Letter to the Editor

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

The City of Irving was born at the corner of what is now Main Street and the Trinity Rail Express. Two railroad surveyors were sent by the Rock Island Railroad to survey a new rail stop in the year 1903.

The wife of one of the railroad surveyors was a member of the Washington Irving Society (whose namesake was America’s first man of Letters), and she suggested naming this new rail stop “Irving”.

Irving’s reason for existence begins with transportation. Our great City’s success over the years has been built on transportation. Whether it be the Texas Stadium construction on the confluence of the three major freeways of Loop 12, Highway 183, and Highway 114 (which today we refer to as the Diamond Interchange of Walton Walker Freeway, Airport Freeway and John Carpenter Freeway) through which threads the NAFTA Highway of Interstate 35 connecting Mexico to Canada; or the building of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (for which Irving serves as a one of the four host cities).

Irving’s future success will continue to be based upon transportation with the modernization of Airport FreewayIMidtown Express and the completion of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail line to terminal A at DFW Airport.

Irving’s downtown centers have evolved from its original Main Street location to Plymouth Park, the Irving Mail, and the Las Colinas Urban Center. Further, the eighty-acre tear drop at the site of the former Texas Stadium offers the possibility for a four hundred acre spectacular, mega downtown.

Irving must maintain a clear focus on the full development of its transportation network rail component if it wishes to realize its full potential. I have attempted, via the following Exhibit, to portray how the rail corridors will complete Irving’s future transportation needs connectivity.

Each rail corridor offers expanding opportunity for goods and services to trigger future development like the new Verizon Campus we anticipate at the Deferred Carpenter Ranch Station on the DART Orange Line.

Fort Worth’s TEX Rail; the Cotton Belt Line; Burlington North Santa Fe Line; DART Orange Line; DART Green Line; and the Trinity Rail Express, when completed and fully operational, will provide Irving, Texas with one of the most comprehensive rail connectivity networks in any North Texas city.

In conclusion, it is not a coincidence that the new concrete panels along the updated Airport Freeway will portray Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It is the essence of our heritage.

Only by maintaining our commitment and focus to the rail component of Irving’s transportation network can we achieve the full measure of the Birthright that our pioneering ancestors bestowed upon our great City.

JOHN DANISH
IRVING CITY COUNCILMAN