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Jeff Scoggins of Fort Worth says he has taken his last train ride in North Texas.
"I won’t put my fate in the public transportation system’s hands anymore," Scoggins, 34, said this week, recounting how he spent three hours stranded on a train platform and crammed into an overcrowded rail car last weekend getting to the Texas-OU football game in Dallas."I won’t be fooled twice."That’s bad news for 2011 Super Bowl planners. They will be relying on the region’s mass transit system to ferry up to 50,000 people to events in Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving and possibly Grapevine. Failure at any point along the transit grid could stain Dallas-Fort Worth’s standing as a host city for decades to come.After the Red River Rivalry fiasco, when several thousand riders missed part or all of the game because of overcrowding and confusion on the rail system, North Texas officials say they must mend their transportation reputation before the Big Game, in less than 16 months."It’s true that often in public transit you have one chance to get the customer, and it’s no different than opening a new restaurant," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "Our hope is the riders won’t have one bad experience and not return to our transportation system."State Fair debacleThis year’s train service to the State Fair was meant to be a big moment for DART and public transportation — in a positive way.The agency had opened its Green Line in mid-September, making it possible for Trinity Railway Express riders from Fort Worth to transfer to light rail at Victory Station next to the American Airlines Center and take the Green Line to the State Fair’s front entrance. It was billed as a way to visit the fair without the hassle of finding parking in south Dallas.But on the morning of the Red River Rivalry, it turned out to be an all-too-popular idea.Two hours before kickoff, the crowd at Victory Station began to overflow, and there were no buses to take some riders to the State Fair and relieve the pressure.The TRE, which is co-owned by DART and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, kept bringing in trainloads of 1,200 to 1,400 people, who then lined up to board light-rail trains that only held about 300 people. They waited for up to 1 1/2 hours at the station.Once they were aboard the Green Line, it took another 1 1/2 hours to travel the three miles to Fair Park. Trains were supposed to be make three runs every 10 minutes, but one train was stopped by a mechanical problem, causing a ripple effect that backed up several trains behind it.Several trains sat on downtown Dallas streets waiting for clearance from DART’s dispatch center to proceed. When trains finally reached Fair Park, it was taking five minutes to unload them — much longer than anticipated — because of the crush of people inside, DART spokesman Morgan Lyons said.
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