Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirrus
You cannot draw nationwide trends from a single city. Dallas has a stupid light rail system but the fact that Dallas built a commuter rail system out of light rail trains doesn't mean light rail is inherently bad.
|
I don't recall off hand many commuter rail lines in the world with diesel powered locomotives running in 3.5 mile long tunnels with headways every 10 minutes. DART's electric rail transit system is a light rail system, always has and always will be.
The DART light rail system length is up to 93 miles, with 64 stations it averages 1.45 miles between stations. Not the 0.5 or 1.0 miles typical in the USA. But not the 3.4 miles between stations seen on the TRE, 3 miles between stations on TexRail, nor the 3.5 miles between stations on DCTA.
Math
DART=93 miles /64 stations = 1.45 miles/station
TRE=34 miles /10 stations = 3.4 miles/station
TexRail=27 miles /9 stations = 3 miles/station
DCTA=21 miles /6 stations = 3.5 miles/station
And soon DART hopes to build a subway line under downtown Dallas to reposition a few of their existing light rail lines on. You are not going to see many diesel locomotive commuter rail lines in the world with more than two subway stations under their downtowns on the same line.