Mckinney Courier-gazette > News
CCART improvement, DART connection atop McKinney's public transit needs list
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
There was an overwhelming consensus from the crowd at Tuesday night's public transit input meeting in McKinney: Collin County is under-served.
In the second of three sessions this week, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) outlined the county's demographics and suspected needs related to public transportation.
Dozens of county residents - workforce managers, corporate employees and city staff members - filled the McKinney Performing Arts Center gallery room to listen and voice their suggestions.
Representatives from Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, the transportation planning firm NCTCOG hired to complete the transit needs assessment and planning study, focused the discussion on short-term advancements, possible within the next three to five years.
"This is a study, so we come up with a set of alternatives, cost-assigned, and potentially who could take the lead on some of those things," said Joey Goldman, principal planner for Nelson/Nygaard. "There are probably very few things that can be done without more money."
Things like expand Collin County Area Regional Transit (CCART), which along with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) are the county's only public transportation sources. With the population growing by 59 percent between 2000 and 2010, there is "a lot of movement happening in Collin County," Goldman said.
Large clusters are in poverty, are senior citizens or without access to cars, according to 2010 census figures. In a presentation Tuesday, maps showed that about 10 percent of McKinney is below the poverty level, many of whom don't have cars.
And, according to attendees, CCART isn't doing enough. Many stressed the need for a transport from McKinney to DART's Parker Road station in Plano, from where they could commute to Dallas jobs.
Justin Mann, a visually impaired McKinney resident, said he's in almost bi-weekly contact with the city and CCART officials to make that happen. He works for Microsoft in Irving, where he leases an apartment during the week and returns to McKinney on the weekends. A lack of transit options is the reason, he said.
"A person with any kind of disability just can't live here without making some sort of sacrifice," Mann said. "It's very important we have a reliable way to get to and from DART. You get to DART, you can go anywhere else."
Due to funding issues in recent years, CCART went from four fixed routes to two fixed routes in the McKinney area. An average of nine passengers ride CCART buses on those routes each hour. About 2,200 registered riders use CCART's 14 dial-a-ride vehicles, but residents contend they often must schedule those rides two weeks in advance.
Frisco dropped CCART because the cost was $17 a ride, officials said Tuesday. Jessie Huddleston, a NCTCOG planner, said, "the vast majority of CCART service is picking people up at their door, taking them to their location and bringing them back, but it's very, very expensive."
Expanding DART's rail system is not a short-term option, officials say, also because of the cost. A regional rail line would cost between $20 million and $40 million per mile, and a light rail could cost up to $80 million a mile, said Mark Ball, DART media relations coordinator.
"We would not extend light rail to McKinney unless they joined DART," he said. "DART is not a part of the NCTCOG study, but the study should help determine the best alternatives."
City, CCART and NCTCOG officials continue to talk about ways to provide bus service from McKinney to Parker Road, but that would also cost money, likely from taxpayers'pockets.
"Presumably we're on the cusp of fixing that problem, but it's been a long road," Huddleston said.
CCART recently "cleaned house," Goldman said, and is reanalyzing its organizational structure - determining whom and where it needs to be serving. Better separating CCART from the Collin County Committee on Aging's other, non-transit-specific services like Meals on Wheels could help CCART use its funds more efficiently, he said.
McKinney is just one cog in the transit wheel, though, and every Collin County city would like to benefit from local, state and federal funds - all of which go hand-in-hand. There must be a dollar-for-dollar match funds in local to federal money.
"The hiccup in really expanding the service quickly...is that infusion of local money to match the federal money," Huddleston said. "And that bucket that everyone's pulling from in this region for general public service is this year in the neighborhood of $75 million."
Nelson/Nygaard and NCTCOG held similar meetings in Frisco and Plano this week to better assess countywide public transit needs. Citizens can take a related survey at collinsurvey.org.
Officials will compile study and survey results to specify how to serve, not under-serve, the county.
