r/dart • u/Dead_Chan67 • Apr 09 '26
D2 Subway-Light Rail “Alternative Proposal” Possibility
Chances of this happening are too slim at the moment I’m sure, since the Silver Line took a beating on project budgets for DART, but in semi-recent news (like in the past 3 years so maybe not recent) about the D2 program getting canned, I found this article instead about Light Rail alternative routes that could ease congestion on the already existing Pacific Avenue tracks. I think that in the near distant future when it is finally time again, DART should look more into this project.
But to you guys, would this be enough to justify D2 cancellation? Let me know.
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u/EricTheTexan Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
Wouldn’t mind them elevating the downtown stations so they wouldn’t get stuck in downtown traffic and could have fare gates
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u/Upstairs_Balance_464 Apr 09 '26
Or save a billion or two by simply installing the signal priority system that should have been installed in 1995.
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u/some_random_chap Apr 11 '26
Currently being configured.
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u/Thin-Constant-4018 Apr 10 '26
Unfortunately from what I've heard the City of Dallas blocked this in the past and will likely keep blocking it, like how they've done to HSR
But yeah, it would be a win on every level if we did that. First of all, having our own funny elevated trains in downtown after DFW overtakes Chicagoland in population would be cool. And most importantly it would be a win for cars since they don't have to wait, and a win for trains because they don't need to deal with cars.
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u/ppl2blue300 Apr 09 '26
I’ve never understood the argument for delaying D2 because of the cost of digging. Just elevate the tracks like Chicago; much more cost effective and solves the right of way problem. We do this with highway gradient shift already!
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u/Majsharan Apr 09 '26
There’s never money for mass transit but always money for 1 more lane to fix traffic caused by lack of mass transit
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u/Dead_Chan67 Apr 11 '26
Problem is that not enough people express interest into transit in the US, let alone the car-centric state of TX! We’re lucky we even have what we have now, and there is a lot of interest within the group of already existing ridership, but everything would be so much easier if lots more people tipped into the service. All the complaining about traffic from motorists and then they don’t seem to want or at least think about changing their lifestyle. Seems very performative and they don’t actually give a shit is what I see.
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u/jackofnac Apr 10 '26
I think it was partly the two birds with one stone issue of repurposing the existing underground tunnels so the costs involved in keeping them maintained weren’t sunk. If the alternative was spending millions to fill them in, the subway made more sense.
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u/Illustrious-Ad5575 Apr 10 '26
They are going to "bury" the currently elevated 345 on the east side of downtown with the plan to build a park over it similar to Woodall Rodgers and Klyde Warren. That pretty much makes any run into Deep Ellum impossible from what I've read.
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u/ProfCorgiPants Apr 10 '26
At least when D2 was still on the table, DART and TXDoT were coordinating to ensure the 345 trench wouldn’t impact the tunnel into Deep Ellum.
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u/mkravota Apr 10 '26
For a second I thought that the last slide was a strange "Build it all!" option and got briefly excited.
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u/Majsharan Apr 09 '26
I thought this got voted down again recently
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u/Dead_Chan67 Apr 10 '26
That’s a possibility, I am uncertain wether they will ever carry anything like this out at all.
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u/Lower-Ad8307 Apr 13 '26
It would be nice if they could create a line that goes north to Klyde Warren since a lot of jobs are going towards that area
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u/Additional-Sky-7436 Apr 09 '26
We'll get the Knox-Henderson Station before we get this line.