Sunday, March 20, 2016

When Will A New Light Rail Station Transform Fort Worth?

I saw what you see here yesterday in the online version of the Seattle Times and thought, well, that is sure something I would not be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a similar thing in Fort Worth.

The UW referred to in the headline is the University of Washington. The UW's new light rail station is due south of Husky Stadium. The current end terminal of an extension of the Seattle Link line, via a three mile tunnel under Queen Anne Hill.

Soon voters in several Puget Sound counties will be voting on a $20 billion bond issue to extend the Link lines all the way from Everett to the north, to Tacoma to the south, and points east. The voters have a history of passing these type transportation proposals. Likely because they are seeing the benefit of having efficient mass public transit.

I have wondered before, and am wondering again, why is there no effort in the D/FW Metroplex to have a modern efficient mass public transit system? All one needs do is check out the Dallas DART light rail system to see a modern transit system in action.

Why is there no effort to extend DART to Arlington, to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium/Six Flags zone?

Building rail lines in this flat part of the planet would seem to be far less challenging and far less expensive than doing such in a location like Seattle and surrounding towns, what with there being a lot of topographic variation and large bodies of water.

Pretty much every weekday I see I-820 slowed to a crawl. One would think mass public transit would be more appealing than being stuck in a traffic jam day after day.

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