"There needs to be a viable solution, and I do think that citizens should pay for it - I think that's totally reasonable," Mann said. "But I'm really skeptical about whether there's going to be a change."
In the second of three sessions this week, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) outlined the county's demographics and suspected needs related to public transportation.
Dozens of county residents - workforce managers, corporate employees and city staff members - filled the McKinney Performing Arts Center gallery room to listen and voice their suggestions.
Representatives from Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, the transportation planning firm NCTCOG hired to complete the transit needs assessment and planning study, focused the discussion on short-term advancements, possible within the next three to five years.
"This is a study, so we come up with a set of alternatives, cost-assigned, and potentially who could take the lead on some of those things," said Joey Goldman, principal planner for Nelson/Nygaard. "There are probably very few things that can be done without more money."
Things like expand Collin County Area Regional Transit (CCART), which along with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) are the county's only public transportation sources. With the population growing by 59 percent between 2000 and 2010, there is "a lot of movement happening in Collin County," Goldman said.
Large clusters are in poverty, are senior citizens or without access to cars, according to 2010 census figures. In a presentation Tuesday, maps showed that about 10 percent of McKinney is below the poverty level, many of whom don't have cars.
And, according to attendees, CCART isn't doing enough. Many stressed the need for a transport from McKinney to DART's Parker Road station in Plano, from where they could commute to Dallas jobs.
Justin Mann, a visually impaired McKinney resident, said he's in almost bi-weekly contact with the city and CCART officials to make that happen. He works for Microsoft in Irving, where he leases an apartment during the week and returns to McKinney on the weekends. A lack of transit options is the reason, he said.
"A person with any kind of disability just can't live here without making some sort of sacrifice," Mann said. "It's very important we have a reliable way to get to and from DART. You get to DART, you can go anywhere else."
Due to funding issues in recent years, CCART went from four fixed routes to two fixed routes in the McKinney area. An average of nine passengers ride CCART buses on those routes each hour. About 2,200 registered riders use CCART's 14 dial-a-ride vehicles, but residents contend they often must schedule those rides two weeks in advance.
Frisco dropped CCART because the cost was $17 a ride, officials said Tuesday. Jessie Huddleston, a NCTCOG planner, said, "the vast majority of CCART service is picking people up at their door, taking them to their location and bringing them back, but it's very, very expensive."
Expanding DART's rail system is not a short-term option, officials say, also because of the cost. A regional rail line would cost between $20 million and $40 million per mile, and a light rail could cost up to $80 million a mile, said Mark Ball, DART media relations coordinator.
"We would not extend light rail to McKinney unless they joined DART," he said. "DART is not a part of the NCTCOG study, but the study should help determine the best alternatives."
City, CCART and NCTCOG officials continue to talk about ways to provide bus service from McKinney to Parker Road, but that would also cost money, likely from taxpayers'pockets.
"Presumably we're on the cusp of fixing that problem, but it's been a long road," Huddleston said.
CCART recently "cleaned house," Goldman said, and is reanalyzing its organizational structure - determining whom and where it needs to be serving. Better separating CCART from the Collin County Committee on Aging's other, non-transit-specific services like Meals on Wheels could help CCART use its funds more efficiently, he said.
McKinney is just one cog in the transit wheel, though, and every Collin County city would like to benefit from local, state and federal funds - all of which go hand-in-hand. There must be a dollar-for-dollar match funds in local to federal money.
"The hiccup in really expanding the service quickly...is that infusion of local money to match the federal money," Huddleston said. "And that bucket that everyone's pulling from in this region for general public service is this year in the neighborhood of $75 million."
Nelson/Nygaard and NCTCOG held similar meetings in Frisco and Plano this week to better assess countywide public transit needs. Citizens can take a related survey at collinsurvey.org.
Officials will compile study and survey results to specify how to serve, not under-serve, the county.
"There needs to be a viable solution, and I do think that citizens should pay for it - I think that's totally reasonable," Mann said. "But I'm really skeptical about whether there's going to be a change."
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