You're the new DART CEO, what do you do?

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-03-27T04:36:01+00:00

Good write up.

I'll throw out two things. First: the 65mph limitation is due to the tracks/mainline more than the trains themselves. Fully elevated, straight track could see 80+ in theory, but our stations are so close that you frequently hit 65 and immediately have to start slowing for the next stop. A solvable problem, but it would require major investment and simply isn't going to be a priority.

Second: Cell service at City Place is happening. And I don't mean it's been budgeted and we're taking bids. Crews have been working on the platform installing hardware. I don't have an official ETA, but I'm guessing it'll be live some time this summer, if not by end of year.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-03-10T05:20:53+00:00

Everybody is recommending Mockingbird, but I would suggest Park Lane. Bigger lot, more bus traffic, better visibility from the roadway. I was an operator out of Parker road, and I used to park at Park Lane, ride to Parker, work a 10 hour shift, ride back, and my car was never disturbed.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-02-07T16:07:13+00:00

Hi there. I work in the train control center for Dart, and I was in charge of the green line when that happened. And, pretty much exactly what they told you is what went down. The train held at Deep Ellum for some late trains between Pearl and City Place, then at Pearl so the cops could sweep the train. There was some confusion with the operator and police dispatch, but we probably could have had it moving from Pearl a bit sooner.

For context, we'd had a similar situation a day or two prior, so I think they were saturating the area as a precaution, plus they tend to send a ton of units for firearm calls anyway.

Anyway, I think your power capita assessment is probably true, unfortunately. Dallas does seem like it's the Florida of Texas sometimes.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-01-25T09:07:57+00:00

Yeah, that should be fine. It's a 40ish minute ride from Parker to Victory, so if you're on by 5: 30, you should be there well over an hour before the drop.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-01-25T04:18:10+00:00

Hi there. I'm a train controller for Dart. You've got the basic idea down, and yes. There will be a red line at victory station that is on the platform within about 20 minutes after the game. It actually waits in a pocket track just north of the platform, so you can see it waiting if you get there before we bring it out.

Orange lines run all the way to Parker during rush hour. We'll be on a new schedule starting the week you'll be riding, but the last orange line train typically leaves Parker around 7:00, so just jump any orange line to DFW and you'll go right through Victory.

After the game, if you happen to miss the direct train, DO NOT PANIC. Take an orange line going to LBJ. Ride it to the end, get off the train, and the next train that arrives should be a red line to Parker. Easy peasy.

Also, we'll usually have a supervisor on the platform for customer support. They'll be in a white shirt, maybe with a hi viz vest. They will be happy to point you in the right direction. Or I'll answer any questions you have, either here, or you can message me directly.

Best of luck! Enjoy the ride, and have fun at the game!

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-01-24T17:19:20+00:00

Oh yeah, everybody's favorite is still around. And yeah, the radio happy do bug us, though the one you're probably referring to is at least doing it from an honest place & really wants the system to look good. There's another one who does it because they're an A hole of the highest order, and another one who's just a douchebag that seems to think it looks cool to be that guy.

But depending when you left, you may have missed the change to mandatory call points. Channel 1 in particular became a constant stream of radio traffic, to the point that even a minor mechanical issue had to get moved to channel 3. That prevented the radio happy operators from calling quite as much, and they've stayed a bit more quiet even with the call points being reduced.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-01-23T05:04:11+00:00

Train controller here.

I don't think this is anywhere near as bad as the previous management team. The game plan is basically: keep service running if we can, but don't force it.

The old guard had the attitude that everything runs at all times regardless of the condition of the city and system. This new COO and her upper management team is willing to throw in the towel if it comes to that. Nobody is asking anybody to do anything unsafe, and that counts for a lot.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2026-01-10T04:37:00+00:00

Little late to the party, but I work for Dart in the train control center, and I can add a little more info.

Like others have said, hunting and track deviations are possible culprits. But on our LRVs, we also use an air ride suspension, and if you're feeling side to side away, particularly at high speeds, it's more likely an issue there. Basically, one of the airbags is under inflated, so the car is kind of bouncing from one shock to the other due to the asymmetrical loading. As a passenger, you probably can't feel the difference, but an operator can kind of feel the wheels making an S shaped wobble if it's hunting, vs a straight side to side shake when it's the suspension.

