u/Fragrant-Mission7388

(This hypothetical presupposes D.A.R.T Getting its legislation passed successfully, resolving issues with the northern suburbs, the LRT fleet getting replaced, four to six additional Stadler trains for Silver Line, and just for grins, McKinney joining D.A.R.T, and Frisco joining DCTA)

When/if rail service is successfully extended to McKinney, which route should it be, Red Line or Silver? I have my preferences, but I want to hear what you guys think.

D.A.R.T recorded its highest ridership ever in 2008, something like 100 MILLION rides. This is before the Orange Line. Before the Green Line. Hell, before the Blue line went to Rowlett. TRE carried effectively 10,000 people a day.

My questions are

What factors made this such a high ridership year?

Why did ridership decline (even before Covid)?

How do we return to and exceed these figures, with so much more coverage than 2008?

Austin has awarded their Light Rail vehicle contract to Stadler. D.A.R.T. badly needs to replace our LRT fleet. So.

Is there any way for D.A.R.T. and Austin Transit to collaborate, set identical parameters and specifications, and order the same model, making replacement orders easier, and giving Stadler an even bigger footprint in Texas?

I know D.A.R.T hasn't picked their company for the replacement....but Stadler seems like a good pick, since they're a hit in DFW with their commuter trains

I rode the A Train to and from Denton and noticed three new phenomena

1. The train ran on the right track whenever there are multiple tracks on the RoW (its usually random)

2. Trains actually passed each other a couple of times instead of waiting to meet each other at certain stations

3. The train generally seemed to be going a bit faster on the entire route, with longer station dwell times.

Is this a sign of operations tightening up and preparation for service improvements?

Other related: does anyone in the know....know if the Old Town Station ToD is moving forward? If a timetable has been published?

Thanks brosifs

Full disclosure: musician, not an engineer. The Silver Line's successful implementation at Kaboom Town has me thinking alot about DFW's four commuter trains. It seems like our ability to increase frequency comes down to:

Speed

Rolling Stock

Track

Fucking money

Four example, Silver Line has objectively the best track age of all the commuter systems, being 98-99% double track, but has only eight vehicles. Denton's A Train and TRE have the largest fleets at 11 each, but very little double track, limiting frequency I think. The more trains run, the faster they have to be it looks like.

So, I have a few questions

1. Could Silver Line, with eight vehicles, actually run 20 minutes at peak and 30 minutes off peak while still leaving one or two vehicles in Reserve?

2. Is present TRE, with present rail, able to operate in that fashion but limited by money?

3. Does Trinity Metro have any plans to move to higher frequency once the four new FLIRTs arrive?

Services like the KC Streetcar have been able to share reports of ridership breaking records for the World Cup. I've seen the photos: I have to assume TRE is pulling impressive numbers, possibly exceeding its 2008 peak of 9,000 riders a day. The organizations HAVE to know these numbers. How can we get them to share it, and get some positive pr for the trains?

TEXRail currently runs 30 minute frequency at the expense of its very early and very late trains (which I miss). I believe the service's ridership was lower than the current Silver Line's when those changes were implemented. How possible in current climate is pushing Silver Line to 30 minute frequency, and given its MUCH better ToD (compared to TEXRail at least), how would that impact ridership?

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Further with a limit of eight vehicles per fleet until 2027, could later or earlier services be returned to benefit airport employees and riders?

It seems like the TRE, paired with those buses (that probably should have been D.A.R.T/metro buses that are actually ada compliant, but anyways) are actually succeeding at getting folks to and from games. Given how good the city of Dallas is at fucking things up, this should be celebrated.

With TRE legit running 30 minute frequency all day on Match Days and the extra late train I've been begging for years for, how much do we expect ridership to go up during the World Cup?

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Will TRE pass 10k riders a day on some weekdays?

While I am annoyed the new Mavericks complex will be far away from its current excellent rail connection, if the Valley View Complex is built, and Route 22's path unaltered, I think it will become the most ridden bus in the entire network.

Very small Silverlining (ha?) But better than nothing