Seamless Transit in North Texas?
A working group of local leaders are crafting a plan for seamless public transit in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
EDITORIAL
United, We Achieve: North Texans band together for transit
Dallas Morning News, Wednesday, May 5, 2004
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ring trilogy, men ally with elves, dwarves and hobbits to save Middle Earth. They do so from a feeling of mutual dependence. Apart, they are bound to fall. Together, they might prevail.
A similar challenge confronts North Texans. No, the Dark Lord’s barbarous minions aren’t at the gate. Nonetheless, the situation is dire. The region’s population is expected to nearly double by 2040, making the highways more congested and the air more polluted.
That’s why it was heartening to see a representative portion of the region’s political and transportation leaders brainstorming last week about a seamless public transit system. There were no warriors of Gondor at the Arlington headquarters of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, no halflings, no ax-bearing dwarves or bow-wielding elves, just people united for the common good – city councilmen, transportation officials and urban planners from Dallas, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Johnson and Tarrant counties, visionaries who could discern the trouble beyond the horizon and the predictably uncomfortable consequences of inaction.
No one knows what a new seamless public transit system’s dimensions would be, but 10 committees are closing on a consensus. The system would provide rail only, or rail with a limited bus option. The three existing transit agencies – Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the Fort Worth “T” and the Denton County Transportation Authority – would remain. The system would be financed by a combination of fares, federal grants and new taxes. The most likely levies would be a nominal half-percent sales tax outside DART’s service area and an equally nominal gasoline tax, perhaps 2 percent per gallon, which would keep the fuel cheaper than Coca-Cola or orange juice. (The 13 DART cities already collect a 1 percent sales tax.)
Public transit isn’t the stuff of epic novels and films. A new rail line won’t save the world. But unless the region acts, it faces the grim prospect of a diminished quality of life and an unsustainable economy. North Texans from Anna to Wylie should applaud the fellowship of Dallas councilwoman Sandy Greyson, Fort Worth councilwoman Wendy Davis and other public-spirited committee members. In very large measure, the region’s fate rests with them.