Showing posts with label Dart Rail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dart Rail. Show all posts

Monday, September 1, 2014

DART Does It Again -- 4 Months Ahead of Schedule.

Texans should be proud of their state government projects. Especially, the transportation sectors. The Dallas High 5 Project was about a 7-year project and finished a year early. The LBJ-I35 remake was another multi-year project and it is nearly finished and still running ahead of schedule. But, the still amazing project of connecting DFW International Airport to the DART Rail System, already the largest light rail system in the country, finished 4-months early with Inaugural Service direct to Terminal A at DFW International that began on August 18th, just two weeks ago today.

I rode the Blue line from LBJ-Central on TI Boulevard to the west end station in downtown Dallas where I got off to catch the Orange Line to DFW. I could have ridden the Orange line from LBJ-Central and not had to change trains, but I am a people watcher and I like the hustle-bustle of downtown, the sounds, the smells, the muted train whistle. Generally, a crowd of people like to talk, but the train stations are different. People are in their own little worlds with their ear buds in their ears.  It seems every one has them. Except me. I use a pair at home when the cat sleeps and I want to listen to a pod cast or catch an episode of Comedy Central. But when I am out shooting, the last thing I want is to have wires hanging from my ear canals.Besides, waiting for the train to arrive at LBJ-Central or waiting for the same train downtown for DFW is elementary. In fact, it gives me 10-15 minutes of people watching and breaks up the train ride.

After catching the Orange Line it was just another train ride until after the stop at the Beltline station. I had ridden Orange line that far once before after the Beltline station opened. Although it is located on DFW International Airport property, the connection route on to Terminal A is about a 4-mile run through scrub brush until it comes out at the connector to 114 Carpenter Freeway and Royal Lane briefly before turning south and heading on the east side of the traffic cross-overs  and the bridge taxiway from Terminal A to runways 18L and 18R. Runways 17L,17C and 17R are located east of the Dart tracks. There is also two cross-wind runways; one on the far east and one on the far west edges of the airport.  The connection switch to the future Cotton Belt Line is already in place and ready to go. Let's all hope the money can be found and construction begins earlier than expected finishing earlier than the completion date in the future, once the future construction begins. I ask the question if there was any shuttle service to Founder's Plaza where watching the big heavys come in on 18R is done but there is not one currently. That is the one bad part of service to DFW. Riding the Dart to DFW to watch the planes from Founder's Plaza cannot be done via Dart.

Pulling into the new Terminal A station was exciting. Finally, getting to DFW without the parking and doing it with no-stress travel, it was easy to see why anyone would ever want to drive to DFW again unless you were picking up a rental car, but you can have those delivered to your hotel, so that problem is also eliminated. It just makes sense to ride the DART! It's a no-brainer.

I was talking to a TSA
Walkway from DART train platform to Terminal A-14 entry

Inspector that was on the platform talking with people as he was doing his check-list of how the service was going on Inaugural Day. He stated to  me that inside Terminal A, "you can get a drink and a candy bar at the newsstands, but if you want real food, you must go through security". It makes sense. So those of you that want to ride the DART to DFW just to test it out, it's a fun trip and you can get a candy bar and a cold drink before you catch your ride back to where ever you got on board. The TSA Inspector was nice but still doing his job. 





Terminal A Platform at DFW International Airport.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Lake Highland Center Begins Construction

Gravity Still Wins
with a multi-level parking garage. It's not what everyone thought that they would see. There is a pad with pipes coming out of the cement for plumbing and appears to be condos or apartments . Still, the past two years have been a delight  with no construction. We all knew that eventually that day would come and so it has.
 

New art on display
The balancing act
Video being made for social media
                                                  


During the trip to check out the construction, I discovered two new metal art pieces that have recently been displayed by the Office of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dallas.  Sweet.  It just continues to prove that everything in life is a trade off. You give up something and you get something else in return. The construction of a peaceful block of land was obtained from old apartments. The solitude of water, beauty and wildlife gave way to construction and for that construction sacrifice, the city set two new works of art.

Spring this year will see more construction but 20 feet below on the walks to the the Lake Highland Train Station  along the creek, new beauty will explode and the area will transform and morph into what the developer originally saw in the property.




It All Started in the wee hours of May 28th when 80 MPH winds was tossing everything against the side of my house.

 Those winds were substained for well over 40 minutes. The results were trees everywhere down or large branches broken off. One of my bus ro...