Street Cars to Return to Downtown Dallas

The City of Dallas received a $23 million discretionary funding grant from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) group to move forward with plans to re-introduce streetcars to Downtown Dallas.

(right: Looking down Main Street in downtown Dallas; circa 1951)



"This project will improve transportation within downtown Dallas by creating a seamless transit connection and providing a multi-modal link between jobs and residents," said Mayor Tom Leppert. Mayor Leppert. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Dallas himself to see how the city's streetcar plan would improve interurban transportation, help boost local businesses and lower Dallas's carbon emissions.

"This project specifically targets commuters in mixed use districts adjacent to downtown and will help create a transit network linking urban areas by providing multiple transportation alternatives," said Councilwoman Angela Hunt, whose district includes downtown.

The proposed line originates in Downtown Dallas at Harwood and Main Street. The line includes stops at the Convention Center Hotel, Trinity River Park, and Union Station, and continues into the North Oak Cliff Methodist Medical Center District.

"Clearly, this project will link walkable, mixed use neighborhoods in the urban core with employment centers throughout the region, as well as create hundreds of new jobs in Dallas," said Councilwoman Linda Koop, Chair of the Council's Transportation and Environment Committee.

The Recovery Act application, submitted in coordination with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and the City of Fort Worth, included a total budget request of $96 million. The City of Dallas requested $48 million for its portion of the streetcar project, with a total project cost of $58 million.

"To me, this is the next evolution in downtown Dallas," says Councilwoman Angela Hunt, who helped push the idea for Dallas after visiting Seattle and riding The S.L.U.T. The unfortunate yet hilarious acronym for the Seattle Lake Union Trolley. 

The City of Dallas and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) are pleased to receive the grant money to fund the new street car system since the idea is to allow riders to ride the system for free.

"It needs to be free," Hunt says. "You want people to ride it and if it's free they're gonna jump on it. They're gonna leave their car behind."

RE:Vision Dallas Winner: Entangled Bank

The winner of the RE:Vision Dallas competition has been named. The North Carolina firm Little has won with their Entangled Bank design.

From the UrbanRevision.Org website:
Something incredible is about to happen in downtown Dallas. Soon, a single block will be transformed into a place that creates economies, supports community, facilitates relationships and generates resources. The winners of Re:Vision Dallas have created plans that challenged us, engaged us, and inspired us. And their ideas, from local materials and vegetated screens to integrated greenways, will shape how people will live and work here in the future.


Entangled Bank is a complex yet simple network of elements. Each piece whether it is the bird, the plant, the worm or the soil personally contributes to the growth and ultimate survival of each. They are all very different from one another but each is very dependent on the other. For without them the bank would unravel and fail. Within the network still a very personal cycle of life persists that starts with conception, continues with growth and ultimately flourishes or sometimes fails. But the bank itself is meant to sustain and offer every opportunity for its constituents to succeed. This same notion can be related to the natural environment as well as the social landscape of Dallas and also our site.

 

What if we not only sought to teach and educate about the importance of living sustainably out of respect for the environment but we actually sustained and rehabilitated those among us who were struggling? What if we welcomed them back within the comfort of the entangled bank and as they grew and flourished we watched them begin to contribute to the bank themselves? It is our belief that true sustainability relates not only to the environment but also has key economic and social impacts.

 

Read more at the competition website.