Urban Commuter / Light Rail / Modern Streetcar News!
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DALLAS, TX - Progressive Railroading (PR) reported in early April that the Dallas City Council Wednesday approved a proposal to continue with the building of a second light-rail alignment going through downtown Dallas, also known as D2. The council also said it would support Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) in obtaining a Federal Transit Administration grant to help fund the project. The cost estimate for the subway and light rail is $1.7 billion, with up to 50% potentially funded with a federal grant, according to an article on the WFAA website. D2 has been in the works since 2007.  Originally scheduled for completion in 2024, the project is now on track to be built sometime after 2022 and fully operational in 2028, pending Dallas City Council and DART board approvals, the article stated.

D2 is a proposed 2.4 mi (3.9 km) extension of the DART Light Rail system extending from the existing Victory station, tunneling underground through the central business district of downtown Dallas, and re-emerging at-grade to the Green Line along Good-Latimer Expressway in the Deep Ellum neighborhood.

LOS ANGELES, CA - It was also reported by PR that in late March the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (LA Metro) board has approved contracts with two private sector teams for pre-development work on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project. The corridor will connect the San Fernando Valley with the Westside and eventually with LAX via a high-speed, high-capacity transit line. Bechtel was awarded a $69.9 million contract to further develop its proposed heavy-rail transit solution concept. More than 60% of the partner team’s proposed heavy-rail concept would travel underground, with the remainder of the line traveling primarily in an aerial section. LA SkyRail Express was awarded a $63.6 million contract to further develop its proposed monorail concept that would be an aerial alignment primarily within the Interstate 405 right-of-way between the Valley and Westside. With contracts approved, LA Metro plans to begin the environmental review process this fall, when concept designs for these and other alternatives will be advanced and/or refined through ongoing public feedback and technical investigation and analysis.

Stephanie Wiggins, currently chief executive officer of Metrolink, has been named the next CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (L.A. Metro), L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced yesterday. Wiggins will be the first woman, and first Black woman, to serve in the position. She will succeed Phil Washington, who earlier this year announced that he will retire as CEO in May. "Stephanie's career makes her ideally suited to lead this agency at this moment. She's experienced, determined, committed to equity, and steeped in L.A.'s transportation history," Garcetti said in a statement posted on the transit agency's blog. "She is the perfect candidate to carry Metro into its next chapter." As L.A. Metro's CEO, Wiggins will manage a budget of nearly $7 billion, oversee up to $20 billion in capital construction, and oversee an agency with 11,000 employees that typically logs more than a half-million boardings daily on six rail lines and a fleet of 2,200 buses. Wiggins began her tenure as Metrolink CEO in December 2018. Prior to taking that role, she served as L.A. Metro's deputy CEO. She said she's honored to return to L.A. Metro as its leader. "L.A. County has great mobility needs that we must develop with goals of achieving better health, opportunity and equity for all of the region's residents, and I look forward to bringing transformative leadership and collaboration with the region's transportation authorities to make this vision a reality," Wiggins said. Over the years, she has received a wide range of awards, including the League of Railway Women's Woman of the Year Award in 2020.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - As reported in a previous issue, F-line service will resume on Saturday, May 15. It was told to the Market Street Railway (MSRy) folks hat at 11:30 a.m. the day before, Friday, May 14, there'll be a celebration of the F-line restart at Embarcadero Plaza, next to our San Francisco Railway Museum. Rumors are flying that a boat tram and the mayor could be involved! If so, it would be a reprise of the happy ride Mayor London Breed, dressed in red, took on the boat, shown below, just before the pandemic hit last year, celebrating the banning of private automobiles on Market.

It's too soon to welcome crowds to events, so attendance at the actual ceremony will be limited to a small number of invited guests. However, shutterbugs may want to socially distance along the route to Fisherman's Wharf and grab shots. If you send your best one to MSRy at rick@streetcar.org, right away, it's got a great chance of making the next issue of our member magazine, Inside Track, and on streetcar.org.  

The full F-line, Wharf loop to Castro, will run seven days a week, eight hours a day (first car expected to leave Castro at 11 a.m.; first car to leave the Wharf at 12 Noon) with 12 cars on the line, fitted with protective plexiglass barriers for operators (work now underway). Already, though, there's advocacy brewing for longer service hours.  More to come.

Jeremy Whiteman caught PCC 1057 (ex PTC 2138) passing LRV 2034 during an operator recertification run preparing for the May 15 reopening.

As for the cable cars, MSRy was told that Supervisor Aaron Peskin is doing what he can to get some service back sooner than the late summer restart for the Powell-Hyde line (only) currently being planned. 

The free San Francisco Railway Museum will also reopen on May 15, when the F-line starts taking passengers again. They will start slowly, limiting capacity to 12 people at a time in accordance with current guidelines, and requiring masks until the city and state mask mandates are lifted. Initially, they expect to be open five hours a day, from 12 Noon - 5 p.m., three days a week.  Fridays and Saturdays will definitely be two of those days. The third could be either Tuesday or Thursday.