Someone could have warned me that I probably should have avoided the Dallas DART (light rail) when traveling from DFW Airport to central Dallas. Then again, then I would not have been able to witness a panoply of debauchery, defiance, and deceit.
Dallas DART from DFW to Akard: Yikes!
I’m a big advocate of metro systems and open to them just about anywhere in the world. Dallas has a system called DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) which connects the airport to central Dallas. From the American Airlines terminal, well-marked signs guided me out through baggage claim and to the station.
There, I purchased a ticket and boarded the train, which left about six minutes later.
So far, so good. Uber was $40, the train was $3, and would drop me off literally right in front of my hotel, the Thompson Dallas, in downtown Dallas.
I even figured I could get some work done during my ride, though that turned out to be difficult.
A couple of guys stepped onto the train, one of them with a lit joint of marijuana. I detest the smell of pot and was about to move, but then a Latino homeless man with several trash bags of belongings sat down next to me and starting yelling at the two guys.
“HEY N-GGERS! WHAT THE F-CK YOU DOING?”
One looked back at him and said, “What’d you say old man?”
“F-CK YOU N-GGER.”
He then looked over at me and put out his hand, looking for a fist-bump.
Um, no thank you. I just ignored him.
By this time the train was moving I thought for sure the two guys, much younger and stronger, would come over and beat the heck out of the old cuss.
But even as he continued his racist diatribe, they cursed back at him but then walked away.
We came to a stop and and another guy got on and asked me for a few bucks.
I shook my head and he continued on.
A few minutes later, the two black guys came back and I again I though they were going to beat up the old man (who started cursing at them again), but they just got off the train at the next stop.
We continued on and another old man in a wheelchair and lit cigarette wheeled himself on, puffing away.
Two other guys were running back and forth through the carriage, also reeking of pot. By this time, the racist old man had gotten off, which I was thankful for.
We finally reached Akard Station and I was happy to get off that train.
Goodness, was this a normal experience or did I just luck out?
Let’s just say I used Uber for my trip back.
@ Matthew – Uber is so boring compared to DART.
Sure looks like Dallas taxpayers got their money’s worth.
First class stations and rail cars and most of the time no problem. The first six stops from DFW on the Orange Route..no problem…however when you get to Parkland and LoveField stops…it can get dicey at night.
If you do not need to go to Dallas try the TRE which goes west out of Terminal B…a ten minute ride to Grapevine. Excellent hotel and restaurants. $1.25 ticket
Avoid DART during Texas OU weekend. Crazies wearing shirts and hats with orange cow heads.
Scott, TRE does not operate out of Terminal B. You’re thinking of TEXRail, which operates only to Ft. Worth. Taking the TRE to/from DFW requires taking a bus from the terminal to a central location, and then changing to a second bus which drops you off at the CentrePort station.
When DART quit paying overtime to keep their security officers on the trains, the system became a haven for crime & misbehavior. It isn’t a safe transportation system anymore. To spend Billions of dollars on an unsafe system is a disgrace. Why bother having it if people don’t ride it for fear of losing their life?
Perhaps it’s unusual in a city like Dallas, but occurrences like these are common on mass transit in cities like NY,, San Francisco and Chicago. Glad at least there was no violence!
No. It’s the norm.
Dear APB – “occurrences like these are common on mass transit in cities like NY,, San Francisco and Chicago. ” Could you please tell us how many times and when you’ve seen occurrences like this when taking BART t0 SFO? I only say BART as only BART to SFO compares to DART t0 DFW.
Blimey…I was planning to do the same in two weeks. What a timely review!
I’m a Dallas local and can say that the hours you get on the train really matter. During the normal daylight hours, it’s actually not too bad. But after dark or early in the morning, I would avoid it like the plague.
The dart rail is nothing more than a zoo in the first runs. The driver of the train had to stop to get a man to put his pants back on. Then the elevator, which is usually full with sleeping people had standing room only with people smoking meth. The men and woman standing around makes it a dangerous place to be regardless of the need to get to work.
100% true lol after dark their is not one officer patrolling the train for what we pay those dart employees.
100% true lol after dark their is not one officer patrolling the train for what we pay those dart employees. You have to ride in the daytime or evening only.
