Why Rail Is Right For Dallas: Twelve Reasons Why Area Leaders Support The June 25 Rail Bond Referendum

On April 22, a gathering of top Dallas business and civic leaders appeared before the Dallas City Council to endorse the June 25 DART rail bond referendum. The following are excerpts of the remarks of these and several other local leaders who support the rail system.



1. Rail is our best route to reduce traffic.”The rail system will improve mobility,reduce air pollution, create thousands of newjobs, and keep Dallas competitive among thenation’s great cities. A balanced transportation system that includes rail is the only wayto solve our area’s serious traffic problems. “

-Annette Strauss, mayor of Dallas



2. Rail is good business for the Dallas area. “Virtually every major business organization in Dallas has endorsed the June 25 rail bond referendum. Why? Because rail makes great business sense for our area. Construction of the rail system will be an enormous shot in the arm for our local economy at a time when we need it most. Rail is a vital key to our city’s success in the Nineties and beyond. “

-Jack Evans, former mayor of Dallas



3. The rail system is the D/FW Airport of the Eighties. “When first conceived, D/FW Airport seemed an overwhelming, even impossible task. Critics claimed no one would ever use all that capacity. Yet today, D/FW is this area’s number one economic attraction. The citizens of the Dallas area must exercise that same kind of vision to commence construction of the rail system with a yes vote on June 25. Someday, area residents will compliment the farsighted voters of the Eighties who decided to build an efficient, cost-effective transportation system to drive Dallas into the 21st century. “

-Starke Taylor, former mayor of Dallas



4. Rail is the key to solving the Central Expressway nightmare. “After thirty-two years of controversy, we are finally ready to expand Central’s capacity with a mix of more highway lanes and a rail line running above ground from LBJ to Mockingbird and below for the short distance from there to downtown. It is by far the most cost-effective and speedy solution. Tunneling will keep rail construction from delaying highway expansion. Rail’s critics want to reopen the doubledecking debate, inviting more years of disastrous delay. A yes vote on June 25 is a vote for action now on Central. “

-Walt Humann, chairman,North Central Task Force

5. Rail will create 240, 000 new jobs. “Ac cording to Science magazine, dollars spent on rail construction generate more jobs than dollars spent on highway construction. This rail system will generate 240, 000 direct and indirect jobs, many of them for minority citizens who need those jobs most. Rail will generate $9 billion in new economic bene fits. Rail will enable area residents to get to where the jobs exist. Rail also represents a sweeping, historic opportunity for real economic growth in the southern sector. The rail system is uniquely important to the black community. We all have much at stake on June 25. “

-Pam Eudaric,

Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce



6. The rail system is based on a sound, businesslike, conservative financial plan. “Despite all the nitpicking from rail’s critics, our task force found DART’s rail plan to be fundamentally sound and extremely conser vative in its ridership projections and cost estimates. Rail makes excellent economic sense. According to the Institute of Urban and Regional Research, it costs eighty-eight cents per person per mile to build the average suburban highway, and only twenty cents per person per mile to build a rail system. Rail is a solid, cost-effective part of the overall solution for traffic-plagued North Dallas and the sixteen-city service area. “

-Sam Coats, chairman,North Dallas Chamber of Commerce



7. Rail is the best way to link the suburbs to Dallas. “As the rail system comes on line in Irving, Garland, Piano, Richardson, Farmers Branch, Carrollton, and other cities, suburban communities will experience the tremendous day-to-day benefits of rail: speed, comfort, safety, and leisure. Rail is the key to linking our regional economy together as we move into a brighter future. “

-Robert Power, former Irving mayor

and DART board member



8. Rail means a cleaner city with less air pollution. “A rail car with an average rush- hour load is eighteen times as fuel-efficient as an automobile. In fact, one study showed that a rail car gets the equivalent of 640 miles to the gallon! Construction of the ninety- three-mile rail system means a cleaner, less polluted city for ourselves, our senior citizens, our children. “

-Julie Lowenberg, president,Dallas League of Women Voters



9. Rail will require no tax increase. Period. “The wording of the June 25 bond issue is explicit: the costs of financing rail construction are limited to 40 percent of the current one-cent DART sales tax. Unlike most bond elections, this rail bond issue will not increase taxes: the one-cent sales tax cannot be raised as a result of this referen dum. The June 25 rail bond referendum allows us to build the system now, using a maximum of 40 percent of that one-cent sales tax revenue to repay the bonds. Regardless of what some critics may imply, passage of the June 25 rail bond issue will not and cannot ever raise taxes in any way. With these built-in safeguards to protect the taxpayer, even a die-hard fiscal conservative like me can feel comfortable supporting the rail bond issue. “

-Dean Vanderbilt, Dallas city councilman



10. Rail has a proven track record of success in other cities like Dallas. “Fast- growing Sunbelt cities from San Diego to Atlanta are ahead of Dallas in building their rail systems-and they work extremely well. Atlanta, with a very low population density of only 1, 500 people per square mile, is dramatically more spread out than the Dallas area, at 2, 500 people per square mile. Yet even in a low-density environment like Atlanta, rail is highly successful, with ex cellent ridership and a hugely beneficial impact on the economy. Cities like Atlanta, San Diego, and Houston are our competi tion: to succeed, we need to begin construc tion of a rail system immediately, without further delay. Dallas didn’t get this far by go ing along with the naysayers. “

