Dallas — Streetcar Projects Progress

Rail Transit Online, June 2008

Two streetcar proposals for downtown Dallas are under active consideration, one by the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA) and other by the city. MATA, which already operates a 3.9-mi. (6.3 km) heritage line in the uptown area, is planning to start construction next year on a $6.5-million extension that would continue the line south along Olive Street to a terminal near DART'S Pearl Street light rail stop.

The non-profit group is also anticipating a $2-million grant to study the feasibility of adding a loop through downtown that would connect with MATA's existing terminal on St. Paul Street at Ross Avenue. The city project, part of the plan to add a second LRT line across downtown, foresees a streetcar circulator network that would feed the LRT system.

I think there's a political will there," city council member Angela Hunt told The Dallas Morning News. "Everyone we've talked with has been excited by the idea of returning streetcars to downtown Dallas." The original trolley system was abandoned more than 50 years ago.

Still to be determined are routes, cost, funding sources and whether the cars would be modern, heritage or heritage replicas. Although planning is still at a very preliminary stage, Hunt says she expects the city and MATA schemes to move forward co-operatively. "These are not competing plans," she told The Dallas Morning News. "This is really one plan. I predict it won't be very much longer and you'll see the two working together on this."