Contrast between DART & TRE

I've been through a couple of incidents downtown where the transit system broke. This usually involves doofus + train which = big problems for everyone. The big difference is in how you handle it. With TRE, they're fast and efficient. They communicate well. At one point all of the TRE trains were trapped in Fort Worth by a bad wreck on the train tracks. They called in a stand by crew, got another train out of their yard and picked us up. They sent people out to the platform to tell us what to do and what to expect. They followed their plan exactly and didn't change it in the middle, so no one was confused. They dropped everyone they could off at their stops before de-boarding people to waiting buses at the last available stop to continue on to their destinations. All of this took them approximately 45 minutes - start to finish and was coordinated from 50 miles away.

Let's compare and contrast. DART headquarters are downtown. Surely their proximity to their surroundings would give them an edge, but sadly, this has not been my experience. DART's emergency response is highly reminiscent of that old adage about the monkey and the football. God help us if something more serious than a car wreck ever happens.

DART left me sitting in a tunnel in the dark with a very panicky group of kids aged about 10-13 on their way home from school for about 45 minutes. No cell phone service, nothing since we were well below ground. Once we did move, we pulled into the underground station and sat there for another 30 minutes while we were given 9 (count them - 9) separate and often conflicting sets of instructions of what to do at the next stop. Now not only are the kids panicky, they're confused. No one would tell us what was happening and when I buzzed the driver, he said that he was getting conflicting radio reports. We asked if we should get off and try to take a bus since there was a full transit center just an elevator ride away. Without phone access, it's hard to tell if you can get an unfamiliar bus to get where you're going. He told us that they had advised him to have us stay put. We get to the stop and they ask us to de-board the train which we do. Then they re-board some of the passengers and continue on, leaving us staring at the departing train angrily.

The next train comes about 20 minutes later and when we ask what to do, the conductor shrugs and slams his window. About this time, we're accosted by someone wielding a bull horn and ordered on to a bus. The bus takes us around the accident and about 10 minutes later, we're on a platform waiting for the next train to arrive. We're now an hour and thirty-five minutes in to our adventure. The new train arrives but is on the wrong side of the platform, so we miss the first train and have to wait another 20 minutes to catch the next one.

We get on the train and it continues south until it stops suddenly, near my connecting station, Union Station. We sit there for nearly half an hour. Mind you, this has already added well over two hours to my daily commute. I watch as the TRE I need to be on pulls out because my train cannot pull into to the station. Why can't the pull in, you ask? Well that's because the train at the station will not pull forward far enough to allow our train to de-board. The train in front of us had already de-boarded and was waiting for the all clear to proceed to the next stop. Rather than have someone flag this train forward a safe distance, they let it and us sit where we are. Having missed the 6:55, 7:28, 8:17 and now the 9:15 train, I'm stuck waiting for the 10:15 train all because no one wants to pull forward. My two and half hour commute just became a whole lot longer.

I don't know about you, but Union Station at night for a lone female....not my favorite place to be. Thanks, DART. Now I see what all my tax dollars are doing.