DART News Release
Feb 05, 2009 | General
DART Rail Green Line connecting region to jobs, communities
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Media Relations Contact: February 5, 2009 Delivering local economic stimulus DART Rail Green Line connecting region to jobs, communities
Officials from DART, the City of Dallas and Southwestern Medical District - one of the major destinations on the new line - say this is just the kind of investment the region needs to make to increase jobs, improve mobility and strengthen a struggling economy. "The Green Line, along with the Orange and Blue lines, will pay dividends for years," said Randall Chrisman, Chairman of the DART Board of Directors at a news conference at the future Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station. "We're realizing the immediate impact in good jobs and the salaries that go with them. Locations like this one -- home to 20,000 employees, 4,000 students and the destination for more than 1.5 million patient visits each year - become even more valuable. "Look around our stations and see the capital being invested in new transit-oriented developments that will revitalize neighborhoods, and you begin to understand why it's so important to secure additional federal stimulus funds for transit," he added. The Green Line is on budget and on schedule to open September 14 when the first section connects Pearl Station on the east side of Downtown Dallas to Deep Ellum Station, Baylor University Medical Center Station, Fair Park Station (at the intersection of Parry and Exposition) and the MLK Station, adjacent to the J. B. Jackson, Jr. Transit Center on the east site of Fair Park. Daily service to Victory Station will also begin September 2009. The remaining 25 miles of the Green Line, scheduled to open in December 2010, will extend southeast to Pleasant Grove and northwest to the Dallas Market Center, the Southwestern Medical District, Love Field Airport and downtown Farmers Branch and Carrollton. Green Line construction began in summer 2006 following the award of a $700 million Full Funding Grant Agreement from the Federal Transit Administration. Another jolt of economic energy will be delivered as work begins later this month on the new Orange Line from Northwest Dallas to Irving and DFW Airport and the Blue Line extension from Garland to Rowlett. Those projects, totaling $618 million, are sure to generate even more local employment opportunities before they open between 2011 and 2013. The Orange Line will branch from the Green Line at Bachman Station to serve Irving and Las Colinas in 2011 and DFW International Airport by 2013. In late January the DART Board of Directors awarded a contract for the Blue Line extension from Garland to Rowlett. Construction is scheduled to begin later this month with completion in 2012. DART also is conducting the Downtown Dallas Transit Study, which includes a second rail line through the Dallas Central Business District with revenue service scheduled for 2014. And a Blue Line extension from Ledbetter Station to UNT-Dallas is scheduled to open in 2018. DART's current expansion programs double the DART Rail System to 90 miles by 2013. Altogether, the rail extensions are expected to add 60,000 weekday passenger trips, essentially doubling ridership on the DART Rail System.
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