I hate the part of writing where I know it's over for the day but maybe if I click between the dozens of tabs I have open for 30 minutes straight it will come back

Peeking around the corner, a DGNO freight train rumbles onto the former MKT mainline. Overhead, viaducts carry the DART Green Line and Downtown Carrollton station, an artifact from the DART system being based on old freight rights-of-way. Photograph by Sam Combs.

Early in the years of DART light rail, two single-car LRVs met at a crowded West End station in 1998. At the time, the Red Line ran from Westmoreland to Park Lane Station, while the Blue Line only ran from Ledbetter to Pearl, where it terminated. Photograph by Norman Gates.

Trains rest on a fuel pad in the busy railroad junction town of Temple in the summer of 1986. From here, the Santa Fe system splits three ways: north to Fort Worth, south to Houston, and west to Brownwood. Photograph by John Leopard.

After some back and forth on the council, the City of Addison has chosen not to call for a DART withdrawal election.

Where is Jane Remover? Where is Ninajirachi? What have you done to them?! Also, are artists just not allowed to release music in December if they want to be on one of these lists? Genuinely asking.

In Texas snow, the Trinity Railway Express dashes across Little Fossil Creek on February 15th, 2021, as it accelerates westbound out of Richland Hills station. Service was suspended later that night as conditions from winter storm Uri worsened. Photograph by Jadon Henderson.

Reading this old piece from @a320lga.bsky.social, and there is a lot relevant to DART and how to feed a light rail system. Or to put it more simply, "The suburbs have starry eyes for microtransit, and we are all going to pay for it." homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...

From State Rep Matt Shaheen "DART is what taxi cabs used to be. They got replaced with something [rideshare] way more convenient. It did a much better job of accommodating the transportation demands of a region. [...] I mean, heck, with Elon Musk, we might have flying cars in years."

Seen at Houston Union Station, the Santa Fe's California Special would travel to Clovis, New Mexico, where it would connect with the San Francisco Chief. To the left, the Houston segment of Missouri Pacific's Texas Eagle can also be seen. June 1968. Photograph by Joe McMillan.

Irving, August 1996: In the run-up for a withdrawal election, anti-DART advocates show off the capabilities of transit vans from the company Comsis.

The M-Line trolley rattles down McKinney Avenue on a rainy day in Downtown Dallas, May 2007. This particular car, named Petunia, is a Birney Safety Car that ran on Dallas's streetcar system from the 1920s until 1947. Photograph by Blair Kooistra.

thanksgiving is over which means it's time for scary brown extension cords with no ground wires

An eastbound Texas Eagle kicks up dust as it storms through the town of Grand Saline on the evening of September 12, 2015. Photograph by Matt Shell.

From tonight at DFW Airport: Traffic on International Parkway on the left, the Silver Line at Terminal B Station on the right.

Thirteen people were killed in a fire that spread across seven high-rise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex, and others were still trapped, the city’s fire services said.

Just east of Amarillo, a C30-7 leads a Santa Fe manifest train as it hustles across the Panhandle. December 1986. Photograph by John Leopard.

Go read this. I can't say it reflects well on Dallas, but it is unmistakably our reflection.

A Union Pacific manifest train rumbles into Union Station as the Dallas streetcar crosses overhead on the Houston Street Viaduct. Barely visible on the other side of the convention center, a DGNO train can be seen following close behind. Photograph by Matt Shell.

"there are no third spaces anymore" wrong. blast furnace

A crewman snags new train orders as the Katy Flyer passes by Hunt depot, just south of Greenville, May 1962. Photograph by John B. Charles.

She took the midnight train goin’… to Plano, Texas?

Hey there

The M/S John W. Johnson ferry prepares to dock at Galveston, having just arrived from Port Bolivar on the morning of July 9, 2017. This ferry line is one of two that TxDOT operates and one of three in Texas. Photograph by Matt Harvey

Finally back in Texas.

One of these in a nationalized livery is the future of American railroading.

Dallas Union Terminal, on the morning of September 10, 1964. The Santa Fe's "Kansas Cityan" and the Katy's "Texas Special" are on the left and right, with the Twin Star Rocket running from Minneapolis to Houston in the middle. Photograph by John B. Charles

Dudes rock

In January 1956, Dallas became the 5th city in America to offer an air taxi service. Seen here sitting on top of the Statler-Hilton Hotel, this "Helix Air Transports" aircraft was part of a service to shuttle guests between local airports and the hotel. Photographer Unknown.

It's true that "you can't justify a bridge by the number of people swimming across the river." Unless you're Amtrak. It's not a good rail service, but Americans keep buying tickets. Latent demand is so high, people have started swimming the river. Good work from @kait.bsky.social

The El Paso Streetcar running along Stanton Street, having just passed the Stanton/Kerbey station. The PCC streetcars now used on this route were restored after being abandoned at the city's airport when streetcar service was terminated in 1974. Photograph by Blair Kooistra.

Good piece about the very weird place Dallas's streetcars are in.

The suburban transit agencies trying to secede from Dallas's DART are basing their plans on unrealistic visions of "microtransit." Nearby Arlington, Texas already shows the limits of that. Good @dallasobserver.com piece. www.dallasobserver.com/news/dart-co...

With Amtrak's FY25 ridership numbers out, we can see how the Texan routes have done this year: Texas Eagle - 372,135 (+14.3% over FY24) Sunset Limited - 91,493 (+18.9% over FY24) Heartland Flyer - 80,876 (+0.6% over FY24)

Amtrak's Sunset Limited stares down a German ICE train in front of the Alamodome, summer 1993. The European trainset was toured around the country in the hopes of raising support for high-speed rail. Photograph by Fred M. Springer.

“It feels like every day I look at the news and then the headline just reads, ‘Sorry, more things you’ve lost,’" www.texastribune.org/2025/11/18/t...

Really liked this story from @labreportdallas.bsky.social. Some obvious transit connections in the issues discussed here. labreportdallas.com/p/cottonwood...

Op-ed from a former Plano City Council member making the case for why Plano should leave DART. www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...

From the other site:

The TEXRail train "Vaquero" flies over a Fort Worth and Western train at Hodge Yard. The FWWR train is led by an SD60M locomotive no. 2035, named "Butch Cassidy." Photograph by Jason Burke.

Just got around to it and have to say ninajirachi's new album is great. Highly recommend it.

The DART green line being constructed through Downtown Carrollton in 2008. Photograph by Scott Dorn

for our "Texas Canon" series, I wrote about Halt and Catch Fire, the underrated AMC show about the '80s Dallas tech boom, and how it reminds us of why we were optimistic about tech in the first place: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

I wrote about train-surfing's rise in NYC and other American Metros in context to other global train-surfing heydays, such as Berlin years immediately after the Wall came down www.substack-bahn.net/p/train-surf...

The Fort Worth and Denver Railway's "Texas Zephyr," northbound to Denver, heading out of Fort Worth in 1950. Photograph by Roger Plummer.

This is why, in earnest, I like the current City Hall building. If Dallas is anything, it's "strange and hard to love." I like that City Hall is challenging at first glance but beautiful with time. It reminds me of this city and why I love it.

Looking west toward the Trinity River, Dallas City Hall under construction in the mid-1970s. Photograph by John Rogers.

They're brighter in the photo than they were to my eyes, but you can see the northern lights from Downtown Columbia, Missouri.

A DART Silver Line FLIRT meets with an eastbound CPKC manifest train at 12th Street Station, Plano, October 2025. Photograph by David Hawkins.

Hope everyone is having a good boat day.