DART-ing to the airport (Part 1)

The outside temperature had been 30 degrees earlier, then it dropped to 28. An hour later I felt none of the cold as I was running to the bus station dragging a suitcase behind and worrying I might miss the bus. It was a feeling I had last felt a decade and a half earlier. This would be my first purposeful use of public transit as an adult. I had declined several offers for a ride to the airport and was dead set on using only public transportation to get there from home.

Public transportation in the Dallas area is operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), running buses and DART light rail, and in collaboration with the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) commuter train service provides a link from the city to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and on to Fort Worth itself. Altogether is served more than five million passengers in November of 2008.

Two days prior I had gone on the DART website to find out how I could get to the airport from my home using only public transit. The website’s “A to B done quickly” trip planning function did not work but a customer service representative answered the phone quickly and was very informative. With her help I had the schedule figured out: I would take the bus to a DART train to the TRE train to a Shuttle to another Shuttle. Figuring it all out, including time spent on the website and speaking with customer service took me 30 minutes. It was my first time, after all. Then a friend showed me how in 30 seconds I could get the same information on Google maps. (Click on 'get directions' and then select 'by public transit' from the drop-down box, where the default is 'by car.') Except Google had more helpful scheduling and map information and was better organized.

I had not realized that on my block there were DART bus stops. Rushing and dragging the suitcase behind it took me one minute to get to the farther stop, the one I needed. I was exactly five minutes early, as the DART website advised. Four minutes later the chilly air had cooled my face pleasantly and was starting to freeze my fingertips through the gloves. Right as the bus was coming.

I was the only passenger, though on an average weekday over 160 thousand people ride on a bus in Dallas. The driver had served four years in the Army in Germany in the late 70s and early 80s. He liked it so much he extended his stay by two years. He didn’t look that old but said he had a 31-year old son. It was a short trip to the DART rail station.

I could take either the Red or Blue lines, whichever came first to go downtown. On an average weekday 70,690 passengers ride DART rail. At the station there were a few people. I met Lee. He had a sore throat. He had moved from Chicago two months ago to the south Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff to care for his blind mother. He was the only son out of six children. He had a jacket ripped at the left sleeve and said he earns his living by doing small projects in a woodworking shop his father had left him. He asked if I would leave him my ticket after my last stop but we were going in different direction. The time he got caught without a ticket he said he was only issued a warning. I wondered if DART statistics count all passengers or just paying ones.

The Red Line train came first and left a minute ahead of schedule. There were a few riders, Lee and I among them. Between this station and downtown the line goes underground, like a subway. As it went into the tunnel my ears popped. I suppose the fast moving train caused the air pressure in the tunnel to rise. Inside the car the electronic mini billboard caught my attention: free pregnancy tests, become a barber, try Newport seafood and steaks, hiring RNs part and full time, trivia answer: b) a can of who hash, time 3:20. It was actually 3:23.

To be continued...