DART Rail Service

Is the City of Allen working on getting DART rail service?

The City of Allen is extremely interested in moving rail transit further north in the US 75 corridor. In 2005 the North Central Council of Governments studied the regional rail issue in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and the northern extension of DART in the US 75 corridor is the one with the largest ridership potential.

At this time we need to resolve three core issues to address the implementation of a regional rail plan for the Cities not within in the DART or Fort Worth T transit service areas. The core issues include:

The first step in resolving these issues is to work through the legislative process to provide for the creation of a regional system and to provide a funding mechanism. For funding, a menu of additional local option taxes are proposed on a County wide basis since many of the non DART cities (Allen included) are unable to allocate additional sales tax to be dedicated to transit.

The past legislative sessions have not provided a funding mechanism or governance mechanism to resolve the regional rail issues. Consequently, there is no short term out look for the light rail system to be extended to Allen.

Please email our Director of Engineering John Baumgartner if you need additional information at or call 214.509.4577.

Click here to visit the North Central Texas Council of Government's website for more information.

Click here to view the Regional Rail Corridor Study through NCTCOG's website.

---

Mayor's Message from August 2008 All Allen

The question of rail service to Allen continues to be addressed by City staff who are working with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) to look at the legislative and funding issues for regional rail in our area.

This includes ways to locally resolve the governance, operation and mode issues. Even before the gas prices began reaching the recent record highs, staff recognized the need to diversify our transportation system to increase options for our citizens. There are several challenges facing us as we work towards a workable, cost-effective solution.

The greatest challenge we face is a funding mechanism to construct and operate the rail system. The most recent figures from DART indicate commuter rail construction is approaching $30 million per mile with light rail costs at $70 million per mile.

Also at issue is generating sufficient revenue to support a rail operation, knowing fare box revenues cover only approximately 20 to 30 percent of the operating costs. The last two Texas Legislative sessions failed to approve a funding plan which would allow cities to hold local elections on whether to raise sales tax rates above the state cap of 8.25% in order to pay for the rail expansions.

In light of the continued opposition to the local one cent sales tax option, our region is proceeding down parallel yet separate paths.

The NCTCOG Regional Transportation Council recently authorized a plan to generate a menu of funding options including a mix of proposed increases in sales tax, sales tax on gasoline, a new resident impact fee per vehicle, a transportation property tax, an increase in vehicle registration fees, and an increase in motor vehicle sales taxes. It will be the RTC’s responsibility to communicate this menu to our local legislative delegation in order to sponsor new legislation for approval at the next session. While a variety of options may prove beneficial for some, there may still be opposition to any increases in taxes or fees.

The other path our region is exploring is any other available option outside of tax or fee increases such as possible innovative public/private partnerships. The potential offered by a public/private venture includes creating a public transit improvement district to recover the cost of the rail system through property taxes and other revenue enhancements such as charges for parking and higher fares while still making the system eligible for federal construction funding.

The system could then contract with DART to operate the rail lines. This idea continues to be studied in depth to determine its viability. NCTCOG has recently funded a study to learn more about such ventures.

There are many dedicated individuals and organizations working together to find a variety of solutions for our region’s transportation issues including the expansion of passenger rail; while managing the impact to our residents and eventual users.