MAKING TRACKS IN DALLAS

While members of the Dal-las Area Rapid Transit (DART) board rack their brains in an effort to save Dallas from a fast-approaching transportation nightmare, two other area groups are quietly working on transportation plans of their own.

The first plan is the brain-child of Dallasite Phil Cobb, executive vice president of Prufrock Inc. Cobb’s idea is to run a trolley on McKinney Avenue from Clyde Street (by La Tour condominiums) to St. Paul, where it would cross Woodall Rodgers and enter the Central Business District. The plan isn’t new, but it’s just now becoming tangible. Cobb has located two vintage trolleys that were used in New Orleans during the early Twenties. One is situated at the Age of Steam Museum at Fair Park (museum board members have voted to lease the car for use on McKinney for $100 per month). The other car is in Fort Worth; its price hasn’t been set yet.

After studying the trolley systems in five states, completing a cost-feasibility study and locating the cars, Cobb says it’s time for him to back out of the project. He says the plans need to go to Dallas’ planning department and to the DART board. “Some people might be suspect of my motivation,” he says (he owns two restaurants on McKin-ney). “The plan needs to move on to someone else now to get to fruition.”

He estimates that the Mc-Kinney trolley plan will cost about $920,000.

Several other Dallasites have been involved in another plan to bring to Dallas a Texas rendition of the Bicentennial’s Freedom Train, which traveled across the country in 1976. The train, which was sold to the Canadian government, would be sent back to the States and renamed the Texas Express. It would then travel across Texas for the upcoming ses-quicentennial celebration. Dallas train buff Ed Mc-Laughlin recently went to Canada to check out the Freedom Train; he says it’s feasible to move the train to Texas.

The project, which has been endorsed by the Texas 1986 Sesquicentennial Commission, now needs support from the private sector. According to Randy M. Lee, executive director of the Sesqui-centennial Commission, an estimated $5 million net investment will be required to get the train rolling.