Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

electricron

Lastly, HSR at Cedars is a shoddy compromise at best. I dont see how they couldn’t have moved it 100 feet across the highway to Dart union station.. I mean. It’s in the name!!! Probably real estate magnates wrestling over who gets most ROI on land they’ve been squatting on. *sigh The HSR station at...

electricron

Whereas I understand why some would prefer minimizing the width of the interstate highway to make room for more or save more land for neighborhoods, TXDOT needs at the same time as much room as necessary for the safest highway possible. Balancing one over the other should not be in political debate....

electricron

.-.-. but I would have preferred that any rework of freeways within a couple of miles of the CBD be trenched (similar to 75) allowing various points to be capped over time. US 75 has been trenched how long now, 20 plus years? Reconstruction started in 1992 and was finished in 1999. Has anyone propo...

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A freeway that should have been built more than 50 years ago, but was not. Now it is the divided highway with the highest crash rate in the entire country. Read more about it at https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/new-plan-suggests-sending-part-of-roosevelt-blvd-underground-by-2040/2815064/ A...

electricron

Is this the link? https://www.nctcog.org/trans/plan/transit-management-and-planning/general-public-information/transit-planning-activities/transit-planning-projects/transit-planning-and-implementation-studies/collin-county-study-area After reading the presentations for Irving to Frisco, this study ...

electricron

Was recently watching a youtube video about Dutch three types of surface pavements: Highways, roads, and streets which the commenter host translated into English. Was a great video, that show all three types are needed in a healthy city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM It is the "st...

electricron

As of late, it doesn’t appear there has been much impeding adjacent development to the overpasses. I’m surprised by the new properties going up so quickly surrounding 345. I know there was some talks of reconfiguring the Bryan Street exit or eliminating it all together exchanging it for more sensib...

electricron

It's over engineered imo and needlessly large. Why can't TxDOT at least try to make good designs? Go Look up how elegantly Urban overpasses are done elsewhere. And how they're purposely designed NOT to eat an entire portion of a city/space.. kentucky of all places has some great examples of Double ...

electricron

Speaking of detours, back to I345, what will surely come in a literal sense if we tear it out. Now that we are speaking on the subject, what is so wrong with the trench? What is the street level option giving you that you can't on some level get from a covered trench? Other than the personal satisf...

electricron

How much subsidized housing is in Plano, Frisco, Richardson? You can find a fairly recent answer for Collin County here, https://www.countyoffice.org/tx-collin-county-housing-authorities/ HUD 3,250 units, Public 200 units, Section 8 337 units And Dallas County here, https://www.countyoffice.org/tx-...

electricron

The locals Deep Ellum critics would like to do to I-345 what was done to Good Latimer, removing the grade separation and rebuilding all of it at grade. But - - - they now see the errors of their ways complaining about how the light rail line at grade crossing Good Latimer causes congestion - - - and...

electricron

What solutions have the tear down proponents offered other than "everything will just work out"? 1) You might not agree with the solution, but they've shown many examples of how many comparable highway tearouts have been done elsewhere . The specific road changes for Dallas would need to ...

electricron

The question is whether it's worthwhile to spend $50-100 billion to be ready for a once per 40-100 year event. It's like the concept of the 100-year flood plain. Society picks the balance between cost and safety that it's willing to live with. True. But nobody notices or cares as long as the electr...

electricron

Except that by far the main loss of power has been from natural gas plants, partially from more gas being used for home heating than usual, but also because wells are getting blocked by ice. Can't deny that some turbines have frozen, but wind is still producing about as expected for these condition...

electricron

And with the first big freeze to hit Texas, and Dallas in particular, half the windmill or windfarms in Texas dropped off line as the blades froze solid under ice. Brownouts are more than an inconvenience, lack of power to air conditioners, electric space heaters, or gas heaters controlled with elec...

electricron

I'd be happy with more trees. It's just like a big ugly grass line. Maintenance wise it's easy (which is probable the point) but in the summer it's hot and more shade along the river and paths would be nice. It doesn't have to central park there is more an opportunity than what they have currently ...

electricron

Yes. Of course its important to do flood control correctly. Safety first. In Tokyo, they have underground tunnel/cisterns you can visit when they are empty. They turned their infrastructure into a place people want to take pictures I do not see anything but an empty cistern in that photo under Toko...

