Quote:
Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey
I think DART would have been better as a regional rail system with tracks purchased from the freight companies connecting the suburbs with the core and a light rail system servicing the inner portions.
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Great, I'll agree. DART did buy several railroad corridors from the freight companies, The Rock Island line towards Fort Worth, the MKT Katy lines towards Wylie and Denton, the Southern Pacific lines towards Lancaster, Balch Springs, and Sherman, the Cotton Belt line towards Fort Worth and towards Greenville. About the only lines they did not buy are the UP (ex-T&P) lines from Forth Worth towards Mesquite, towards College Station, and towards Waco, and the BNSF line towards Madill and Hillsboro.
A few rail corridors got commuter rail, and a few got light rail. Maybe not the way you wished, but the way the local stakeholders wished. It seems the higher the density on the corridor, they more likely that corridor got light rail, with 10 minute headways instead of 30 minute headways seen with commuter rail. Just about everyone here would suggest it is far easier to have higher frequencies of service with light rail than with commuter rail.
I'll keep repeating this until a cow jumps over the moon, DART built what the taxpayers of Dallas wanted. If you believe local governments and local agencies should do what their local taxpayers wanted, then you must agree DART did just that - be it wrong or right.
Dallas certainly does not need "Yankees" from New Jersey, or "gold miners 49ers" from California dictating what they should build here.