Dallas — Heritage Streetcars Return

Rail Transit Online, February 2001

With street repairs now complete, the famed McKinney Avenue Transit Authority is once again running historic trolleys along its namesake thoroughfare in the Uptown area.  Cars began operating 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily on Jan. 5 following a small parade that included the Authority’s four veteran streetcars.  Construction limited the trolley service to weekends for almost two years, and it was shut down completely for several months as cobbled antique bricks were replaced with smooth "McKinney Red" mock bricks made of concrete.  The 2.8-mile round trip will soon be extended.  A $2.5 million city grant will pay for about a mile of track to DART’s newly opened Cityplace light rail station.  Work is expected to begin in late January or early February and be finished in December.  Also on the drawing board is another new segment to the West End Historic District in downtown Dallas, site of another LRT stop.  The idea is to make the heritage line part of the local transportation system and not just a tourist attraction.  “The trolley is becoming more of a transit option,” Phil Cobb, chairman of the board of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, told the Dallas Morning News.  “When we reach the DART station, it will become more of a people mover.”  Service will then be stepped up from 30-minute headways to 10- or 15-minute intervals.  Four additional trolleys are being restored that will eventually double the Authority’s fleet.