A question to the Rail experts here

[sockid]

1st of all- I hope you all will forgive me ;) for posing such a hypotheical question on the board but since so many of you are much more knowing about rail and trolley stuff (Trolley Girl-that last was for you :) ) I felt this was a fair question to ask.

One of you is now head of DART- and you see the big map before you in your office-where we are going - If we go south toward Duncanville etc- which way should we go and should we consider another train along IH-30 east to west.

Your thoughts, please

[Foucault]

More rail through Uptown.

[RayM]

The continuation of the old rail right-of-way that the Westmoreland segment of the Red Line is built on goes right into downtown Duncanville (BNSF RR, I think). I think it has freight traffic on it now, though. It might be possible to run light rail beside it.

But, its path is pretty much in the middle of nowhere until you get to Duncanville - possibly a R.O.W down Westmoreland would make more sense, with possibly a stop at Dead Bird Mall.

[drumguy8800]

Southwest Center, maybe much..? I hate the parking lot at that place.. >< its all asphalt. and everything is one story and a weird red brick.

No more rail in the median of a road. The rail on 342 is very odd looking.. Why can't we just do subway LRT throughtout the entire system....? (I know why, its not feasible.. blah blah.. money.. blah.)

And the southern extension stuff.. if they go anywhere south, they'll probably start out with an extension of the blue line down to I-20, and then its supposed to go all the way down through Red Oak to Waxahachie, or so the NCTCOG maps say. If they were to ever build a line to Duncanville and Cedar Hill, they should consider having the LRT in the middle of US-67.. or next to it, or something. Like, make the highway kinda like Central (as in trenched, but yeah, right, like that would happen..) then put an at-grade line running through the center of it. That would be cool.. ish.

But costly. muy costly.

and sockid.. do you live in the southern suburbs? (im guessing you do cause you're talkin about duncanville and stuff..) .. and if you do.. have you seen the new portions of I-35E along the border of Lancaster and DeSoto? Its pink. fishy-salmon color and pink. i dun get it.

[sockid]

drumguy- Can you get me a link for those maps you spoke of please.- No -drumguy I don't live there now; I am in San Antonio-but my mom and dad live there. We have the same color here on the interstate as well-esp Loop 410-the Connally Freeway now. I agree it is weird to look at but since our new Central Libary is Enchilada Red it is not so bad. :)

[drumguy8800]

Click here (http://www.dfwinfo.com/trans/mtp/current/maps/Mob2025_2004Upd_RailCorridors_Map.pdf) to see the rail map. NCTCOG has a lot of great info on the DFW area.. tons and tons of it. They're really an amazing agency.. their homepage is at http://www.dfwinfo.com

Actually, I had never really payed attention to it before, but there's a line on that map going from the current red line down through Duncanville, Cedar Hill, and Midlothian. Hmm.

[sockid]

Thanks -drumguy- Yeah there sure is one and the point where the line crosses I-20 is RIGHT where Red Bird is.

And drumguy notice something else as well-Look at the line from Midlotahian to Wax then north to Red Oak/Lancaster. Can you see 2 trains at peak times- I could easy if the money were there

[drumguy8800]

I definetly could.. if you go look at the statistics, Red Oak is supposed is actually supposed to be growing faster than Frisco.. in between 2000 and 2030, at a rate of 1147% (the highest in DFW). 3,000 in 2000, 63,000 in 2030. (ugh, suburban sprawl.) And Lancaster is supposed to approach 60,000 i think. Red Oak is supposed to have more people than Lancaster, DeSoto, Waxahachie, Ovilla, Glenn Heights, Midlothian, Pecan Hill, Duncanville.. and all those cities, by 2030. The only city in this southern sector that's supposed to have a higher population is Cedar Hill. And in Red Oak, at Ovilla Rd. and I-35E.. That intersection is expected to have as much retail and business at it as FM 1382 and US-67 has in Cedar Hill. Oh, if Red Oak was only better at master planning.. right now Ovilla@I-35E is a giant patchwork of little establishments. (None of those numbers are 100% accurate.. they're based solely on memory..)

anyway, so yes, I can imagine a high number of trains during peak hours. The area is growing, and at a very fast rate.. Faster than most people think. I think that seven new subdivisions have been built in Red Oak within the last 4 years (unfortunately) and there are tons being proposed. Eh. disgusting, but exciting.

[gc]

I'd say east-west along I30 for sure.

[sockid]

GC- I agree with you but where along I-30 should it-should it swing down to across I-20 as well.

[drumguy8800]

if it was on I-30, it wouldn't 'swing down' to cross I-20.. considering 30 and 20 don't cross, nor do they even get near each other, except where 30 splits from 20 in Fort Worth.. I don't see why it would ever break down and go to I-20. But.. there should be a line on I-20.. it has plenty of room, and it is a high-growth corridor..

[sockid]

Drumguy- Ya has a good point but I was thinking of a convergence in Fort Worth-then south to Mansfield/ Arlington back to a Red Oak connection for those folks who work in the southren end of Tarannt County and the city of Fort Worth as well

[trolleygirl]

It will be a cold day in hell before Arlingtpon ever spends one red cent on DART. It will be about that same time when Arlington decides to build their own rail.

Currently there are some ambiguous plans for a rail in the East Corridor, going east in the direction of Mineola, to Shreveport.

One of the original plans for DART's southeast line was to have the light rail in the middle of I-30. Instead, it will go along Scyene. The current East Corridor 2030 MIS shows I-30 being expanded to have, I think, eight HOV lanes and no rail. Of course, there is always talk about it, but that's all it is.....talk.

We'll I'm off to this TEX-21 conference, so I'll more later this afternoon.

[gc]

what is the Tex-21 conference TG?

[Foucault]

"TEX-21 is a statewide coalition whose purpose and goal is to work with local, regional, state, national, and international leaders in order to find comprehensive and innovative solutions to transportation issues facing Texas."
http://www.tex21.net/index.asp