Future of regional rail service in Dallas area could be in doubt

by Bill Conrad of Star Local News

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Plano deputy city manager Frank Turner thinks expanded DART bus service might be a detriment to the system as a whole.

When DART began bus service to Mesquite last week, it marked the first time the transit service has operated in non-member cities.

While most of the debate has centered around the $300,000 cost of the service and whether outside cities should be allowed into the system, one Plano official thinks the decision could be a blow to long-term transportation plans.

Frank Turner, a deputy city manager with the city, said he wonders whether plans for an expanded regional rail service will have to be shelved if more cities follow Mesquite's lead.

"Our concern is broader than how much the service to Mesquite costs and who is going to pay for that," he said. "There has been a lot of discussion about the Cotton Belt and extending the Red Line north, but that all hinges on the availability of funds. If arrangements are made with cities that are not in DART, The T (Fort Worth Transportation Authority) or the Denton County Transportation Authority, we are not going to be able to grow the region."

Turner said he is worried DART will end up making piecemeal service adjustments, something he doesn't think will lead to expanding the rail system regionally.

"If you look at it in a very narrow sense, adding a bus route to Mesquite is going to add riders to the system," he said. "But that is just a Band-Aid treatment. It is not a long-term solution."

He said it is time for cities from across North Texas to sit down and decide if rail service is a priority, and if it is, determine how it will be paid for.

While the city of Mesquite is paying $300,000 to operate the bus, which takes riders from E.H. Hanby Stadium at Mesquite High School to DART's Lawnview Station in Dallas, Turner said this is a fraction of the cost needed to keep the system operable.

"Right now, there are 13 cities in DART, three in the DCTA, and a handful in The T, which is only a fraction of the municipal jurisdictions that benefit from the existing rail system, let alone an expanded rail system," Turner said. "Last year, the city of Plano paid just short of $60 million to DART. Even if Mesquite pays for its bus, if DART didn't have the $60 million that taxpayers in Plano provided, would the backbone of the system be able to be maintained? If Allen, McKinney or Frisco come on in $300,000 to $500,000 increments, how are you going to take the rail system to the next step?"

Member cities pay for DART service via a 1-cent local sales tax, while non-member cities, such as Mesquite, are able to use the same 1-cent tax for economic development. DART has a $422 million operating budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, up from $403 million in 2010-2011.

Not everyone sees service to non-DART cities as a detriment to the system. Morgan Lyons, DART's director of media relations, said he believes the concept will be positive for the system as a whole. He said many cities, including Allen and McKinney, have expressed interest in some sort of expanded service.

"We think that the idea of contracting for a service will be a thing that has potential," Lyons said. "This works well on the Green Line (which includes the Lawnview Station) because we have excess capacity."

The Green Line, which spans from southeast Dallas to Carrollton, officially opened in late 2010 and had 7.6 million riders in 2011. In comparison, the Blue Line, which goes from south Dallas to Garland carried 6.1 million, while the Red Line, which runs from Plano to south Dallas, carried 9.9 million people. Lyons said ridership is beginning to increase after being down slightly.

"About 70-75 percent of our riders use the train to get to work, so we see changes in ridership patterns as the economy changes," he said. "As more people go back to work, we think ridership will increase."

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