Dallas — Service Begins

April 2015

Dallas introduced service on its downtown to Oak Cliff streetcar line on April 13 as the first car to departed at 11:30 a.m. CDT. It is the first in the U.S. to use the Brookville Equipment Corp. of Pennsylvania "Liberty" model modern streetcar. It's dual-mode with pantograph and battery power for use on the unwired Houston Street Viaduct over the Trinity River.

After a ribbon-cutting, public service began between Union Station and the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Beckley Avenue, near Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Beginning on April 14th, the streetcar will run from 5 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. weekdays, with stops at two locations along the 1.6-mile way. No fare is charged for the ride.

Batteries power the vehicle across the historic Houston Street Viaduct instead of power draiwn from overhead wires elsewhere on the route. This is the first such off-wire streetcar operation in the U.S. The two cars that will servce the line were built in the U.S. by Brookville Equipment of Pennsylvania.

The city-owns the line but contracts with DART to operate the service. The $50 million project, underway since since 2010, is a start. Extensions to near the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff and the Omni Hotel/Dallas Convention Center downtown are being planned, but construction hasn’t been approved.