Fort Worth. If, of course, DART and its partner agencies can find the money for the $2 billion project, envisioned as a public-private partnership. DART spokesman Morgan Lyons points me to the North Central Texas Council of Government for more information, but the short answer: "Still looking."

That's not stopping DART from moving forward with the planning process, negotiating with the myriad parties involved, performing environmental analyses, figuring out track alignment, determining potential ridership and station location and design, and so on. DART's Planning Committee got a peek at some of the plans yesterday during an update on the project.

You can page through the presentation yourself, but some key points: Average daily ridership is projected to be 16,400, with highest use where the Cotton Belt links up with DART's existing light rail and at DFW Airport. DART and the city of Richardson plan to go all out with the UTD ~~station~~ "transit plaza," with a hotel, event center, mixed-use development and something resembling a cross between a geodesic dome and an alien spaceship. The Renner Village Station will be surrounded by an "urban living laboratory," which looks like mixed-use development centered around ponds. And the proposed Preston Road station (at the intersection with Keller Springs Road just north of Arapaho) will be difficult to sandwich, have low ridership (544 passengers per day), and, the presentation notes mildly, has encountered "strong public opposition."

So what's next? DART will continue to move forward with station designs and environmental analyses and "reinitiate public involvement." Then, in September, NCTCOG is slated to come back with an update on funding possibilities. So, we'll see.

Cotton Belt Regional Rail Project (Item 2)_Planning

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schmidt.tromney

It's also important to get sections of this done asap (like grapevine to dfw to downtown carrollton, maybe addison) in the next 4 years, b/c Dallas wants to bid for the olympics in 2024 (and don't scoff it's not impossible, less stellar cities have got it) and the better public transportation is, the more likely Dallas will be submitted by the National Olympic Committee for the USA's bid

schmidt.tromney

I think instead of waiting until they have all the funds that they should start now in segments, b/c we all know in 10 years the price of this project will somehow rise by another billion. They should start from DFW and at least have it go to Downtown Carrollton to connect with the Greenline and the DCTA within the next 3 years. And then that way, if DART want's to take a break from it all, they can, and in the meantime Tex Rail can start building westward from the airport to Grapevine. One things also for certain though. DART, Tex Rail, etc need to convince every city along these routes to want a station, even the non-member cities. There's always a deal that can be worked out. These rail lines can never live up to their full potentials unless they truly interconnect the cities. One of DCTA's biggest failures was not convincing Corinth to join in, and another was bypassing Frankford/Buckner station b/c they couldn't reach a deal with Dart on how to share the station. It truly limited the capacity and value of the DCTA.

Guest2

Now we're talking!

Guest2

Not only do we not have density now, but probably won't have any in the future especially around the DART stations with this toy train.

Branden Helms

It is possible to do an express trip, as the headways are quite long. At 15 minutes during rush hour, one expess train that skips 2-3 stops is possible. Once inside the area where multiple lines share a section, then it gets a bit more dicey.

Branden Helms

Those buses don't take two hours one way. Some are 30 minutes, no more than an hour. Depending on where exactly in Addison you are could add time, but the train station has one stop in Addison. Those buses have quite a bit more. Just curious, but have you tried it once? It works for some people and not for others, but I know a lot of people (my wife used to be one) that bashed the buses, but never actually has tried one.

Ambrose Chapell

When dem cotton balls get a-rottin', you cain't pick very much cotton.......

Ed D.

You don't mind taking all that tax revenue from the suburbs to build the transit system (and they provide more than half these days) but begrudge the idea of Addison having even one rail connection? By the time trains pull into the Addison Transit Center for the very first time, the town will have been paying into DART for fifty years. Five Zero. That's a tremendous amount of patience in return for a few buses. You want a Dallas-Only Rapid Transit system? First return all of the monies collected since 1980 then good luck with that. DORT can connect up to the rest of the region at a few key stations, the way the Denton County system meets up with DART in Carrollton now. But keeping all the money and all the train service? No way.

seriously?

You don't understand population density or different urban structures. A NYC system is just not possible. I think the trade-off is fair and I'm happy with the existing service. I only wish they could pick up the pace by about 10 mph on the green line.

seriously?

Because this isn't the NYC subway system where you can walk to any station at any point in the city. I take the train to work daily but I still have to drive the 2 miles from my house to the station. And I don't mind at all. Small price to pay for a 40-mile round trip commute. Yes I could bike or take the bus but that would add an unnecessary half hour to my commute.

Oak Cliff Townie

You might want to figure out exactly What/ Who that Real "US" is when it comes to the Wheeling and Dealing it takes to get things done in our little part of North Texas . The TAX Collection Base I guess you speak of is the ground that most of us in this region walk on . Its a Big Region . The Cotton Belt is an infrastructure project for that area in return for monies that have been spent projects other Areas of this Region .