electricron

What the Corps of Engineers wish to see on the Trinity River, and why. http://nrcsolutions.org/dallas-texas/#:~:text=Dallas%20has%20experienced%20chronic%20flooding%20for%20more%20than,and%20was%20historically%20managed%20using%20levees%20and%20channelization. "Following the devastating floods ...

electricron

Interesting nugget from a DART board presentation on the interlocal agreement for cost-sharing with DCTA (Slide 6 of this deck: I knew that there was a structure for sharing regional fare revenue, but never knew that DCTA actually paid a (very nominal) fee for DART to run a 3rd car. Assuming 2 peak...

electricron

Minor historical correction, Stone & Webster only owned Fort Worth's streetcar system and the interurbans from there to Cleburne and Dallas. The Texas Electric Railway was locally owned to my knowledge, and the Texas Interurban Railway was under the same ownership as Dallas Railway & Termin...

electricron

https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/be785d40/files/uploaded/DFW%20to%20Meridian%20Passenger%20Rail%20Study.pdf I like this one... Even though this for long train rides, at least the downtown to eastern exurbs has been studied. There have been a handful of initiatives to get DART trains into Kaufman...

electricron

Dallas had electric interurban trains to those places* 100 years ago! This person has a nice map of the various lines for sale: https://fiftythree.studio/collections/lostsubways/products/dallas-interurban-light-rail-map-1925 ___ ETA: *except Frisco, apparently Frisco may not have been served by the...

electricron

That's a PR/marketing and publicity staff member probably a intern level employee making that mistake. Lord knows we know DART has been pushing the same marketing angle since I was in high school. I remember when they would visit my school and teach us train safety. Their messaging hasn't changed a...

electricron

Someone at DART can not do math. A quote under the photo from DART's internet page on construction projects, photo for platform extensions to be specific. "Platform extensions will add 33% to DART Rail's passenger capacity, in effect increasing service levels during peak operating times." ...

electricron

Those thinking any city plan for anything is a multiyear implementation plan a business might make for expansion are fooling themselves. All these city plans are political moves to implement and gather political support for the next bonding referendum. As soon as the referendum has passed or failed,...

electricron

Airports — especially huge busy peripheral ones like Heathrow — are sprawling by necessity, and as a result are antithetical to the land uses where transit works best. Of course it'll be faster to take a car (unless you're starting right at an express transit hub). Heathrow is more a kin to DFW tha...

electricron

This just popped up on my FB video feed. An 8 minute report from 1966 about a BBC employee using his feet and public transit to take a flight from London to Manchester. I guess it would be called a Vlog today. It is full of dry British humor. In most large cities today it would be the same challeng...

electricron

If DART’s bus passengers can not control their body fluids and keep the seats dry, there is no hope for the stigma of public transit ever going away.

I can afford to not ever ride on a pig sty.

electricron

OrangeMike wrote:Your original post mentioned upgrading, not luxury. The blue vinyl is a definite upgrade from the blue velour. Don't ride DART if vinyl is beneath you.

I'm sorry, but I consider vinyl a downgrade to velour seats.
I have never ridden a DART bus, the stigma is real.

electricron

All transit agencies wishing to encourage more bus riders and overcome the perception or stigma of buses being for the economic disadvantage could easily do so simply by upgrading the seats in the buses. DART is replacing the ancient absorbent upholstery with new blue vinyl, which will help in that...

electricron

True, but that's an entirely different argument all together. I'm simply talking about which option is more environmentally friendly. To be clear, while I do care about the environment, my main motivator behind this 'energy' discussion is to simply encourage more ridership. I'm just suggesting that...

electricron

I've got a Bachman HO scale TRE trainset (with the streamlined F59PHI loco, two coaches, and a cab car) that I picked up on eBay for about $325 all together several years back. Nowadays that same set (if you can even find one on eBay) is running easily double that. Nice to see another manufacturer ...

