By Steve Brown, Dallas Morning News
Last week I stood in the terminal at Love Field and watched a DART train zip by. It didn’t stop — can’t stop. There’s no station.
That has to be one of the biggest urban transit blunders ever. Why would a big-city commuter rail line omit the airport from service?
Does that make sense?
Hopefully transit planners won’t bungle again as they decide what to do about adding a second rail line through downtown Dallas.
The expansion of DART’s rail system with a new downtown line could be an economic boost to the center city. Or it could chop up downtown with rails that divide the area and reduce property values. DART and Dallas already made the wrong decision about Love Field.
More than a decade ago, when plans were in flux for the commuter rail line running along the west side of Dallas’ airport, the transit agency and the city said they couldn’t afford the $160 million needed to build a DART station at Love Field. And federal transit officials would not approve a plan that included Love Field.
So instead of stopping at the airport, DART’s yellow and white trains roll by next to the runway along Denton Drive. There’s been talk of building some kind of a underground people mover to connect the airport to the DART line, but those are still just plans.
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