The Green Line Opens

If you are from the Dallas area, then you could hardly help hearing about the opening of the first segment of Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s new Green Line. The Green Line will eventually run from Dallas’s northwest suburbs (where it will connect with the A-Train that continues on to Denton, Texas) to far southeast Dallas in Pleasant Grove.

The segment that opened Saturday only runs from the Victory development just north of Downtown Dallas to the Martin Luther King station at Fair Park—it was put in place early so that people can take the train to this year’s State Fair. But one place you can go pretty easily is from our office in Deep Ellum to our CityWalk project, so Saturday I couldn’t resist using the train to get from our office where I was working to CityWalk. I also couldn’t resist taking some pictures, both of and on the train.

I have to admit that I rode the train mostly because it was its first day, but it worked out pretty well. Even though I just missed the first train that came by, another came pretty soon and I made the trip in about the same amount of time that it would take me to walk to my car and then drive.

Each new rail line makes Dallas a little more walkable, a little more sustainable and not only increases economic development but reduces air pollution as well.

Besides I like trains.

Down at CityWalk, work was in progress, even on Saturday as the first delivery of cabinets (for the fourth and fifth floors) was coming in. I even had a real reason to ride the train to CityWalk. My wife’s sister and her husband were in town and wanted to see the project I’ve been talking about for almost five years now!