Texas Transit Association

Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s departing board members give their opinion on DART and area transportation.

Exiting officials say DART is going places
By TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News October 25, 2003

Longtime DART board member Jesse Oliver’s curiosity about mass transit started decades ago, when he read about the dismantling of Dallas’ streetcar system and rode an un-air-conditioned bus to work downtown.

“The interest was always there,” said Mr. Oliver, whose passion later led him to help define North Texas bus service and help bring back rail service in the last decade.

His board colleague, Dick Watkins, was active with rail and transit efforts before his interest led him to join the DART board eight years ago. As one of 15 policymakers, he has helped oversee expansion of Dallas Area Rapid Transit from a fledgling system to a 44-mile rail network today.

The two men are stepping down from the DART board of directors after a combined 18 years. They agree that the region is headed toward a more unified transit network that eventually will reach outlying areas. They also agree that DART’s future appears strong, even after several recent years of budget battles and rail schedule delays.

Mr. Oliver, 58, led the DART board during some of its highest points: DART’s first successful bond election in 2000 and the opening of the first stations in the latest light-rail expansion to Garland, Richardson and Plano.

“Opening light rail was held out as something that would never work, be over budget and that no one would ever ride,” said Mr. Oliver, who was named the American Public Transportation Association’s Outstanding Board Member in 2001.

Because of its experience in starting from scratch, DART has the potential to lead North Texas as the area considers expanding its rail network. Transit plays an important role, Mr. Oliver said, in ensuring that people who may not be able to afford cars can ride buses or trains to get to jobs like he did years ago.

He added that new jobs increasingly are found in suburban employment centers that need transit connections.

“We need a regional, interconnecting system,” said Mr. Oliver, who served as board chairman from 1999 to 2001. He added that DART’s greatest accomplishment in the last 10 years was the merging of city and suburban interests into a unified goal.

“During the worst periods, we came to work together and trusted each other,” he said.

The board members faced many challenges, including two- to three-year light-rail construction delays prompted by sales tax revenue shortfalls. Other battles included the purchase and later abandonment of DART’s liquefied natural gas program for new buses and the debate with the city of Dallas over how to run light rail by the American Airlines Center.

DART ultimately lost the arena fight to place a rail line closer to potential development sites. But the transit agency has made the best of the situation by creating a joint light-rail and commuter rail station west of the arena, Mr. Watkins said.

The transit agency already has taken a step toward expanding transit to new areas, Mr. Watkins said. It bought dozens of miles of unused rail lines stretching to places like Denton and Sherman that could one day feature commuter service.

“One big agency will come eventually, but it has to be done with kid gloves,” said Mr. Watkins, who served on a DART committee that recommended the transit agency buy the unused rail lines. “If we don’t do it, someone in Washington or Austin is going to look at our congestion and start drawing rectangles on the map and telling cities ‘You are in a transit agency.’ ”

Mr. Watkins, 63, joined the DART board just after the first rail line opened in downtown Dallas. Rail has been one of his big interests, and he said he would like to continue working on rail planning, possibly as a board member with Amtrak, the national intercity rail service.

“DART has had plenty of successes,” he said. “People are slowly realizing that DART does work.”