DART vs. METRORail

Rad Sallee's story in today's Chronicle about why Dallas' light rail has fewer accidents than MetroRail, is an exercise in frustration. Not Sallee's reporting, but the "expertise" Metro employed to give us at-grade light rail:

Just from looking out the train window, it's easy to see why Dallas Area Rapid Transit's light rail trains seldom collide with vehicles or pedestrians. One minute you're cruising high above the traffic on Walnut Hill Lane; the next you're zipping into Cityplace Station, 120 feet below ground.

And when the trains are at ground level, which is most of the time, they're still at a safe distance from motorists. About 85 percent of the 45-mile DART system runs on former freight rail tracks, not in the street.

[snip]

DART had 55 light rail accidents in a 31-month period through April, a monthly rate less than half of Metro's despite having six times as much track. But only two parts of DART trains run on streets. One of these is downtown, although a mile of that is a "transit mall" closed to vehicles, and the other is in South Oak Cliff, where the rails are on the median of a busy thoroughfare. DART also runs through a 3.25-mile tunnel north of downtown, and of its 34 stations, four are elevated and two below ground level.

Of the 95 street crossings in DART's system, 71 are protected by gates. Metro's 7.5-mile line has 62 crossings, 10 gated.

You know, for months after MetroRail opened, Metro officials ran to the cameras after every accident and berated Houston drivers for being so stupid.

Could it possibly be a design flaw? Perhaps sticking a train down the middle of a busy downtown street wasn't the smartest idea?

By contrast, Metro, which already has a nationally respected Park & Ride bus system for suburban commuters and intends to expand rail to the suburbs eventually, designed its Main Street line and next five extensions as "an improvement on local bus service," said Vice President John Sedlak.

The state's performance audit of Metro found that Metro has cut 29 bus route segments and 11% of Metro's bus service miles. Chew on that for a minute, while you also consider that even with those cuts, Metro's operating costs rose from $236 million to $304 million. I think we can figure out where the increased costs are coming from.

All are designed to run on major streets, such as Main, Harrisburg, Wheeler and possibly Westpark or Richmond, staying inside or near Loop 610 until at least 2012.

Can residents outside of Loop 610 get a refund? How about a revote?

The Main Street line has booming ridership, Sedlak said, precisely "because of how close it comes to the heart of the employment centers and the ease of access to the stations."

I finally saw the Danger Train for the first time today. It was about 11:15 a.m. and there were two people in the light rail car I saw. TWO!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/18/05 03:29 PM | Print |

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