121 comments on DrumBeat: July 4, 2006
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121 comments on DrumBeat: July 4, 2006
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(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Rain is certainly in high demand in Dallas right now. But when a host of dignitaries, including a delegation of elected leaders, show up for a major announcement on the steps of a DART light rail station, rain is a pain.
Nevertheless, when the federal government is handing over $700 million dollars to the Regional Transit Agency, the officials take it in stride, and DART takes a substantial funding allotment, with no questions asked.
On the steps of Victory Station, just west of the American Airlines Center, Federal Transit Administration Deputy Sandra Bushue unveiled the largest transit funding grant the State of Texas has ever seen.
The money is geared to finance a 21-mile extension of DART's light rail service.
The "Green Line" will offer public transit rail service to residents living in the southeast and northwest sectors of the city.
"When I talk to people about why they don't ride light rail, they say it doesn't go where we want to go. Well, this starts to connect people with places they want to go," said Gary Thomas, DART.
The expansion will offer 16 stations, including stops at Fair Park, Deep Ellum, Baylor Medical Center, U.T. Southwestern and Dallas Love Field.
The total cost for the expansion will exceed $2 billion dollars.
My Addendum >[Before Bush, 80% matching, now 50% Federal matching. The bulk of the Interstate Highway System was built with 90% federal matching]
The DART light rail system is now in its' tenth year of operation.
An average of 60,000 trips are taken on the train line daily. DART offers daily service in Plano, Garland, Richardson and Dallas.
[DART could carry more if they had more Light Rail Vehicles. Peak Hour, Peak Direction is at capacity]
I would be interested in hearing your take on the advisability of running light rail connections out to airports.
Seems to me that in the near future there will be a lot less flights with seats costing a LOT more and the only people who will be flying will be the finincially well to do - And I would bet that they will continue to drive their SUV's to the airport.
Only people that might take light rail to the future airport will be people that want to take their kids to let them see the wealthy drive in and fly out and then tell their kids about how everyone used to be able to do that.
My take is that it would be better to run the light rails lines to amusement parks. The kids would enjoy it more?
Not a first link, but a good one after the core is developed (depending on the location of the airport relative to housing/work/entertainment centers).
However, high oil prices will not "kill aviation" directly. At $35/barrel, refined oil was ~10% of airline costs. Airline fuel economy has been steadily climbing per pax-mile (SW went from 45 to 54 pax-mile/gallon in the last 5 years).
The 787 will use 20% less than the 767 it replaces. The 2012 EIS replacement for the 737 should use 25+% less fuel.
I am flying to the Houston Peak Oil conference for $99.10 RT from New Orleans. Add a $40 fuel surcharge and I will still fly. At 50 pax-mile/gallon, I will use about 12 gallons. At a future 75 pax-mile/gallon, about 8 gallons.
The value of flying is high enough that it will not be easily displaced. Home heating, daily commuting and other oil uses will likely be displaced first IMHO.
What will "kill aviation" for the general public is a prolonged, severe recession/depression with declining real wages. But almost everyone will still fly "on occasion", even if only once every few years.
Right now people can replace most airplane trips quite easily. The use of VOIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol, telephone service provides unlimited talk time anywhere/anytime in the USA. See sunrocket.com to get the idea. You can use web cams, home entertainment systems, to enhance voice contact. Documents can be scanned in, then emailed/faxed. Conference calling can bring multiple parties into the loop. DVD disks made from Camcorders can be mailed.
With a little electronic hardware most airline flights can be eliminated easily and cheaply, once we warm up to the idea. TODers should use this approach if possible.
DART Description of "the other" TOD
=============If the future is anything like the past, vibrant destinations will spring up all along the new rail lines.
While DART Rail has changed the way tens of thousands of people commute to work, it's also prompted dramatic lifestyle changes. People are choosing to live, work and play with DART as their connector. Since 1999, DART Rail has helped drive approximately $3.3 billion in new development near rail stations, and long before trains run on the Green and Orange lines, more transit-oriented developments are under construction and being planned.
Nowhere is the activity more dramatic than at Victory Park where DART's Victory Station and the mammoth American Airlines Center are overshadowed by the new, 31-story W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences. Construction cranes tower over four more residential projects in the area, as well as two retail and office buildings. Investment at the 75-acre development has passed the $500 million mark, and there's more in the works. Later this year, ground will be broken for the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel and condominiums, The House condominium tower by famed French designer Philippe Starck and YOO Ltd., and yet another office tower.
Just up the corridor, near the site of DART's forthcoming Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station, First Worthing is developing Cityville, a 16-acre mixed-use project featuring 263 apartments and 43,000 square feet of retail space.
In Farmers Branch and Carrollton, city planners are focusing large-scale urban redevelopment plans on future rail stations. Meanwhile, the City of Irving has drafted a land-use plan that envisions a full-fledged, mid-rise transit mall -- featuring office, residential, retail and services -- extending through the Las Colinas Urban Center and encompassing two proposed stations.
In the Southeast corridor, developers will build a four-story commercial and residential building near the future Baylor Hospital Station. DART Rail is viewed by many as key to drawing a new mix of development to the popular Deep Ellum arts and entertainment district, and more growth is expected near the Fair Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. stations.