DART’s new Green Line causing system-wide train delays

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

Photo by Michael Counter

Since the Victorian era, one measure of civilization has been, "do the trains run on time." In fact, the term, "the trains run on time" has long been a euphemism for competent leadership.

There is a certain sense of orderliness, of competence, that is gained from the confidence people have that what their society does, it does well. Therefore, governments that are capable of running efficient transportation infrastructure gain the respect of their citizens. Societies that can not seem to at least get the trains to run on schedule are derided as incompetent in all they do.

This last week, the Dallas region saw the opening of the first three-mile leg of DART's new Green Line. The Green Line is expected to cost about $2 billion and eventually run from the Carrollton area to Pleasant Grove.

There's one problem, though. After spending a decade on planning and $2 billion on building, DART can't figure out how to get its new trains downtown on time. According to the Dallas Morning News' Michael Lindenberger, the new Green Line trains have created a huge bottleneck downtown with the existing Red and Blue Line trains, causing DART engineers to constantly stop trains while waiting for the tracks in front to clear. A solution to the SNAFU seems beyond them.

The result - the whole Red, Green, and Blue schedules are no good any more - simply put, the trains do NOT run on time. They are late every day.

We suburbanites and exurbanites know that Collin County desperately needs a larger mass transit system.

We understand that we don't have the land to build bigger and bigger roads forever. We know that traffic tie-ups are costing billions, and will get worse. We know that automobiles are destroying the air we breathe. We know rail is expensive, yet necessary. But we can not escape the simple reality that -

Two billion dollars later, the trains don't run on time.

Pegasus News content partner - The Collin County Observer