-Roger Staubach, Dallas businessman

and former Cowboys quarterback



11. Rail will protect our neighborhoods. “Building this rail system is the best possi ble way to protect the unique character and quality of life found in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. Defeat of rail would mean more road widenings, more traffic on side streets and thoroughfares, and eventually, doubledeck freeways where Northwest Highway, Mockingbird, Preston, and other arteries are today. Passage of the June 25 referendum will allow us to build a sleek, modern rail system with the flexibility to utilize new technology instead of paving our neighborhoods with expensive, unsightly, L. A. -style freeways. “

-Craig Holcomb, Dallas city councilman



12. Rail is vital to our children’s future. “The leaders of our past planned well for us. Now we have to start planning for the future. Today, we enjoy the economic and social benefits of water reservoirs, libraries, airports, schools, and tollways left us by our predecessors. The Greater Dallas Mobility Plan called for $12 billion in transportation improvements by the year 2000, including this rail plan, 100 miles of new freeways, 45 miles of new tollways, the DART bus system, and 184 miles of added capacity on existing freeways. We must complete all of these improvements, so we can leave a complete transportation system with a modern rail network as our legacy to the Dallas-area leaders of tomorrow: our children. “

-René Castilla,

DISD school board member

Passage of the DART referendum will be a quantum leap in solving our mobility problems. Just as D/FW was a quantum leap from Love Field and freeways a quantum leap from highways, so too is rail transit a major advancement. A single rail car has the capacity to remove 122 autos from our freeways during the peak hour. The fifteen-year debate on North Central has shown us that freeways are not readily expandable but rail transit can add cars and increase their frequency as demand dictates.

Our vision of Dallas in 2010 includes a reshaping of the city with higher densities near transit stations to accommodate growth while protecting our neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods and the quality of life they embody are among the strongest attributes in attracting businesses and residents to Dallas. Rail transit will allow us to protect that attribute while building a great city for people.

E. Larry Fonts

President, Central Dallas Association



It is too easy to be a naysayer, but you foiled to point out any alternatives; am I to presume you are content with transportation in the Dallas environ as it exists, including the highway gridlock and the world’s longest parking lot (Central)? You did point out problems, but you offered no alternatives. You opted for easy journal ism, instead of a difficult intellectual debate. In your defense, you merely did what every “knowledgeable expert” has done in the last twenty years. But is there no one who can come forth with viable alternatives to this morass?

Mark N. Prather

Dallas



I am convinced that if the “Nos” win on June 25 it will destroy any hopes for an effective regional transportation system and severely impair prospects for an economic recovery in this area.

There are those who oppose any long-term funding by DART. But there is no other way to build the service plan approved by the voters in 1983 in a reasonable time frame. DART has no large cash reserve, but it does have an income flow from the sales tax. Most people who want to build or buy a house have little cash but a regular income. So they obtain a mortgage for twenty-five or thirty years. That’s what DART proposes to do: to sell a limited amount of bonds that can be retired over a twenty-five- to thirty-year period. That, I suggest, is a sensible, fiscally responsible plan.

David J. Kerr

Dallas



I am not certain that “foreboding” is all Ms. Fitzgibbons is full of. The circumspect that Fitzgibbons feigns would be amusing were it not so irresponsible. [She] fails to mention an alternative, as do the other opponents of the DART rail plan. Southern California is a good example of never facing the tough issues of funding mass transit.

Dee Claybrook

Dallas



The proposed DART transportation plan will provide the greater Dallas community with an integrated transit system that includes bus, rail, High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, and rideshare alternatives. Local transportation studies clearly reveal the need to utilize all forms of mass transportation to ensure acceptable levels of mobility for the future. The existing infrastructure of toll roads and highways is inadequate. On June 25, we should embrace this challenge to provide better transportation alternatives for the next century.

John F. Crawford Jr.

Dallas



When DART was created, the idea was to move the greatest number of people for the least amount of money. At the time, rail seemed like a likely component of the overall plan. Today, however, the facts simply don’t support that assumption any longer. It will cost too much, it will carry far too few people, and it will have virtually no impact on our traffic and air quality problems. Worst of all, after we pour all of our money into a rail plan we know won’t work, there won’t be any resources left with which to provide meaningful, if less glamorous, solutions to our transit problems.

Those of us opposing the June 25 DART bond referendum have endured a great deal of criticism for our perceived lack of civic patriotism. That criticism, however, is 180 degrees out of phase with reality. We believe in Dallas and its promise; many of us have worked for decades to make that promise a reality. It is precisely because we care so much that we cannot stand by while DART leads us down a disastrous path.

David G. Fox

Dallas



It was most refreshing to see your magazine take the time to investigate the real facts surrounding the upcoming DART Bond Election, instead of simply falling into line behind well-intentioned but ill-informed individuals and groups who are ready to vote us and future generations into debt.

It is absolutely incredible that many of these folks continue to ignore the advice of responsible critics from the academic world and others who point out the folly of investing billions of taxpayer dollars in a system using 19th-century technology, designed for an area with maximum density.

Bill Ceverha

President

Sensible Metro Area Rapid Transit