The Denton County Transportation Authority board did the right thing last week in letting the trial period for Friday night A-train service run its course. Prospects for the Friday evening schedule aren't good, but the DCTA signed on for a year's trial period, and it's only fair to stick to the schedule before pulling the plug.
Two of the board's more thrift-minded members had suggested that the experiment be terminated immediately, and cited low ridership on the Friday night trains as arguments for their proposal. We can't argue with their numbers; Friday night ridership started out low when the A-train began rolling in June and has trended down ever since.
The DCTA board began the weekend evening service only after pressure from some quarters - this newspaper included - to do so. Those who argued for the service said it had been a selling point when the DCTA was drumming up support for the local sales taxes that would eventually build and maintain the commuter rail system. The board yielded to that pressure and agreed to try Friday night and Saturday service for a year.
It is beginning to look as though Friday night service may not be financially viable - at least not yet - and if the numbers are no more encouraging in June, at the end of the designated trial period, then we'll vote right along with board members Tom Spencer and Charles Correll, who sponsored last week's proposal to halt the service immediately. We won't be particularly happy to be proven wrong, but we'll get over it. It won't be the first time it's happened.
But we do believe that it's important for the terms of the initial agreement to be followed. The board said it would give Friday night service a year to prove itself; we think it should get that year.
We commend DCTA President Jim Cline for urging the board to be as good as its word, and we hope that his cautiously encouraging words about working with the city of Denton on a solution to the problem yield good results.
If the last few months of this trial period don't produce better results, the DCTA will have no justifiable choice but to eliminate its Friday night service. But we hope its board will use the savings realized by the end of Friday night service to try to drum up some midday service where none exists now.
We also hope the board keeps an eye on the possibility of restoring Friday night service at some future date, if not regularly, then at least on nights when special events are scheduled in Dallas that would warrant service.
"Special trains" used to be a staple during the Golden Age of railroading; maybe the concept could be revived for such events as basketball or hockey playoffs or blockbuster musical events at the Meyerson Symphony Center.
We hold no animosity toward Spencer or Correll for their proposal; they were just recognizing their fiduciary responsibilities as they saw them. But we think it's important for this experiment to succeed or fail under the rules that were originally set out. The idea was given a year; let's give it a year.
Erratum
An editorial in Saturday's paper stated incorrectly that U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, was a member of The Selwyn School's first graduating class in 1968. Burgess actually was a member of the first class to begin at Selwyn in 1957.
