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Region's leaders OK transit plan
Bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to Dallas/Fort Worth is nothing but a pipe dream without one truly Olympic task: bringing together the entire North Texas community to work towards a common goal. If there is any single indicator of how difficult this can be, it is the lack of a coordinated regional transportation system.But who would have thought just five years ago that Dallas' DART and Fort Worth's The T would even be talking -- much less jointly operating the successful Trinity Railway Express?
If there's any hope for the regional cooperation required to bring the Olympics to North Texas, it's got to start with a regional transportation plan. And the first step has been taken...
Note that this article is Copyright 2000, The Dallas Morning News.
Region's leaders OK transit plan
http://www.arlington.com/metro/arlington_news/190505_AMNCOG13.htmlRegion's leaders OK transit plan
Project part of 2012 Olympic bid
10/13/2000
By Jenni Smith / Arlington Morning News
In a rare moment of regional cooperation Thursday, leaders from 16 North Texas counties put aside their historic differences and approved a transit plan to host the Olympic Games.
The comprehensive $1.5 billion plan would dramatically transform transit in the region by connecting it through rail projects and massive highway improvements.
"It is probably the most important support for the plan that we are putting forward to the U.S. Olympic Committee," said Richard Greene, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas 2012 Committee.
"The transportation element of this plan is just such a home run that it's reason enough for North Texans to support our mission, even if you don't like the idea of hosting Olympics."
The Regional Transportation Council, which includes 37 leaders from 16 North Texas counties, unanimously embraced the plan.
Members stressed that all the transit projects in the proposal were already planned for the region by 2025.
"This is not the case of adding projects just to have the Olympics," said Dallas County Judge Lee Jackson, who presented the plan to his colleagues on the transit council. "It just ensures they would be done by 2012."
The vote of support marks a milestone in the history of a region where cities have clashed on issues from water supply sources to what to name the airport to transportation.
Mr. Greene said he's elated the council signed off on the transit plan because site selection relies heavily on regional cooperation.
"It's hard for me to imagine that any of the other cities are going to be able to top the enthusiasm that we've got here," he said. "The Olympic Games want to go to a place where they are supported."
The Dallas 2012 group must submit its bid proposal by Dec. 15 to the United States Olympic Committee, which will select a city by 2002.
Other cities vying for the U.S. nomination are Houston; Baltimore/Washington, D.C.; Cincinnati; New York; Los Angeles; Seattle; San Francisco; and Tampa, Fla.
The International Olympic Committee will choose the site of the 2012 Games by 2005.
Of the $1.5 billion in transit projects on the plan, area taxpayers and private businesses would be asked to pay about 20 percent of the cost. The plan relies on federal and state funding for the remaining costs.
Dallas City Council member Sandy Greyson asked whether the transit council's approval bound the region to the projects by 2012 even if it loses the bid for the Games.
Mr. Jackson said it would not.
Transit plans for the Olympics includes $350 million for rail projects, $275 million for freeway expansions, $150 million for high occupancy vehicle lanes, $100 million for park-and-ride lots and $100 million for thoroughfare improvements.
Commuter rail projects call for building a line along the Union Pacific corridor that would run from Fort Worth through both downtown Arlington and Grand Prairie to Dallas.
Another commuter rail would be built in what's called the Cottonbelt corridor, which runs from downtown Fort Worth to Addison through Northeast Tarrant County.
In addition, the proposal includes $4 million to add air conditioners on every school bus in the region that would be used to transport Olympic athletes and $20 million for bicycle and pedestrian facilities around athletic venues.
Unlike some other cities competing for the U.S. bid, this area has plenty of existing sporting venues, such as The Ballpark in Arlington, Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, Reunion Arena and Texas Stadium.
But some bid cities have more sophisticated transit systems than the Arlington-D/FW area.
Linda Harper-Brown, Irving's mayor pro tem and transit council member, said the public will be more inclined to pay for a transit system than sports facilities.
"Transit is going to be easier to 'sell' to the public," she said. "I think the general public realizes the need for mobility.
"A transportation system would benefit them whereas a sports facility would benefit team owners."
Mr. Greene, who was mayor of Arlington during the campaign to build The Ballpark, agreed that demonstrating the benefits of a transit system will be easier than building sports venues.
"I think there's always going to be reservations and controversy over building sporting facilities. I'm an expert on that," he said. "That's the reason we're not proposing public funding for any of our venues and facilities."
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