I thought this crap happened only in liberal cities. Our politicians are $%^$$%^.
Was actually going to say the same, lol. Dave Edwards would be all over this by now if it was about BART in San Francisco.
Nope, Dallas has become a sh#thole too. Any city run by liberal Democrats like Dallas is, is this way. Honestly shocked the 2 guys didn’t cap the illegal racist for his diss of them. People shoot each other for far less.
Texas for all its greatest still has more than its share of liberal nonsense for its normal citizens to deal with. It’s why Austin went to hell and was voted 2nd best city for liberals in America.
This liberal thinks Austin is #1!
As someone who detests both liberals and conservatives equally and lives in Texas, the entire state is garbage. It does not matter what city is run by who, and any moron who is still naïve enough to pit red vs blue at every opportunity deserves nothing less than the worst from all of humankind.
Your next write up should be the MetroLink in St Louis, people get shot, people play loud music all the time, nobody bothers to pay cause its an honor system, might get mugged. You can also take it from the airport
I travel to St. Louis regularly for work and the very first time, I figured I’d take the MetroLink since I was staying at the Westin and the stop was right next to the hotel. My flight landed later at night, and I wouldn’t get to the hotel until about 11:00PM. It was the only time in my life I ever felt scared – and the train was empty for 95% of the ride. Never again.
DART isn’t usually this bad. It’s actually quite handy if you’re downtown and want to head up to Greenville. Most of the racists in DFW live in Collin, Denton, and Tarrant counties, and they definitely don’t ride public transportation.
I lived in downtown Dallas for several years and can attest to DART always being that bad. And when the weather is bad, it’s even worse because it becomes a mobile shelter at that point.
The libs are trying to take over the big cities in Texas–It’s called turn them BLUE and much $$$ is being spent on it.
Eric Johnson the mayor of DALLS is a Democrat !!!!!t fyi
Not sure where you’ve been but the large cities in Texas have been “blue” for quite some time
Thanks, DEE. But where is DALLS?
PS I love random capitalization TOO!!!!!t
I live in Dallas, and have used the train often. I’ve NOT had this experience. Lets say this was off-hour and not unexpected in an urban setting.
It all depends on hours. PDX MAX trains are the same in early morning, altho recently I’ve found Portland buses to be awful no matter what time of day in certain parts…
I’ve never once had trouble on the SF Bay Area’s BART, actually, across hundreds of rides at all hours of the day
Never had issues on the bart either
Welcome to Liberal public transportation. We have light rail where I live. It is an honor system like in Europe so you are supposed to pay for your ride but nobody checks it. Paying rate is below 30%. Also, different than cars where you can get pulled over by a cop, nobody bothers to check for people on the light rail so that became the main mode of transportation for drug dealer across the city. Stabbing, robbery, mugging, you name it happens all the time. If you pay me to take the light rail I won’t. Yes, welcome to Liberal America. BTW, did you ask the old Latino guy if he had just crossed the border in to the US?
Yeah so much worse than conservative public transportation lol. Oh wait that doesn’t exist because most conservatives don’t support mass transit. If you think it’s only one of the parties ruining this country, then you’re part of the problem.
Public transit in the US has always been looked down upon but the pandemic has really amplified the problems, they aren’t so much problems with transit but rather America as a whole. Lack of mental health care, drug addiction, housing costs in the large Metros and the public transit systems have to bear the brunt of this.
Very much a circular firing squad: No one cares about transit so only the meth zombies ride it so therefore regular commuters are too scared to ride which leads to service cuts which lead to less ridership which leads to less $$ coming into the system, which leads to more crackheads using the system as a refuge.
I’m evangelical about pubic transit and I’ve lived in LA for 7 years without a car and relied mostly on my bike but public transit as well. It’s never been this bad, once all the commuters left the homeless took over every rail system and the cops have basically stopped enforcing any laws. Outside of NYC, DC & Chicago(maybe Boston) it will take a long time for systems like DART or LA Metro to recover, which is bad for everyone.
The non-enforcement of laws is the biggest issue. The homeless and meth zombies know they can do as they please on the trains and buses with no repercussions – police are non-existent. I’m a former LA resident and the Metro is a metaphor for why the whole city is going downhill. The basic rules and standards of a civilized society are no longer being enforced.