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I wish to let every HO modeler aware that a well known company from Canada is releasing limited editions of TRE F59PH locomotives and BiLevel cars this year (2021). So, if you are interested, now is the time to pre-order them at your local hobby shop. As an aside, I wish other DCTA, TexRail, and DAR...

electricron

Virgin has finally tested a Hyperloop vehicle with humans aboard last month. The yet to be designed vehicle will have the capacity of 28 passengers. Let me repeat that once more, 28. That is less capacity than an intercity or school bus. The top speed attained by the test vehicle was slightly more t...

electricron

Elon Musk is moving as much as he can his companies away from California. Texas, Nevada, and Germany have been the lucky states and countries with new offices, factories, and jobs. It does not mean there will many future tunnels in Texas.

electricron

Initially, I was for the teardown of 345. Now I believe, a tunnel or something below grade would be a healthy compromise between both sides. Yes, it’s more expensive. But it’s also gives more opportunities to restitch some of the street grid. 345 may not sit by a large body of water or really anyth...

electricron

Seattle's Alaska Way Viaduct was about to fall down, was a hazard on the last earthquake, and would probably self demolish itself with the next earthquake. I-345 in comparison is in much better shape, is not in an earthquake zone, is not about to self demolish itself with the next tornado, and does ...

electricron

What's the chances of DART extending rail service to Cedar Hill? As long as Duncanville and Cedar Hill remain non member cities, zero. Light rail lines are fairly expensive to build, DART needs sales taxes revenues to lessen the financial blow. DART will not spend money in non member cities while t...

electricron

Here's my list of signs I've seen over the last few years. One thing malfunctioning signs are good for are showing rarely used signs. Also, trains coming into DFW run through just about the entire roll in the process of changing from DFW to Not in Service (this list isn't in that order). 1 - Westmo...

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DART light rail trains roll signs can hold around 26 destinations. DART has 63 stations, there is no way they can include all the stations on a single roll. So which stations would you include with the many colors. Let's try to include all the stations that trains may terminate their run on a regula...

electricron

I'll tell you what they were thinking, that they did not want the city to go broke. Revenues are down, that is why those responsible for maintaining a healthy purse are coming up with ingenious ways to move overtime pay into like time off. How bad is the budget? Here's the latest pdf posted by Dalla...

electricron

The tunnels ought to have access to the subway station, that does not bypass the fare gates. Check out the latest DART D2 video, and take note where the fare gates are located. At Cental, the fare gates are on the same level as the streets, all tunnel access would be lower and well within the fare ...

electricron

tamtagon wrote:The tunnels really ought to have access into the subway.

If the tunnels have access to the D2 subway line, what would be the purpose of having access fare gates?
That is a decision DART must make, open access as much as possible or restrict access as much as possible with fare gates.

electricron

DART could tie the Texas Central HSR station to Union Station with its sole remaining RDC using the freight tracks, or just extend all the TRE trains there. They all idle for some time at Union Station anyways, they could just idle for less time a mile further south. If they did, there would be an e...

electricron

I did notice that there was controlled entry into the stations. I wonder if that would contribute to people feeling "safer" riding the train. I know that having the gates won't prevent 100% of folks sneaking aboard (especially if the above-ground stations are still wide open, but maybe th...

electricron

Number of polls in Dallas = more than 456 Just FYI, I think that's the number for Dallas County, not the city. Obviously a lot of the county is not in the city, and the city extends into five counties (which I believe is the most in the U.S.). Yes, it was Dallas County. Yes, it was also San Francis...

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San Francisco has 4 times the population of Dallas, but only 60% of land area. Huh? SF population = 883k. Dallas = 1.345M. The big problem is that the map for Dallas only shows the early voting locations. There were a lot more open on election day. A statistics that might surprise TNWE. Number of p...

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JSX flies Embraer ERJ-135 and -145 jets with a seating capacity of just 30 passengers. One single Texas Central car in its eight car train can carry twice as many passengers, therefore the HSR train should be able to carry 16 times as many passengers. Embraer jets are designed to service smaller cit...

electricron

The old conceptual renderings for the station included a skybridge connection to the Dallas Convention Center DART station. The newer renderings don't show off a view of such a connection but I imagine it would still be the plans. Moving walkways like in airports would make this a very short hop an...

electricron

How close the train stations are to public transit is not as important as many suggest. This train will ultimately sink or swim financially depending upon its ability to attract business travelers who will ride the train twice a week - if not more often. Sure, attracting vacationers visiting familie...

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