DART Makes Being a Good Fan Difficult
I’ll leave the analyzing of the game to others. However, let’s talk about the Green Line. It didn’t go so well.
We knew it was going to be a long day when we were dropped off at Pearl Station. We saw several very full Green Line trains arrive and open their doors to those waiting on the platform. Two, maybe three people were able to get on. However, the other trains kept appearing and dropping off more and more people. We finally gave up and shared a taxi with some very nice UT fans.
The situation leaving the fair was very much the same. One look at the line waiting on the trains, and we were off on a walk. When we got home two hours later, I saw this article about the problems. I have a problem with this quote:
[Morgan Lyons] said DART officials would review the events of the day, but the system would get better when residents got used to using the rail.
“Customers will learn the tricks of riding,” he said.
I’m pretty sure I know how to use DART. The problem wasn’t the customers.
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You mean to say a governmental entity that has loudly touted its expertise and its new service offering actually is unable to come close to delivering as promised? Even if the service is only as simple as moving people from point A to point B pursuant to a published schedule? I am shocked, simply shocked.
Here are the tricks the wife and I used to avoid getting in that massive line:
1. Take the Green Line southbound to MLK, jump off and be among the first on the northbound train. Laugh at all the suckers waiting at the Fair Park station.
2. Then, to avoid the anticipated cluster at the Pearl Street station, we rode one stop farther to St. Paul, where there was hardly any traffic. And again, we beat the rush to get on the red line.
Yep, I consider Jobu’s adventure a trick to get around the congestion. There’s probably others that figured out ways too. My problem with that statement is that DART thinks after this experience, those folks with bad experiences are going to ride DART again. Sure, they might try it again next year. The “aw sucks” response from DART isn’t going to satisfy anyone. Come on DART articulate a go forward solution….
Dear Lord Baby Jesus, lying there in your little ghost manger, lookin’ at your Baby Einstein developmental videos, learnin’ ’bout shapes and colors, thank you for not giving Dallas a snowball’s chance in hell of winning an Olympic bid! We appreciate ya!
DART will never be able to undo the damage of this day. They really blew it. Blaming the customer first, total rookie move!
The inability to move people in a timely manner will be used as a precedent by other cities to steal events from Dallas. This day will be used in future contract negotiations for TX/Zero U games, concerts, anywhere that rail goes.
I see that the DART spokesperson was blaming the riders for not allowing enough time to arrive at the game. What about the egress from the Fair? 2-3 hours waiting in line just to leave is horrible.
Worst part is they cannot fix it for next year. Complete failure of design. Total waste of money.
More than 96,000 tickets were sold to the Texas-OU game in the Cotton Bowl. Thousands more people went to the Fair today. That is more than 100,000 people go to Fair Park today within a short period of time.
Each expanded DART train car holds 160 people (according to DART). Although I went to UT, I did not major in math. I did not minor in math. I am not very good at math. But even I can do the math on that one. DART can only move a tiny fraction of the folks that want to use it to get to and from the game because (a) it has a limited number of cars, and (b) only two cars can enter the station and load up at any given time.
There is no light rail design that will allow DART to move massive numbers of people in one 10-minute, 20-minute, 30-minute, or other brief time period. This was demonstrated at the Trinity July 4th Festival a few years back, and it was repeated again today. It was foolish of DART to promote the fantasy that it could, in fact, do that.
DART rail is not mass transit – it is light rail. There is a difference! We paid billions of dollars for Tonka Toy trains, and when the time came for a new stadium, a city that had opted out of DART had the sales tax wiggle room to build it.
@Jim
What a novel idea: DART rail is not mass transit. Then what the hell IS mass transit?
Oh, and as for that billion dollar sandbox built with tax dollars for Jerry Jones’s private profit, most of us in Dallas (city and county) do not wish to line that egomaniac’s pockets every time we make a purchase. If you want to support him, that’s your business. Don’t force me to do the same.
DART consistently proves that they are poor planners — they talk a big game and are unprofessional. Another interesting thing to check is whether or not they actually paid in full the contractor that did the construction. I’m betting the answer is no. But they sure advertised their product.
My personal experience was just as bad as the others. I’m not sure what time Jobu did his train hopping, but it was not easy at 9:00 am before the game.
My friend ran the Komen 5k on Saturday AM and we were at the Forrest Lane DART station by 9:25. The first “Fair Park” train that came through was completely packed, so we hoped on the red line train that was the next to the station. We took a completely packed red line train to the west end.
Once at the West End it was pretty easy to tell that there had been several green lines to come through that were full, so we picked a cab to take us to the Victory Station for $5. The train picked ud up about 10:20 from Victory, however we remained stopped at the station for probably 7~8 minutes while the route was cleared ahead, I assume.
Once in downtown we were stopped no less than 5 times in addition to the normal downtown stops. We finally arrived at Fair Park about 11:35, missing the first quarter.
When we finally left the fair about 8:30/9:00 the line was just as long so we opted for a $30 cab back home.
Thankfully I’m not an OU or UT fan, I would likely be much more frustrated with the system than I am.
Gee the DART station is crowded. Go back into the Fair and buy a beer. Enjoy the Deco. Enjoy the people watching. Do you really want to return to your sterile suburban tract house after such a feast for the senses?