Most of the time, in Dallas at least, it’s because the police like to pick on weak people. I’ve seen a man get dragged off a train and chased by dogs for not having a pass here, but because he was clearly schizophrenic and not answering the police in his world, they tortured tf out of him. Sometimes police will crowd random people sleeping, but not the ones on drugs, because they know the homeless man sleeping is the easiest target, it’s f*cked. In the northern side, you hardly see the police so the crazies can get away and not worry too much; but, in the south, any small incident leads to a private militia against you.
“ So far, so good. Uber was $40, the train was $3, and would drop me off literally right in front of my hotel”
I do hope things turn around for you!
When AA held their Annual Leadership Conference at Reunion Center across from the train station I would take Dart to avoid Dallas traffic which was often jammed due to construction or accidents. I would change trains at West End station and had to wait perhaps 15 mins or so for the connecting train. West end station was busy but sketchy and had a sizable police presence there, so I hung out near them when I could. During the day it was not unlike any other urban mass transit, but in chatting with the police, they recommended; eing out of the area by 6pm. I generally left the conference early by 3:30 or 4. I did this about 3 years and never had an issue, but the wait at West End Station was never short enough for me. West End station did have a good bbq place that I ate ate once that was good.
Politicians should have to take public transportation. Bastards should have to deal with the shit they legislate or fail to legislate. They love big taxes but fail to deliver. I have always said it baffles me that people don’t just stop paying taxes if they don’t get the services for which they are paying the taxes. Public safety, good clean streets are basic things.
Liberal Americans are no different than north koreans or chinese in their capacity to tolerate shit thrown at them and ask for more.
DISAPPOINTS IN SO MANY WAYS!!!
“A couple of guys stepped onto the bus”? Huh?
Bus/train/conveyance – whatever you want to call the horseless carriage.
Obviously, you don’t the ride the Los Angeles equivalent much, even tho you live there? Much of what you saw on DART occurs on Metro, including riders defecating in the cars. Police are prevented from doing anything because of the political and homeless (unhoused out here) bureaucracy.
My wife and I had a similar experience in Atlanta a few months ago.
Every train should have an employee checking tickets and dealing with violators.
Seems to be a US problem moreso – not once in Berlin was I asked to provide a ticket on the U Bahn, S Bahn, or DB Rail, and the trains were spotless. Unsure why we can’t have nice things like that
That’s a normal day on DART . I have been on the train when someone decided to take a dump in the middle of the train car. A guy that let his dog pee everywhere. And the usual psychotic people that come and go. The mornings are a sleeping dormitory car for the homeless. Glad you made it to your hotel.
This sounds like like the BART in SF. The difference is likely you or someone you saw would have been brutally assaulted or even killed. BART is by far and away the most dangerous metro in the US. DART seems like it’s certainly trying to compete though.
A few weeks ago, I used the DART from Las Colinas to Downtown Dallas both ways in the mid-day and 9 PM. I also rode from Las Colinas to DFW the next day, I did not have any people approach me as this author experienced.
Were you carrying a giant samurai sword and yelling “Ei” toward others? Because it seems everyone in this story was perpetuating racial stereotypes.
Ah. Once again a story about public transit quickly descends into snarky political comments. I think I counted eight or nine comments regarding “liberals” and one that mentioned “conservatives.” Once again Matthew’s hands-off stand towards this blog results in worthless verbiage and I assume peoples’ egos swelling because they managed to get in another punch at whichever side they don’t like, having nothing to to do the posting. Perhaps I need to start bitching to the advertisers on this blog.
Didn’t you people also say you were going to boycott and put Chik Fil A out of business?
Seems to have worked out, there’s never anyone in line there.
Grow up clown.
I have to say I am always shocked when I am very early in the morning at the airport and the line for Chik Fil A is longer the the TSA line. It is unreal that people eat that for breakfast.
OMG!!! Literally the FUNNIEST review I have ever seen. I sprayed ice tea all over my car dash waiting in carpool line for my kids…
Crying laughing, teachers looking at me like I’m drunk. LOL.
Best response of all was @Dave Edwards
“Were you carrying a giant samurai sword and yelling “Ei” toward others? Because it seems everyone in this story was perpetuating racial stereotypes.”
