Downtown Dallas ‘D2′ subway taken off DART’s long-term plans, agency says

DART has removed a proposed underground railroad line through downtown Dallas from its long-term plans, the agency said Tuesday.

DART spokesman Gordon Shattles said the D2 Subway project has been nixed from the 20-year financial plan, freeing up potential funds “to address immediate concerns including our renewed focus on reliability, safety and cleanliness.” The proposed 2.4-mile light rail transit line would start from Victory Station and end at the North Central Expressway Corridor, just north of the Southeast Junction.

The D2 Subway hasn’t been completely shelved, just put on pause; Shattles said the project can be added back into the 20-year plan.

DART’s 20-year plan is a projection of its revenues, operating expenses, capital expenditures and other financial information. An updated plan is approved each year and amended if necessary. Two-thirds of the appointed and qualified members of the agency’s board must vote in favor to approve it.

One of the primary purposes of the subway project was to address the anticipated growth in peak-period demand to and through downtown Dallas, according to Shattles. The project had been in the works for more than a decade.

In 2021, the Dallas City Council voted to continue to move forward with the project. The western half of the alignment was approved at that time, but the council asked the staff to review the route and resolve alignment concerns with businesses, residents and other groups opposed to the east side of the proposed track, which would have emerged in Deep Ellum.

The revised alignment, which changed the route, was approved in 2022. According to a prior 2023 business plan, the agency estimated the budget for the subway at about $2.3 billion, with at least $1.4 billion coming from federal grant funding. DART planned to issue municipal bonds to raise the remaining $900 million.

DART began planning in 2007 for a possible light rail downtown and nine years later the agency approved a financial plan for a subway option after requests from the city and stakeholders to move it underground. The subway route would provide an additional transit route through downtown Dallas as the existing downtown light rail line passes through a transit mall along Bryan Street.

But DART ridership heavily declined during the pandemic, plummeting by almost half and is still 28 million rides below what it was in 2019. In 2013, ridership was about 71.3 million and a decade later it was 41.1 million in 2022.

Shattles said the agency has seen increased monthly ridership post-pandemic but cited “work from home trends, growing regional employment centers outside of Dallas and the changing nature of downtown Dallas into a more mixed-use neighborhood” as reasons for the project’s removal. He said DART will work with Dallas and other service-area cities to identify “less capital-intensive alternatives that achieve similar outcomes.”

According to Shattles, the agency is now able to address continued ridership growth since the pandemic, after the recent completion of the Red and Blue Line platform extension project. The project enabled DART to accommodate longer three-car trains on any rail line, adding capacity for more passengers and less crowding.

“Right now, we are focused on meeting immediate mobility and system needs to benefit the DART system and our riders,” Shattles said in a written statement.

Some of those areas he cited include: bus improvements as well as enhancements to speed and passenger amenities and facilities; modernization efforts to upgrade original rail signal systems, infrastructure and vehicles; and initiatives to address reliability, cleanliness and security.

Safety topped the list of concerns from riders and former riders of DART.