Could DFW hit a populations as high as 11-14 million? - Page 7

SFBruin · #**121** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 2:37 AM**

^^ Well, there's the cotton belt. I'm not sure how effective that will be, since it only goes through suburbs, and ridership on DART is already poor. But hey, more power to them I guess.

The downtown Dallas subway is incredibly important. To me, it's right up there with the Purple Line as one of the most important subway projects in the US outside of New York.

Dariusb · #**122** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 5:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFBruin

^^ Well, there's the cotton belt. I'm not sure how effective that will be, since it only goes through suburbs, and ridership on DART is already poor. But hey, more power to them I guess.

The downtown Dallas subway is incredibly important. To me, it's right up there with the Purple Line as one of the most important subway projects in the US outside of New York.

I've read that the biggest reason ridership is so low is because the rail isn't going where most riders would want/need to go.

SFBruin · #**123** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 6:04 AM**

I've read that too.

It's kind of a shame, because the system is kind of the poster child for new-age light rail, I feel.

Are any of the lines and/or stations doing well?

I think it's worth noting, also, that the system still averages about 100k riders per day, so overall ridership is okay.

Reverberation · #**124** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 7:00 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dariusb

I've read that the biggest reason ridership is so low is because the rail isn't going where most riders would want/need to go.

That and to be appealing to people living in the suburbs 30-40 miles out, a glorified LRT system may not be fast enough. Like, if someone riding in from Plano has to transfer in downtown to get to Las Colinas and it takes 2 hours each way, they will just drive.

SFBruin · #**125** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 8:11 AM**

^ You're right.

A journey from Plano to Las Colinas looks like it takes 1 hr 44 min on DART, while the same journey takes 23 min by car (at, I guess, 3am CT). I wonder what accounts for the discrepancy. It looks like DART averages about 30 mph for scheduled service, which isn't terrible, but isn't great.

Dariusb · #**126** Posted **Oct 30, 2021, 10:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFBruin

I've read that too.

It's kind of a shame, because the system is kind of the poster child for new-age light rail, I feel.

Are any of the lines and/or stations doing well?

I think it's worth noting, also, that the system still averages about 100k riders per day, so overall ridership is okay.

I was looking around and it looks like the orange and red lines are the busiest of the ones operating in the city.

llamaorama · #**127** Posted **Oct 31, 2021, 8:44 PM**

I personally think that TexRail and the Cotton Belt and possibly the A-train should be integrated. Maybe there could be a hub in Carrollton, alternatively maybe the main transfer station would be at UTD. If BART can do a through-train on its wye to SFO then Tex-Rail could operate like that, with trains backing in and then continuing.

Not a transit expert but I would be willing to bet money the biggest source of ridership on the Cotton Belt line will be UT-Dallas and that for Tex-Rail the ridership will go up a lot when it is extended a mile or so to Fort Worth's Medical District. Colleges and Hospitals tend to be very centralized places of employment or students and full of people who either don't have full time access to a car and/or don't want to pay for a parking tag, and/or are visitors who don't want to pay to park.