Push rail transit now
May 26, 2008
With palpable pain at the gas pump, many North Texans can thank their good fortune that they have the option to commute by rail. They can board a DART train along 45 miles of the Red Line or Blue Line and give no thought to the price of gas.
Written by Editorial, The Dallas Morning News
With palpable pain at the gas pump, many North Texans can thank their good fortune that they have the option to commute by rail. They can board a DART train along 45 miles of the Red Line or Blue Line and give no thought to the price of gas.
In 2010, the 28-mile Green Line will open and extend the rail option to riders from Carrollton to Fair Park and Pleasant Grove. Denton County's transit agency will hook into the network the same year. DART's Orange Line will start service to Irving in 2011.
The commuting picture is far different for hundreds of thousands of others. For them, the future cost of car travel could be financially ruinous, but transit agencies lack the money to build rail service to them.
The region must work with urgency to change that picture. Public officials, especially state lawmakers, should get wise to the implications of the spiking cost of gasoline. It will be a matter of economic survival for many families.
North Texas' Regional Transportation Council has been working to update a financial plan to build more rail – nearly 250 miles – to a ring of cities including Frisco, McKinney, Mesquite and Dallas' southern suburbs.
That plan has been inching along this spring but needs a strong push now. An RTC committee blessed a set of possible revenue options last week, including higher vehicle registration fees, a sales tax on fuel and a boost in property or sales taxes.
The next steps are approval by the full RTC and hard discussions with state lawmakers over which revenue sources they will champion next year in Austin. Two sessions in a row, legislators scotched revenue plans for transit. Last year, it was a carefully crafted plan for local-option elections so non-DART cities could levy a new sales tax for rail construction. Lawmakers wanted alternative ideas; they will soon have them.
Most leaders have stipulated a list of transit's benefits, such as unsnarled traffic and cleaner air.
Another benefit now takes front and center.
When legislators blocked North Texas' rail plan in 2005, the price of gas had just broken $2 a gallon. It's now approaching twice that in many places. We hope that will sober lawmakers to the shortsightedness of kicking this issue down the road.
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