By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-846667.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Denton County's A-Train has received its first big shipment of rail. KERA's BJ Austin says the 20-ton segments of new track are part of commuter rail service between Denton and Dallas that will start late next year.
The new track for Denton's commuter train is unloaded, and ready to replace old freight train" track on the M-K-T line that runs along I-35. Dee Leggett, with the Denton County Transit Authority, says the 21 mile A-Train will be ready for passengers in December 2010. It'll take them from downtown Denton, thru Lewisville, to the DART Green Line rail connection in Carrollton for the trip into downtown Dallas.
Leggett: We've made a commitment to open it at the same time that DART does, and also open in advance of any Interstate construction that TxDot has planned for I-35E. So, it's a way to tie into with our regional partner, but also mitigate some construction related congestion from the I-35E expansion.
The Texas Department of Transportation is planning to widen I-35 from 635 in Dallas to 380 in Denton. The Lewisville leg is expected to get started first, probably in 2012. Legett says she expects the traffic headache will boost the five thousand initial commuters they expect each day. She says the A-Train commuter rush will be "both ways": workers going to downtown Dallas; and students traveling to UNT and TWU in Denton for classes.