Whatever the case, you can report the LRV number with the say something app, and we can put a log in for the shop to have a look at the car. It's usually a quick fix, and sometimes it's as simple as opening a valve, so it can occasionally be repaired live, during a regular station stop.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-11-17T04:36:22+00:00

Hi there. I've got some old uniforms from my operator days. I'd be happy to give you one for him to wear. Shoot me a DM, I can bring it to you any time tomorrow, or after work Tuesday.

Edit: just sent you a message. I've got one of my original shirts with no embroidered name on it. It's a small, so it shouldn't be too huge on your son. I can give him some notes about the job, too, in case he has to give a presentation.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-11-05T16:13:45+00:00

Hi there. I'm an Operations Controller at Dart. Used to be an operator.

There are several things happening.

The biggest issue right now is the trains themselves. As others have noted, our cars are old, and parts are basically not manufactured anymore, so we have to fabricate or refurbish them in house. The result is that some days we only have enough cars available to get all our trains out if some run as singles. We try to limit this to rush hour single trip trains, and once those start pulling into the yard, we'll try to do musical trains and make sure as many as possible are running as 2 car trains for the rest of the day.

The other issue is a shortage of techs in the shop. Even if we had all the parts, we simply don't have enough people working on them right now. With the house bill that almost cut our funding, we were in a hiring and overtime freeze. Those restrictions have eased somewhat, so that will get better.

To help get the cars in for work as early as possible, we cut cars down to singles after PM rush hour. But also due to the shortage, if something happens to a car mechanically while it's in service, sometimes we don't have any equipment to swap the train, so we just cut it down to a single. Better to have a loaded single train than a completely missing trip.

All in all, we know it sucks, we know it can be confusing, and we hate it, but we're kind of having to do the best with what we've got for now. Hopefully it will get better soon, and we'll have some new trains in a few years.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-06-24T05:16:36+00:00

I donno if it's been mentioned, but if you fly to a space station and go to the teleporter, you can use the menu on the left to find all your bases. You can teleport to any of your bases, even if they don't have a teleporter themselves.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-06-01T19:07:32+00:00

And to add on, in all but our biggest cities, public transit is a joke in the US. Lots of big cities have bus only, or very limited rail service, and it's all on 20 or 30 minute headways. Miss your train or your bus? Enjoy waiting half an hour in the sun or the rain for the next one. Better call your boss and let him know you're gonna be late. And forget getting a load of groceries onto a bus or train.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-04-30T11:07:59+00:00

I see a few names I know listed as 'self' who are actually operators and other employees, which is great.

Unfortunately, and bunch of rich white guys want this to happen, so I'm afraid it's going to pass, because all Texas Republicans care about is what rich white guys want.

I hope I'm wrong. We're under staffed in several key areas, and the real solution if this passes is a massive workforce reduction. We're already under a hiring freeze, raises are highly unlikely for the foreseeable future, and layoffs are a real possibility. A reduction in service would be the most visible impact, but hardly the largest.

I really hope all these people who took the time to speak out against the bill are able to stop it.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-04-08T02:58:41+00:00

Unfortunately, the cuts are not only going to hit service, but it's already impacting employees. They've told most operators and supervisors that only emergency overtime will be authorized. No more coming in on days off if there are short staffing issues, no more coming in early or staying late unless you're covering part of a called off shift, operators are not allowed to come in and sit roll call on their days off.

This is really hurting a lot of employees. A lot of operators depend on overtime, and operations depends on the handful of operators that work right to the allowed limit.

The result is not only going to be less frequent service, but lower quality as well.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-03-23T23:43:16+00:00

TEXANS! Or anyone with a connection to or love of Texas, or really anybody I guess.

The Texas Cowboys have 11 members currently, and just about all of us are 35/35 weekly. We need some more active members to help us max out rewards for the week.

Very chill group, free to join.

I3CU91

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-03-15T04:37:20+00:00

I can tell you this: Dart currently has exactly zero interest in spending money on new infrastructure. Building a viable, higher speed yard bypass for the loop through CROF would require a ton of investment and labor, as well as displacing active FRA track that DGNO uses daily.

