RobertB
Train Attendant
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Light Rail system is completely separated from all freight systems, except for one non-revenue segment -- the spur to the downtown-area maintenance yard. It's an active freight spur, but not heavily used -- the primary customer is the scrap metal yard which, along with the chicken plant next door, makes the area south of downtown a magnet for development (as in, it repels it completely).
In 2009, DART opened the first segment of the Green Line, and touted the new stop at Fair Park as the best way to get to and from the State Fair of Texas. It was indeed -- until the big Texas-OU Game, when thousands of fans converged on the system all at once. The entire DART system crumbled under the weight, and the agency was excoriated in the media (which, oddly enough, never runs stories on the hours spent in parking lots after big games, but I digress).
For 2010, DART came up with a plan to use that maintenance spur. The Green Line included another spur to the other end of the train yard, so you could easily run trains to Fair Park via the yard... except for those pesky freight crossings. DART worked out a time-separation agreement of some sort, and after several rounds of testing, they implemented a successful plan of redirected trains and more-realistic expectations to successfully get those fans to and from the big State Fair events.
The testing was public -- I took advantage of it twice, to get a closer look at the train yard. Here's a video of me, my son, and his friend jumping between trains during an unexpected train change in the yard:
Last year, they ran the tests at least three times, making adjustments each time. Their final routing was very different from the original plans. At first they'd planned to run northbound trains on *both* tracks, but they concluded that such an arrangement would be inefficient for operations and confusing to riders (who have spent a decade learning which direction the train comes from). This year, I suspect they won't have to do as much tweaking, so this may or may not be the only chance for a sneak peek until October, when it goes live.
Just thought y'all might be interested!
In 2009, DART opened the first segment of the Green Line, and touted the new stop at Fair Park as the best way to get to and from the State Fair of Texas. It was indeed -- until the big Texas-OU Game, when thousands of fans converged on the system all at once. The entire DART system crumbled under the weight, and the agency was excoriated in the media (which, oddly enough, never runs stories on the hours spent in parking lots after big games, but I digress).
For 2010, DART came up with a plan to use that maintenance spur. The Green Line included another spur to the other end of the train yard, so you could easily run trains to Fair Park via the yard... except for those pesky freight crossings. DART worked out a time-separation agreement of some sort, and after several rounds of testing, they implemented a successful plan of redirected trains and more-realistic expectations to successfully get those fans to and from the big State Fair events.
The testing was public -- I took advantage of it twice, to get a closer look at the train yard. Here's a video of me, my son, and his friend jumping between trains during an unexpected train change in the yard:
Last year, they ran the tests at least three times, making adjustments each time. Their final routing was very different from the original plans. At first they'd planned to run northbound trains on *both* tracks, but they concluded that such an arrangement would be inefficient for operations and confusing to riders (who have spent a decade learning which direction the train comes from). This year, I suspect they won't have to do as much tweaking, so this may or may not be the only chance for a sneak peek until October, when it goes live.
Just thought y'all might be interested!
Probably the same for the OU Partisians! :giggle: TRE and DART are doing a Fantastic Job in the Metroplex, wish Austin would send the CapMetro Dont-Have-A-Clues and So Called City Transportation Planners up for some Schooling! :excl: :excl: :excl:
