Taking the DART train from Richardson to the Texas State Fair 2013

I drove to the Spring Valley DART train station to purchase a 7 day local ticket.  I decided that taking the train to the Texas State Fair would be more economical and safer than driving there and paying for parking at the fair.

When I arrived at the station, there was no parking in the closest lot adjacent to the station.  The lot next door was open and I found a good spot.  It was a little over half full.

Spring Valley DART station overlooking parking

I saw a man standing at the station with a phone.  As I walked past, another man confronted him for stealing his phone and they tussled over the phone.  The second man took the phone and stormed off while cursing the first man.  The first man shouted that he only found the phone.  I didn't want to stick around for any trouble.

I went to the ticket machine.  The touch screen responded, but every time I put my card in to pay, it kept asking me if I wanted to buy another ticket.  My ticket didn't come out of the machine.  After the third failed attempt, I finally asked a man standing near me how to use the machine. He showed me that my card was turned the wrong way. I got my train ticket and thanked the man who helped me.  No receipt printed for the ticket, although I had requested one.

My DART ticket

Back of my ticket

 I walked up the steps and took a few pictures at the station.

Train station

I read the maps and tried to determine which train to take.  From Richardson to the fair I knew that I needed to take the train to the Pearl station to change to the Green line.  The maps were confusing to me.

Train that I missed while trying to interpret the maps

 I finally made a decision to take the Red train to Pearl.  There was a very long tunnel after the Mockingbird station.  I was amazed at how fast the train was.  It was a bit of a jerky ride. There were a few families with small children on the train.

Families on the train

At the Pearl station, I knew I needed the green train to Buckner.  The green train to Lawnview arrived and the DART representative there said it was the train for the fair.  I was not sure, so I waited for the Buckner train.  A lady at the ticket machine there asked me for help with the machine, and I laughed.  I was also confused by the machine.  I found a DART representative to assist the lady.

Example of confusing ticket machine

The train to Buckner arrived, and I found a seat.  The train was more crowded than the Red line but it was a short trek to the fair.  A nice lady sat next to me and we talked about her children.

Interesting column art at station

Once we arrived at the fair, there was some confusion among the passengers on where to cross the tracks to get to the gate.  Finally, we found an opening where we crossed with the assistance of an officer there.

I noticed a man being threatened by the police for loitering.  The policeman said that he needed to move on because he had been there too long and asked him where he was going.  The man said he was trying to figure out what train to take.  I had been there at the Spring Valley station longer than that trying to figure it out, so I felt a little sorry for the guy.

None of the trains had any way to check the tickets.  There were a few homeless people on the trains.  I rode the trains multiple days at various times to and from the fair.  Only twice did anyone check our tickets.

DART Fare Officer

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