Historically, the Texas Electric Railway Company was one of the largest transit systems in the Southern United States with a route length spanning more than 200 miles. All of of those route-miles were gone by 1948 following the TER's closure to increased bus and auto traffic, but the right of ways through Plano and Dallas never really went away. Today, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit continues to maintain its status as the largest street railway company in the southern United States with its own light rail system spanning about 93 miles and connecting Dallas with Plano, Fort Worth, DFW Airport, and even the Dallas Zoo. For our last jaunt into Texas, hop aboard the DART for today's Trolley Thursday!
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Westmoreland Station in the early days of the DART,
showingoff its welcome canopy.
(Railway Technology) |
Groundbreaking for the DART Light Rail began in October 1990 after a pre-planning history mired in financial scandals, construction delays, and nine communities attempting to pull out (only two of which was successful). The original plan was to create a 147-mile system but Duncanville and Grand Prairie in the east, and Mesquite in the west, decided to opt out. Further bond measures pared the system down to its current 93 miles. One of these lines, the "Red" line between Dallas and Downtown Plano, is wholly recycled from the original TER route.
Surprisingly for modern mass transit systems, the DART Light Rail was able to open on time and in budget on June 14, 1996, taking just six years to open the first round of services on the "R" Red and "B" Blue "starter" lines. The "Red" starter line ran between Westmoreland to downtown Dallas, while the "Blue" starter line wove its way from the same location in Dallas to Morrell and Illinois, both in the Southwest. Though many communities voted against the running of light rail through them (financed by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who wanted some of DART's tax revenue), the initial high ridership gave faith to these communities that light rail was realistically feasible.
A comparison of the original Texas Electric Railway map and the new DART system. Note the original routing
between Dallas and Plano on the TER's North line and compare to DART's red line.
(Heart of Texas Tales, DART)
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An overview of the Mockingbird Lane Transit Village's second phase.
(Dallas Metropolis) |
This starter system gave the chance for Dallas citizens and business owners to see how functional the light rail was in a practical setting, and soon enough, the Red Line would open its first "Transit Village" at Mockingbird Lane in 1997. The transit village concept basically called for city planning that was more dependent on mass transit and pedestrian foot traffic than on cars, with bus stops and rail stations located in close proximity to residences and businesses. Around this same time, the Trinity Railway Express heavy rail commuter service between Dallas and Fort Worth would also be inaugurated, restoring another section of TER right of way. Plano would not get service on the Red Line until 2002, when the entire line was completed and marked the end of new streetcar suburbanization on both it and Blue Line were extended North of Dallas.
MATA No. 122, "Rosie" and No. 186, "Green Dragon", stalwarts of the M-Line Trolley.
(Uptown Dallas, Retailmania Forever)
The new suburbanization also managed to integrate an old section of the Dallas streetcar through the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) at Cityplace/Uptown and St. Paul. This historic streetcar was originally opened on July 22, 1989 thanks to the historical group uncovering original rails on McKinney Avenue in the early 1980s. After a decade of rebuilding, the new line opened with Portuguese Streetcar No. 122, "Crescent Rose" and original Dallas "turtleback" car No. 186, "The Green Dragon." Both MATA and DART are working in close proximity to further integrate the historic streetcar service with the modern 2.45 Dallas Streetcar line between Union Station and Bishop Arts.
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The Kinki-Shary LRVs as built, running in two-car service bound for Parklane.
(Railway Technology) |
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The newly-rebuilt "SLRVs" with distinctive third
vehicle added inbetween.
(Michael Barera) |
As a brief aside, and because I like talking about specific trolley cars, let's leave the route overview for a minute to discuss the rolling stock of the DART Light Rail and the Dallas Streetcar (both operated by the same authority). The DART Light Rail uses 163 specially-built Kinki Sharyo light rail vehicles dubbed the "SLRV", or Super Light Rail Vehicle, developed closely with the transit authority. When first built, the LRVs were standard two-car vehicles much like the ones supplied to Boston and Los Angeles but, by 2010, DART wanted to improve passenger capacity on all of its lines, including the eventual Green and Orange services. Working closely with Kinki Sharyo, the LRVs had a third section added in between that received the designation "SLRV." This new extension guaranteed a three-car train capable of carrying 94 passengers in normal service and 274 in "Crush Load" service.
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Dallas Streetcar No. 303, a Brookville Liberty LRV, arriving
in the Oak Cliff neighborhood.
(Micheal Barera) |
For the Dallas Streetcar's incredibly-small service which opened in 2013, they utilize four Brookville Electric Company "Liberty Modern Streetcars", considered the first all-American streetcar produced since the demise of Brill, St. Louis Car Co, Pullman Standard, and American Car Co. This tiny three-section streetcar operates on the same electrical system as the DART, 750V DC through a pantograph, but contains a modern Onboard Energy Storage System (OESS) that lets the trolley move about systems without poles through the use of hybrid-technology lithium ion batteries. Despite the 2.45 mile length, MATA hopes to extend the Streetcar further north of Union Station as it has no direct connection to the other DART lines aside from Union Station.
The last two lines of the DART Light Rail opened in 2009 and 2010 with the Green Line and Orange Line, respectively. The Orange Line's importance came from being the direct light rail line to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport while the Green Line follows the old Denton-Dallas route established under the Texas Electric Railroad in 1923. With the addition of these lines, and further extensions both south and north as well as larger, taller platforms and faster train services, it's no wonder that Dallas' own interurban's legacy is secure in only the most Texas-sized of ways.
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If you are ever in Dallas, take the Red Line north to Downtown Plano.
The Interurban Railway Museum is just a short walk south! Tell them the motorman sent you!
(City of Plano) |
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Thank you for reading today's Trolley Thursday post! If you would like to donate to the McKinney Avenue Transportation Administration, you can find their page
here as well as their social media
here. Our stay in Texas may be brief and there is still a lot left to cover, but I promise the last three Tuesdays and Thursdays of June will be spent fruitfully in the beautiful delta city of New Orleans! As always, you can follow
myself or
my editor on twitter if you wanna support us, and maybe
buy a shirt as well! Remember, I have "Trolley Pride" shirts available for a limited time this month! Ride safe!
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