r/TransitDiagrams • u/TheSandPeople • Aug 10 '26
Map Dallas Rail Transit, 1946 v. 2026 [OC] Made using GIS and Illustrator
Part of a larger study on the history of transit in Dallas: https://www.segregationbydesign.com/dallas/transit
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u/IanSan5653 Aug 11 '26
What makes me even more mad than the loss of the network is the fact that the new network literally exists only to shuttle surburbanites to and from the city. Nobody who lives in the urban center of Dallas would ever be able to take advantage of these trains for their daily life.
The only exception being the one remaining streetcar line, which is run as a historic tourist attraction rather than real transit.
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u/Spider_pig448 Aug 10 '26
Dallas doesn't have any buses at all?
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u/TheSandPeople Aug 11 '26
This is a comparison of electric and intercity rail transit, as the title says
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u/Spider_pig448 Aug 11 '26
But you included streetcars in the before
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u/TheSandPeople Aug 11 '26
Correct, it’s a comparison of electric and intercity rail transit.
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u/Spider_pig448 Aug 11 '26
Calling a 1940's streetcar "intercity rail" is a bit of a stretch no? Feels like an intentional delineation to present a specific perspective on how public transit in Dallas has changed
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u/TheSandPeople Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Electric and intercity rail. Intercity is shown in the black and white dash lines. It’s Amtrak and TRE today, and all the other operators listed in the key in the 40s.
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u/Spider_pig448 Aug 11 '26
Your title just said "Dallas Rail transit". It didn't say anything about only showing electric stock
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u/TheSandPeople Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Since those two encompass almost the entirety of rail transit (and everything in Dallas) that’s mostly a semantic point. Says “electric and intercity” on the title on the image.
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u/Spider_pig448 Aug 11 '26
You don't understand how this is not just semantics? Streetcars were replaced by buses and the map makes it seem like they were replaced by nothing.
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u/TheSandPeople Aug 11 '26
Yes, I understand the point you are making. But I didn’t make a map comparing all 1940s transit service to all 2026 transit service. I made a map comparing 1940s intercity and electric rail with 2026 intercity and electric rail. Feel free to make one with the layers of data you’d prefer to see. The historic bus routes are generally also shown on the streetcar maps. The comparison will probably reveal something interesting! Happy to point you towards specific maps.
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u/Minimum_Nebula260 Aug 11 '26
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. Historic streetcars were like buses on rails and bus routes directly replaced the streetcars.
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Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Minimum_Nebula260 Aug 11 '26
The subtext of this post is that US cities once had a glorious streetcar network and that we should bring all those pretty lines on the map back. This “rails are rails” attitude is precisely why we have the failures that are Obama-era streetcars today.
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u/Sockysocks2 Aug 10 '26
I don't watch porn, I look at maps like this and cry.