Las Colinas APT System

Las Colinas APT System

Outside the Bell Tower Station.
Overview
Locale	Irving, Texas
Transit type	People mover
Number of lines	2
Number of stations	4
Operation
Began operation	June 18, 1989
Operator(s)	Dallas County Utility and Reclamation District
Technical
System length	1.4 mi (2.25 km)

[ ] Las Colinas APT
All stations have step-free access   Entertainment District (future) Urban Towers 'Site P' (future) Tower 909 / DART Orange Line Lake Carolyn Water Street (future) Bell Tower/Mandalay Canal Wingren Drive (future) 'Site D-2' (future) 600 Las Colinas Blvd. Maintenance and Control Center South Las Colinas Station (future)

The Las Colinas Area Personal Transit System is a people mover system that serves the Las Colinas area of Irving, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. The system has four passenger stations and a maintenance & control center, and is run by two cars, one for each route. The system uses automated guideway transit technology, although for the moment it is driven manually, and exists primarily for the benefit of office workers and a few local residents.

The Las Colinas APT was envisioned as an automated circulator system for the developing Las Colinas Urban Center. The long range plan called for a total of 5 miles (8 km) of dual lane guideway and 20 stations. The system was to contain 3 inner loops and one outer loop, with passengers transferring between loops at four key interchanges. The community of Las Colinas was founded in 1973, but construction of the APT did not begin until 1979. The first phase construction contained 1.4 miles (2.3 km) of guideway and 4 stations. (As of April 2010^[update], Phase 1 remains the only fully constructed and operational track: see Current Operation for more details.)

Although the guideways were in place by 1983, the system was not finalized and opened until 1986, following the purchase of four cars, power and control infrastructure from AEG-Westinghouse, which has since been purchased by Bombardier Transportation. Passenger service began three years later on June 18, 1989, with the first five years of operation to be overseen by the vendor. This was part of a deal that cost $45 million. The system initially operated from 7 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays with a fare of 50 cents per ride. In July 1993, the system was closed due to rising expenses and a lack of envisioned development following the Dallas-area real estate crash. The system was mothballed and expansion plans were put on hold.

Las Colinas saw a revival of fortune towards the latter half of the 1990s, and the system reopened accordingly on December 2, 1996. Although the current system still runs only on a limited basis, the arrival of DART's Orange Line and development in the area has called for expansion. As of June 10th, 2013 the system runs Monday-Friday from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, with no service on weekends.