Notice to DART Passengers

(from a DART handout)

"Level Boarding Starts and High Blocks Close on Saturday, November 6.

Following two-and-a-half years of construction and station closures, Level Boarding will be implemented at all DART Rail stations on Saturday, November 6, 2010.

Boarding ramps or "high blocks," which have served persons with disabilities and mobility challenges since the rail system opened in 1996, will be removed from service, as these passengers begin utilizing the center doors in each train's low-floor center section.

Each low floor center section is equipped with two clearly marked areas designated to accommodate wheelchairs. Other passenger will be expected to yield these spaces to customers with special needs, as they do now at the front seats of the train. Near each space is a blue call button to alert the train operator when a person in one of these spaces requests a stop.

For the benefit of people who are blind or with visual impairments, trains at Green Line Stations, the new Lake Highlands Blue Line station and Union Station will stop with the low-floor doors nearest the Ticket Vending Machines at the center of the platform. At downtown Dallas stations, accessible entrances will be at the outbound end of the platform, and at the outlying Red and Blue line stations, they will be aligned with the 8" high mini-platforms or "humps" that have been constructed during the past few months.

Additional information on training of persons who are blink of visually challenged is available from the Dallas Field Office of the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services(DARS), Division for Blind Services (DBS), 214-378-2600."