I recently visited Dallas and stumbled upon an unparalleled Texas experience: the subway.
Vibe check: My friend and I ate lunch at E-Bar Tex Mex in East Dallas and decided to use DART's Cityplace/Uptown station to explore more parts of the city.
We walked over to Cityplace Tower and struggled to find DART signage, but eventually entered at the backside of the tower and found our way down.
It was a Friday afternoon, and the station was mostly empty, as was the Red line train.
How it works: Reaching the station takes three sets of long escalators or stairs.
There are also two inclined elevators, but one was out of service when I visited.
We waited about 12 minutes for our train, less time than I would have expected for a train in car-dependent Texas.
Pro tip: Entering at the west entrance at Cityplace Boulevard and Howell Street is more sensible than trying to find the station entrance inside the halls of the Cityplace tower to the east.
💭 My thought bubble: Even though I live in Pennsylvania, I knew Texas' public transit reputation was subpar. I still didn't expect there to be only one subway station in a state with 31 million people!
The Pittsburgh metro area — home to about 2.4 million people and public transit that leaves many wanting more — has four subway stations.
