photo courtesy dart.org
Last week one of our readers commented that public transportation should have had more of a role in the constructed for the LBJ Express Project near the upcoming Midtown development. Curious, I wrote to DART spokesman Mark Bell to see what role DART has in the Midtown development.
Bell tells us via email:
DART coordinated with the Midtown developer and the city of Dallas during the concept planning phase in spring 2013. DART refined a couple of potential rail corridor concepts that could serve the area in the future so the developer could keep these in mind and not preclude light rail in the future.
In the near term, there is the potential for fixed route bus, site specific shuttles and limited stop Rapid Ride services to serve the area and build a transit market. Currently, the Rapid Ride 987 provides enhanced east-west service linking the Blue, Red and Green lines with service to the Galleria/Midtown area.
The LBJ project has been identified as a potential future rail corridor, but there is no funding for it and there is no timeline for it.
At that meeting in the spring, editor Monica Nagy reported that chamber and city officials say DART has been involved with all planning meetings, and though they are not sure how mass transit will unfold, involving a DART line is an “engineering possibility.”
We’ll keep you posted as we learn about the progress of the potential rail corridor.
