$100 million in Federal Financing as well. Yes it has a direct and cross platform connection with Amtrak at Fort Worth ITC station as well as the Fort Worth City Transit system buses there.
So this will be the 3rd new rail transit system in the Dallas - Ft. Worth Area
DART Light Rail.
Denton A-Train…also uses Stadler SPV Railcars.
Trinity Railway Express…Heavy Rail that uses former GO Transit equipment.
Tex Rail…moving towards construction phase.
Cotton Belt Line…attempting to obtain financing, planning underway, land for station sites being purchased (old abandoned rail ROW, largely in place). This will run DFW Airport to Plano and Wylie, TX.
They had to get agreements from UP, Fort Worth and Western as well as getting Amtrak to run on TRE…for which the City of Fort Worth is paying insurance for an assumed Amtrak Liability up to $21 million dollars in case of a derailment or accident on the TRE. That was one of the Amtrak conditions for leaving UP rails in favor of TRE rails. Which I guess since Herzog runs TRE, might have been a good idea.
Yes they will at some point form a regional transportation authority similar to METRA in Chicago and when they do they will have one hell of a repainting task in front of them. Right now we are enjoying the different colorful paint schemes.[:D]
The problem is that the Feds keep spooning them money. Once the flow of funds stops they will be forced into a local funding source.
Looking at the above though…
Trinity Railway Express (run jointly by DART and Fort Worth T)
There is a downside to consolidation – individual constituencies can feel ignored.
I’ve seen this happen with local transit districts. Several small ones consolidate, then stop serving some part of the district, and a new small district is created to serve that area – again.
Judging from some pictores I Saw, and if the new railcars will be d built by Stadker, they’re of the GTW model, but these are of european standards. Were they adapted in some manner to the local saftey standards (‘battleship’ like), or do these units run with some sort of waiver ?
Will the Trinity RDC’s play a role at all? Seems a shame for these completely modernized cars to just sit doing nothing now that locomotive hauled consists are needed on Trinity to meet demand. They’re perfect for a start-up commuter operation.
The RDC’s are used for peak travel times as well as special event trains. They used the RDC’s to start up the Denton A Train service before the Stadler Cars were built, here is a clip of that.
Here is a video of the Denton A Train Stadler Cars, though I do not know the answer to your question. The Denton A train runs on a line that sees some frieght traffic but it is light.
The articles I have read is that they are the first to operate under FRA waiver across a regional transportation system mixed with freight because they have unspecified construction enhancements made to the cars to improve their strength.
Since they were the first to get the FRA waiver and operate under the waiver, probably a good bet they are not the same as NJ Transit (2002). I think for details like that you should probably call Stadler and ask. I have no idea how they compare with Austin but I think the Austin agreement was that freight trains would not operate the same hours as the Stadler cars…not the same as the waiver for the Denton Transit system which I believe allows simultaneous DMU and Freight Train operations.
Simultaneous Freight and DMU operations was not necessarily their goal but it is what they achieved. They sought the FRA waiver because they wanted the operational flexibility to continue to operate the RDC’s and use the RDC’s at the same time as the DMU’s and as well as a backup. Also, they wanted more than a one line waiver so that they could move the DMU’s to other transit lines and operate them there (not sure if everyone is aware but the cars are designed to operate on streetcar and light rail lines as well)…which gives DCA the ability to lease or lend the cars out to other Dallas systems. So the waiver grants operation over multiple lines of the regional transportation system. I think that restriction is to the transit systems of Dallas and Fort Worth I do not think it applies to other cities but I am not sure in that area either.
As I mentioned to Sam1 in a long ago earlier thread. The new Dallas battery powered street car has a direct connection to the DART lines and uses the DART lines to transit to it’s maint
Yep, just as I suspected, those railcars suffered maybe some adaptations in order to be a little more compatible with FRA standards (altough I think that the crashworthiness standards aret still the ones from this side). Here’s a video depicting a sp+anish 0sister’ being unloaded. This unit will be used on a regional line, and for eropean standards it’s considered a light vrailcar
“The waiver request “demonstrates that the enhanced crashworthiness and passenger protection systems inherent to DCTA’s new rail vehicles meet the latest and most stringent safety standards in the U.S”
Hmm, if this is now proven, then it should no longer be considered a waiver for new services, but rather just FRA compliant (IMO, at least).
CMStPnP
Here is a video of the Denton A Train Stadler Cars, though I do not know the answer to your question.
Aren’t these cars the ‘fruit’ of the 2012 FRA waiver?
So there’s a waiver after all [;)]
Yes, but the point is that the ‘new’ Stadler cars are supposed to be ‘fully’ FRA compliant, and not require a new or extended waiver.
My advice is not to mistake claims of press agents for objective fact when assessing whether something is safe or prudent. While I’m open to arguments that modern construction is safer than ‘default’ strength values from the transition era, I have also seen no few European cars opened like sardine cans in accidents where they struck heavy or relatively immovable objects, and I still remember the aftermath of the Highliner accident in the early 1970s where ‘compliance’ turned out not to be enough.
Arguably, cars that meet the FRA buff and draft specs would be more likely to survive an incident with, say, an unexpected rollaway freight car (like the one in Utica)…