Tears still rolling down my cheeks laughing so hard!.
God I love this travel blog!
Sounds like all that “defund the police” horsesh1t is working out great! Unfortunately, everything will continue to get worse as long as oatmeal brain and his clown show remain in charge, But hey! I haven’t been offended, triggered, outraged, or had aggravated bowel syndrome caused by mean tweets for quite a while!
Remember in November.
A friend of mine manages several rental properties in downtown Minneapolis which has been plagued by Liberal actions and became the filthiest and most dangerous place in the city. Last week a tenant called him saying he was locked outside his apartment. My friend didn’t understand how that was possible since the only way to lock the door was by using the deadbolt from the inside. The tenant said he left the apartment to put the trash outside and left the door unlocked but when he came back the door was locked. My friend went there with a master key and unlocked the door. When they went inside there was a homeless sleeping in the bed in the bedroom. He was probably inside the building and took advantage when the tenant left the door unlocked. They called the police to remove the homeless. The police said there was nothing they could do since they were understaffed and second they didn’t want to run the risk of getting in trouble for removing a homeless. Welcome to Liberal America. LGB!!!
If you want to be REALLY adventurous, you should try one of the ‘wonders’ of Africa: the Abuja light rail system which links the airport (a good way out of town) with the city centre.
Good luck finding any information about it!
From the comments and REALITY, this is obviously everywhere. Public transportation is probably a form of “entertainment” for the mentally ill surrounding us. Sadly, riders become paralyzed in fear or are victims of the crazy people walking among us. The powers that be don’t know what to do, cannot do anything for fear of being accused of insensitivity or bias and just continue to talk – “we need to do this, that, etc”. They’ve been saying this for 40+ and nothing has changed, except it has gotten worse.
Your story was humorous. Yes, this is a typical ride on DART. I have a magic way of dealing with uncomfortable situations. I get up and move. Sitting on the first car behind the driver is suggested. One last bit of unsolicited advise. Suck it up buttercup.
Suck it up? Really? You probably don’t have a daughter or any women in your life. My daughter had to take a class at the TWU campus in downtown Dallas and there’s no way I would have ever let her ride the Dart rail.
The Green line in DC is probably the nastiest. I ride it to work and take the precaution to get on the busiest car which is usually in front next to the operator. In this particular case, you WANT to have a standing room only car.
Unsafe public transportation is an awful thing. Matt had the option of forking over $40 for an Uber but for normal people, they need to get to work.
Another trick I used was to sit close to the door. If problem elements got on, I’d pretend I was getting off and quietly move to another car.
When you’re walking on the streets in such places, if you need to cross the street later to get to your destination hold off and wait for the last moment so if someone shift is walking towards you, you can cross then and get out of their way and see if they follow you. It’s better to walk towards oncoming traffic so they see you and witness any trouble.
These are all things that street-smart people learn over time.
I’ve taken DART a lot of times, granted not that particular segment, but never had any problems like that. Maybe it was a full moon?
Loved the article, the part I read, Just to add, the rail was originally just added to help the busses improve speed. As it grew so have the headaches.
yeah it happens when you take a late night dart
Can’t understand why you didn’t enjoy the on board live entertainment.
For $3 you got a ticket, a ride and a show. Cool
“Someone could have warned me that I probably should have avoided the Dallas DART (light rail) when traveling from DFW Airport to central Dallas.”
Dude – why didn’t you call me???? I would have picked you up and given you a ride.
I take the DART rail 3-4 times a week to work. Your mileage really varies on the time of day you ride. During rush hour, it’s pretty nondescript. Aggressive panhandlers are occasionally a problem, but no more so than any other urban mass transit system. After about 7 pm, though, things get…interesting. If you don’t fancy the free entertainment, sit in the front car right behind the operator.
Lmaooooo bitch please, is you from LA or not? Strap ya balls on. Welcome to Dallas fggt
This is common across all of North America unfortunately. Systems really need more faregates and security, but that’s difficult because public transport is already operating off of scraps essentially.
One of the reasons I have a License to Carry a handgun. And do. The police don’t protect anyone anymore.
I leave people alone. Until they decide I may look like a 64 year old victim, which will prove to be a terrible mistake on their part.