DALLAS — Nobody likes their commute to work, but what happens when the commute becomes the work?
“I have to get on a shuttle and go to City Place then have to go down to the tunnel where the train station is and wait until that train comes,” said DART rider Byron Dewberry.
He’s dealing with what everyone else is: long travel times and confusion as DART relies on charter buses to fill in the gaps while its downtown rail service is suspended.
“I know I'm gonna be late for work, for sure. I know that much,” Dewberry said. “Does it frustrate me? Yeah.”
It’s been this way since early Sunday morning when a Dallas fire truck heading to a call toppled off I-345 onto the tracks below - injuring the four firefighters inside and damaging critical DART infrastructure.
“I've never seen anything that crazy, maybe down for a couple of hours or one day, but never for this long or this much craziness,” said longtime DART Rider Marke Standoak.
DART says its repairs are more than halfway complete in Downtown Dallas’ Central Business District, and spokesperson Jeamy Molina says it’s an all-hands-on-deck effort to fix the damage.
“It happened at a point where all four of our lines kind of intersect in this one area and there was extensive damage done to our system that provides all the power to the trains,” she said. “We're hoping to be done with all of our restorations Wednesday evening.”
Riders, like Dewberry and Standoak, are asked to allow extra time for their commute.
"If you could at least add an hour to your commute, that would be very beneficial," said Molina.
Standoak says his commute time has more than doubled, and the delays come with a cost.
“And it took me 4 hours to get to work,” said Standoak. “And I just got let go from my job because of this and it just it really sucks.”
Throughout the day Tuesday, crews could be seen out making repairs.
“DART is gonna have to fix this real soon because nobody wants to keep doing this every day,” said Dewberry.
To accommodate rail customers, DART has 21 shuttle buses driving between stations.
Buses will be available at the following stations:
• Cityplace/Uptown
• Deep Ellum
• Pearl/Arts District
• West End
• EBJ/Union
• Victory
During the repairs, drivers will be impacted too. Southbound N Central Expressway to San Jacinto is closed on Routh Street/N Good Latimer Expressway.
To stay informed, please contact DART Customer Service at (214) 979-1111, find service updates on the DART GoPass app, or sign up for DART Service Alerts at DART.org