Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 4/5/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Vincent Wagliardo Dallas Area Rapid Transit routes are changing due to the addition of the Green Line.

North Dallas is gaining a new Dallas Area Rapid Transit train which will change local DART bus routes. The Green Line will begin operation in December.

According to the DART Web site, the Green Line is a 28- mile, $1.8 million line servicing the North Dallas area, and will reduce more than 320 tons of pollutant emissions per year. The DART rail system will grow from 48 miles to 90 miles and from 39 stations to 63 stations by 2013.

Rob Smith, DART assistant vice president of service planning and scheduling, said, "Because of how big the Green Line is, we have an unusually large number of bus route and schedule changes that will happen at the same time."

Of the 130 bus routes, most will be affected by the changes, he said.

In a public meeting, Lanisha Hunter, DART service planner, said there will be 19 new routes added, three buses renumbered, 39 routes modified, nine discontinued and 35 routes for which frequency of service will be changed.

The new Green Line will run parallel to Interstate 35 and the bus routes will change to connect to the train stations.

Routes 486 and 488 travel directly to Brookhaven College. Route 486 will be modified to go down Dennis Road to the Royal Lane Station instead of going to the Farmers Branch Station. Routes 532 and 544 serve as replacements for Route 486's changes. Route 488 will extend down Valley View Lane from Brookhaven to the Farmers Branch Station to meet the Green Line train.

The route will no longer go down Inwood Road because of low ridership and will instead go down Midway Road, Hunter said. This route will also replace portions of Route 31.

Service on Route 488 will also change frequency from every 45 minutes to 60 minutes.

Jamila Taylor, culinary arts senior, said, "I usually get off at Midway, so it will help me a lot instead of getting on like five different buses just to get to one street."

Jamie Lacy, liberal arts sophomore, said: "As far as I know, they're doing away with the 519. I don't know what they're replacing that with so that's going to affect me. I take that to work and to school."

Lacy uses Route 519 to connect to routes 488 and 486. Referring to the service frequency changes from 45 minutes to 60 minutes on Route 488, Lacy said, "It's going to make the trip longer. It's just going to mess up my whole schedule."

Continued...

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