DART Can't Afford Final Segment to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

[marmar]

DART Can't Afford Final Segment to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
TendersInfo


TEXAS - Dallas Area Rapid Transit can't afford to build light-rail service to D/FW International Airport by 2013 as it has long said it would, the agency's chief financial officer said Tuesday.

The news comes as a sharp reversal, but CFO David Leininger said the only way the project can be built in the near future will be if new revenues can be found, either through a new tax or, more likely but still uncertain, a federal grant that would cover the approximately $275 million cost of the final leg of the Orange Line. "We are not abandoning these projects by any means, but there simply isn't room for them in your current plan," he told board members. The first two phases of the Orange Line are under construction from Dallas to Irving and are expected to be completed by 2012. The news of a delayed third phase brought a swift and furious reaction from some board members, especially John Carter Danish of Irving, where officials have been counting on the line to the airport to anchor billions of dollars in real estate development. "Now is not the time to stick our heads in the sand," he said. "D/FW is the great economic accelerator for this entire region, and we are sitting here ready to dillydally around looking for ways to postpone this project." Irving has counted on the line to anchor more than $4 billion in planned developments near rail stations. That includes a $385 million convention and entertainment complex in the Las Colinas Urban Center. The city is shouldering the lion's share of those construction costs. Ltd.


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