Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting - 30

DALLAS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24
pedestrian bridge adjacent to the station platform. The park’s master plan also features a city museum within steps of the rail stop. The Green Line is considered a lifeline to South Dallas and the Pleasant Grove neighborhood where residents will far outnumber local jobs in the years ahead. Shirley Stark, a member of the Piedmont-Scyene Homeowners Association just north of Pleasant Grove, predicts that the line will breathe new life into the neighborhood, enabling more people to consider higher-paying jobs farther from home and attracting new visitors to the Great Trinity Forest. “A lot of folks rely on the buses to get around,” said Stark. “The addition of the train will remove more barriers to finding better employment because it will be faster and more convenient to travel around greater Dallas. I have great hope for what the Green Line will do for us.” Carl Raines, president of the Southeast Dallas Chamber of Commerce, knows that delivering light rail to the sector involves more than digging dirt and laying tracks. “The Green Line will totally reshape this area by attracting new businesses and transforming how people think and move around Dallas,” Raines emphasized. “DART Rail will help commercial and residential property values, and there’s a lot of excitement among the business community as we imagine the possibilities for development around the rail stations.” debt financing, and the inclusion of new revenue streams allows the airport connection to be included in DART’s new 20-year Financial Plan—but the segment will be delayed approximately one year, to at least 2014. Irving Mayor Herbert Gears said the DFW Airport connection is a vital part of the regional rail plan, particularly for the 60,000 employees who work there. “It’s also about reducing traffic congestion and air pollution,” he noted. DART Board Chairman William Velasco agreed: “It’s critical that both airports be accessible by transit and not just by car.”

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(7) 2000 Orion 35’ High Floor 50 Series Allison B-400 Lift-U W/C Lift Thermo King

Waves of Blue
The Blue Line’s new Lake Highlands Station, located at the northwest corner of Walnut Hill Lane and White Rock Trail in Dallas, also opens in December. This is DART’s first infill rail station, located between the White Rock and LBJ/Skillman stations, which opened in 2002. The station will be adjacent to the Lake Highlands Town Center project— an ambitious, 70-acre transit-oriented development now under construction. Phase I of the center, including more than 120,000 square feet of retail space and 200 luxury apartments, is expected to be complete in 2012. DART also is extending the end of the Blue Line five miles, from Downtown Garland Station to Downtown Rowlett Station. Rowlett is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation’s fastest-growing region, and its officials are looking to the arrival of light rail in December 2012 to help accelerate the development of the downtown area, adjacent to the station.

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Orange Line on the Horizon
Construction crews are working aggressively to advance the first two segments (nine miles, five new stations) of the Orange Line between Bachman Station in North Dallas and Irving. Funding and timing for the third and final five-mile segment of the Orange Line, to DFW International Airport, was reviewed this spring and summer based on revised projections showing lower than estimated sales tax receipts. Officials said in August that a combination of capital spending adjustments, a restructuring of

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Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Passenger Transport 2010 APTA Annual Meeting