The Dallas City Council transportation committee is backing a plan by Dallas Area Rapid Transit [DART] for downtown rail transit expansion, the Dallas Morning News reports. One idea is to connect the Oak Cliff modern streetcar line and the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority [MATA] heritage trolley. If that is done, modern streetcars might run over MATA tracks during the daytime weekdays with heritage cars restricted to nights and weekends. The overall cost of the plan is $983.4 including a DART alternative LRT route through downtown with $400 million in federal funds as part of the funding package.
Sponsors of the proposed high speed rail line to Houston are now considering five downtown locations for a possible station, which would need to be served by rail transit. The downtown plan would also include the first phase of a new LRT route through downtown, to relieve the overcrowding along the current route.
The plan proposed connecting the Oak Cliff and MATA streetcar lines via Main Street, though the line could be built along another downtown street. The proposal also raised the possibility of modern streetcars running over the MATA line during the day with heritage cars restricted to evening and weekends. MATA's leadership is currently opposed to this concept, but is open to discussions.
