Bumpy Start For Dallas DART Streetcar

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It's been a bumpy start for the connection to work and play if you're going to North Oak Cliff from downtown.

Russ White and his dad found that out Friday afternoon, when their plans to ride the Dallas Streetcar were derailed.

"We thought we'd walk over here and use the streetcar, go downtown, to a museum, to see if you can have lunch, and check it out," said White.

White didn't make it on the Dallas Streetcar, because the streetcar couldn't make it to him. The free public transit addition to Dallas' network of trains and buses, offers a one and a half mile trip from Union Station downtown, across the Houston Street viaduct, southward to the entry of Oak Cliff's northern tip. But disruption signs were up on Friday for reason. The streetcar stalled on the street earlier in the day, on Thursday and in five other instances within the past month.

"We are challenged to keep it running consistently. We've had several 1-2 hour service disruptions in the middle of the day. We don't like any of that," said DART spokesperson Morgan Lyons.

Brakes, hydraulics, and battery failures have impacted consistent operation of the city-owned but DART operated streetcar. Because there's only one, if it goes down, the backup the is the bus. That's what White and his dad used instead.

"Well they probably need to find some old timer to work on streetcars. Probably these new engineers don't know how to work on them. They probably know how to fix the bus but not the streetcar," said White.

DART told CBS 11 that the streetcar has operated for 609 hours and been out of commission for 25 hours.

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