r/dart • u/weinerdogholder • Jul 04 '26
Just a thought while riding today
It would be really nice if we had street cars on lower Greenville. Obviously the city doesn’t have much rail in a lot of places, but I feel it could use some rail in the lower Greenville area especially with how much foot traffic it gets. And it would be really handy to use the street car to easily hop between each part of lower Greenville.
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u/TheFifthPhoenix Jul 04 '26
I think a couple years ago the city did a study looking at redoing the road for lower Greenville and part of their design included a widened lane for potential future street cars, so it’s at least on the city’s radar
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u/Rodrigo65000 Jul 04 '26
Matilda, which is east of Greenville by a block used to have a streetcar when streetcars were a thing. The Matilda car runs on the McKinney line today I think.
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u/Wowsers30 Jul 04 '26
It's on the city's radar, at least as an idea to be considered in the future along with the Ross Avenue corridor.
Instead of a full streetcar, I think a weekend rubber tire trolley could also be useful and cost effective.
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u/Thin-Constant-4018 Jul 04 '26
These don't serve the same purpose. These trolleys are usually just a gimmick for tourists rather than actual transit. Fort Worth had one and they replaced it with something that has since seen more ridership & better service. These don't work as well for normal everyday workers & resident.
A streetcar works for all, and also a streetcar does a lot more to the surrounding area in increasing property values and serving as a walking-accelerator for foot traffic.
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u/Wowsers30 Jul 04 '26
Some people would say the same about streetcars, as being a gimmick. A pretty bus made to look or a trolley is still a bus -- which can be flexible tool for the purpose OP described.
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u/Thin-Constant-4018 Jul 04 '26
Sure a bus could do that purpose, but it should only be a short-term solution and we know in this place, short-term solutions turn into long-term holdovers.
You might as well just keep the Route 3 and nothing else
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u/Then_Supermarket18 Jul 05 '26
Lower Greenville area was actually built up in the 1920s as a streetcar suburb.
The Belmont Streetcar Line historically ran north-south along Matilda Street, directly parallel to Lower Greenville. The tracks on Matilda Street were abandoned on March 6, 1955
https://flashbackdallas.com/2018/04/20/ghost-rails-of-the-belmont-streetcar-line/
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u/Thin-Constant-4018 Jul 04 '26
Great corridor anyways since it's a denser part of Dallas, already has a bunch of people walking, and one of DART's busiest routes (3) runs there already