Streetcars -- A New Way To Get In & Out Of Downtown Dallas
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DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - It's back to the future for streetcars in Dallas. On Monday Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the City of Dallas unveiled the 21st century version of streetcars that it will introduce to the streets of Dallas in April.
The idea is to make driving in Dallas truly optional.
The streetcar stops are designed to be within walking distance of downtown businesses and major attractions. They'll also have air-conditioned coaches and feed into DART bus and rails lines.
The first leg has three stops from Union Station to Methodist Hospital; if successful they'll later add a track running to the Bishop Arts District.
"There's a quality of life component that really makes it worthwhile to look for those transportation modes, like getting on the train, the bus, [and] the streetcar," that according to DART President and CEO Gary Thomas. "Streetcars are not new to Dallas, they've been around for a long time. They went away in the early 1950s but so often we see history repeat itself."
Streetcars were how most Dallasites got around before automobiles became available to nearly everyone. The network of streetcars stretched from the city limits to Sherman. Four streets in Dallas County still carry the name Interurban. Ride tokens from those days can still be found in some home treasure chests.
In 1989 the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) reintroduced trolleys to the streets of Dallas. Once it was considered a tourist novelty, shuttling diners along McKinney Avenue restaurants. But MATA's role has expanded, sometimes as primary transportation for folks living in Uptown.
MATA founder Phil Cobb said, "There's a need for street cars in a dense, urban area, where people can be picked up every block or so... either going to work or going home from work. On a Friday night going from this restaurant to that restaurant, or this bar to that bar. We serve that need."
Andrea Wimberly is just such a rider. She takes the trolley to get back and forth from home to school. "It's right here close to home and everything -- eating areas and things around the neighborhood. So it's very important, I believe.
Wimberly lives near DART's Mockingbird Station. She has a car and a driver's license, but prefers the trolley. "It's walking distance and I love to walk, so I don't really need to waste gas from five blocks away. I think it'd be great on gas and everything. You can see the new buildings they're building and things like that."
DART streetcar service begins April 13. It'll be free at first. About the same time MATA will expand its service into the heart of downtown.
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