AndyN

Most of my trips out of DFW start with a $5 Uber to the Intermodal Station. TEXRail will be an even better value because of the station at Terminal B. I get to keep my truck at my house so the savings on parking are great.

Hampton has been rebuilt adjacant to this project. South of Pharr Street to Belknap it is so rough it will knock your teeth out.

I don't know how they are deriving these ridership numbers. No tickets are being sold, and the trains when I have ridden have been so full that there is no way they could have been counting them manually. Let's see what the real numbers are when the fares start.

I thought the Stadler DMUs had automatic people counters in the doors? I know they're not exact but they are close. Trinity Metro has an opening posted on Linkdin for a position that includes maintenance of APCs and handling the data through GIS to determine how to deploy assets. I'm guessing they have a pretty good idea how many people are riding and the conductors sampling ridership with manual counters probably verifies the APC data.

The effects of the ruling are being way overblown. The judge ruled against summary judgement. That is not a final ruling.

As for ED authority, I would think it would be as simple as TCRy buying a 10th of a mile of track somewhere and an old diesel. Or if they want to get fancy, buy a business car to go with it.

The total trip was 4 hours, but I also stopped to get dinner and rode the M-Line streetcar. I'm more curious about calculating the mileage. If you start at the T&P Depot, what's the farthest you can ride on a regional day pass? Not sure if it is Denton or Rowlett that is the most distant?

The TRE and Texline equipment were clean.

I did the big loop Saturday from the ITC to Terminal B, Orange Line to downtown Dallas and then TRE back to ITC. $12 for the regional day pass to get me on the Orange Line and TRE. Not bad compared to a taxi or even Lyft.

The DMUs are nice. The DART SLRV was a noisy, uncomfortable ride by comparison. Not sure if it was the car I was on or if they need some track work. Also the DART cars were absolutely filthy with trash and mushy stuff(?!) on the floor. Hopefully conductors on the TEXline will discourage littering.

It's clean, quiet and quick!

The eastbound I caught was running eight minutes late, but travel time to Grapevine from Iron Horse was 14 minutes, then another ten minutes to DFW airport. There's still construction ongoing at each station, but the passenger areas are clear of debris.
 

Did you get seasick going through the roller coaster portion north of the ITC?

Everybody say a prayer for me. I'm going to leave my car parked at the north airport station overnight and see what happens.

Churchill at Downtown. Proposed 122 Multi-family units. 2 buildings of 2 stories and one building which is split between 3 and 4 stories. 30% market rate and 70% affordable housing. 

The plan that I am familiar with does not involve the tunnel remnant. It would basically run from the ballpark parking lot, up Paddock viaduct and then a loop around the courthouse(s). It solves the problem of the viaduct not being handicap accessible and makes the jury parking connection.

This is not a positive report. It is slamming TRV and TRWD for more wasteful spending. Seems like Channel 5 is doing a hit piece per day on the Panther Island project. And why the heck did they go to see the streetcar in Little Rock? The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority's M-Line is much heavier utilized and just a day trip away. No expensive hotel stays and restaurant bills.

 

Who really knows whether the levies are sufficient or are not; but it we can know that development will not occur in this one of its kind tract of land without pushing for a grand plan,; and not some bargain basement solution. 

 

Civil engineers... Civil engineers know that the levies are not sufficient. They can calulate the variables and figure out how much more dirt is needed to meet USACE requirements.

Again, I love the concept of the project, just don't like them using public money for private developer's benefit.

I was waiting to sign in at the VIP table and some guy with a camera kept trying to take my picture while I was talking to my cousin. He finally came up and asked if he could take my picture and I acceded. I tracked him down later when I realized he was probably with a news service and to make sure he knew I was not in an El Paso uniform. He asked for my info and I briefly discussed that I was an operator from the M-Line in Dallas and was there to help celebrate the opening of the El Paso streetcar.

Here is the cover of the program for the ceremony:

Here is the route map:

Here is 1 of the 3 historic cars which has been completely rebuilt by Brookville Equipment (same company made the Oak Cliff Streetcars):

The cars have state of the art controls and propulsion, wheelchair lifts, bike racks, wifi, HVAC, GPS and all kinds of bells and whistles.

El Paso has been doing a lot of work in downtown to modernize and improve their city and I am very impressed with much that I have seen. Now under construction downtown is their first new skyscaper since 1980, which doesn't seem like much at 17 stories. They have a minor league baseball team and new ballpark downtown. They have a 60 mile bike trail plan that is being implemented in sections. They have some great old buildings and great areas with potential for redevelopment in the downtown core (including the massing southern pacific railroad yards). There is a lot of opporunity in El Paso right now and I think the El Pasoans are going to realize what an asset their new transit system is as they bring their downtown into the 21st century.

The streetcar has returned to El Paso for the first time since 1974. City Council set a route in 2012 and was able to put together $97 million including $90m from TxDOT to build a 4.8 mile loop from downtown to UTEP. The system uses historic El Paso PCC streetcars that have been updated by Brookville equipment and include bike racks, wi-fi, air conditioning, gps tracking, closed circuit security and traffic cameras, and electronic switching and signaling.

I got kicked off the first car, because it was for the Mayor, City Council and VIPs, but I was able to catch the second. I'll post some pictures when I get back to town.

Thank you. I'm a surveyor. It's part of what I do. But don't tell my boss. It took me 30 minutes going through deed indexes to find it. 

Sam and Edna Gladney owned 3124 and 3128 Westcliff Road West until January of 1938. As the street name implies, the terrain on those lots is consistent with the drawings. That is the Bellaire Addition.

Here's the link from Nextdoor: https://www.facebook...IhG-BLo&fref=nf

It appears that the Riverside Baptist Church complex (3113 Race Street at Six Points in Fort Worth) is under contract to a developer, and will be demolished to make way for a 4-story, 154-unit apartment complex, with an additional 3-story, 42-unit complex at the rear of the property. There are many unknowns at this point (such as who the developer is), but following are a few of the facts:

• Riverside Baptist Church deeded their property to Travis Academy of Fine Arts several years ago, with the proviso that the Riverside Baptist congregation could continue to meet there
• Travis Academy of Fine Arts no longer wishes to utilize the property and has sold it to an apartment developer
• The property is zoned MU-1 (mixed residential and commercial use) by the City of Fort Worth
• Under the City’s MU-1 zoning category, a project doesn’t have to contain retail or commercial uses if there are sufficient retail or commercial uses within a certain perimeter of the project
• With this loophole in the zoning category, a project that is solely residential (an apartment complex) can be built in the MU-1 zoning category
• There is an additional City of Fort Worth designation on the property which is “Demolition Delay”, whereby the designated structure cannot be demolished sooner than 180 days from the date the City issues a demolition permit
• If a property owner wishes to demolish the structure sooner than 180 days they must apply to the City for a waiver and state their case at a public hearing