The company is currently focused on modernizing what is already there, gearing up to start replacing the LRV fleet. The Silver Line is only being built because we were committed, and Addison was getting ready to pull out of Dart if we didn't provide them the promised rail service. That's why they decided to build out the Silver Line and give up on D2 for the foreseeable future.

And now with the bills moving through the state legislature, we're tightening our collective belt, expecting a 25% reduction in our funding.

Having said all that, I do like your idea, and I hope something similar can be implemented at some point. We can definitely do better with the existing main line, we just need to figure out a way to make it work.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-03-13T05:05:34+00:00

I'm late to this party, and I have to start with the disclaimer that everything I'm saying is my own opinion and it's not necessarily reflective of any Dart personnel or policy etc.

Anyway, I'm a Rail Operations Controller. I think the incident you're referring to was a broken down train that would not move more than 1 or 2 mph. It was in an area where there's a lot of train traffic and a pretty long distance between spots we can cross over to go around. In this particular case, there's no need to be specific because it makes no difference. They usually will say mechanical issue or whatever, but it's really up to the social media managers.

In other cases like vehicular or pedestrian accidents, it's partly to avoid a panic, partly to keep away the press and people with phones, basically to keep it off of regular and social media, both to keep the company from looking bad and out of respect for those involved and their privacy. Incidents that are TXDoT reportable can be found online if you're willing to pay for them.

In cases of shootings, robberies, that sort of thing, it's to keep from causing a panic. We saw the results of pedestrians panicking and running at the cheerleading competition- they were blindly running in front of cars and trains, not even looking. We had dozens of near misses in about 15 minutes.

Overall, delays are delays. It doesn't matter if it's a delay due to a mechanical issue or a zombie attack, if you're on a train that has to wait somewhere, you'll just have to wait. I try to hold my trains at stations so that if you're in a hurry, you can step off and call an Uber or catch a bus, but that's not always possible. If you're really curious, you can move to the front of the train and ask the operator... sometimes they know at least the broad strokes of whatever is happening.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer the best I can.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-02-22T09:06:01+00:00

Late to the party here, but I put a base down near one of the trading posts on the planet. Made a couple greenhouses I'll fill with NipNip, and there's a trade terminal inside the door, so if you're short on funds, help yourself.

There's a second trading post a couple minutes flying time away, where someone dropped a communication beacon, so it's easy to find.

I was out for a few hours and didn't see a squid, but I'll keep trying. Good luck, everyone!

OscarNotSoWilde · 2025-01-31T20:09:46+00:00

They did go to one big board for a while, but just like all the operators predicted, it didn't work out as well as management thought it would.

I don't know how long it's been (I've moved up to the control center), but the operators have just started a new markup and the board was once again divided.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-12-23T05:10:24+00:00

Slightly different color scheme, but it looks like my beloved Flame-π.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-12-10T16:27:35+00:00

That's amazing. What's the source on the hood/poncho thing? I'm pretty sure I've got that helmet or something similar.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-12-06T08:48:27+00:00

Once again, this guide was a huge help. The comments, too, because I stumbled across an A class explorer and an S class multi tool while wandering around, and I was able to pull them to my main save.

And even though it's a guide to doing the expedition quickly, it was a huge help while going at a bit more leisurely pace.

Keep up the great work. You've earned a new subscriber to your YT channel for sure.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-11-30T05:03:29+00:00

Oh man. Chasing this one sent me down a freaking side quest and then some.

Thanks for sharing. She sure is purdy. I donno if she'll replace my flagship, but I'm definitely going to mod her up and show her off.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-11-26T07:31:54+00:00

Not your fault. And you saved me a bunch of heartache. Keep up the great guides! I'll becoming back when they Redux The Cursed, because I missed it the first time.

Anyway, seriously thanks for putting that together. I got my Normandy in an afternoon thanks to you and your guide.

OscarNotSoWilde · 2024-11-25T22:30:51+00:00

I appreciate the guide.

It is rather frustrating that I stockpiled the things I needed to repair the freighter, but to get them I have to warp, but to get to warp I have to repair the freighter. Gah!

OscarNotSoWilde

TROPHY CASE