Media Relations Contact:
Morgan Lyons
Gaytha F. Davis

January 23, 2014

DART Blue Line expansion is on track for South Oak Cliff

City officials to celebrate South Oak Cliff Three Line extension

Dallas – Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins, DART officials and City staff will celebrate the start of the DART South Oak Cliff Three Line extension at noon Friday at DART Headquarters, 1401 Pacific Ave.

"This extension has great potential development opportunities for the area south of Ledbetter Station and on to the UNT-Dallas Campus," said Mayor Pro Tem Atkins. The new Camp Wisdom Station will be adjacent the new Singing Hills Recreation Center at Patrol Way and Crouch Road.

Work on the 2.6-mile extension of the DART Rail Blue Line from Ledbetter Station to the UNT Dallas campus is underway with the early stages of construction leading to an opening in late 2016, three years ahead of the previously scheduled 2019 opening.

The project is highlighted by two stations, Camp Wisdom and UNT Dallas, and a redesigned Ledbetter Station, currently the southern terminus of the line. Camp Wisdom Station will be located near a future City of Dallas recreation center near the Singing Hills area, and a Dallas Police substation. These facilities are just some of the major developments taking place in the area, including new housing in neighborhoods such as the Villages of Runyon Springs. The UNT Dallas Station will be located adjacent to the campus. Ledbetter Station is being redesigned to improve the flow of bus and pedestrian traffic at the station.

The Blue Line extends north from Ledbetter Station, past the VA Medical Center, through downtown Dallas, Mockingbird Station, northeast Dallas, Garland and Rowlett. The first section of the Blue Line, from downtown Dallas to Illinois Station, was part of DART's initial 11 miles of light rail, which opened June 1996. The second section, from Illinois to Ledbetter, opened in May 1997. Northern extensions from downtown Dallas to Mockingbird opened in January 1997 and from Mockingbird to Garland in stages in 2001 and 2002. The connection from Garland to Rowlett was completed in December 2012. The extension to UNT Dallas will complete the current light rail expansion and take the length of the nation's longest light rail system to 93 miles.

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