Power Outages Cause Traffic Buildups at DART Green Line Rail Crossings

Track circuit issues Tuesday prompted DART to keep rail crossing arms down along its Green Line for close to two hours. Police officers were directing traffic at crossroads on Parry Avenue, Canton Street, Main Street, Robert B Cullum Boulevard and J.B. Jackson Jr. Boulevard, near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, DART spokesman Mark Ball said.The arms were brought down as a precautionary measure because of a power outage reported at 4:54 p.m., Ball said. Without power, Dallas Area Rapid Transit couldn't control the crossing arms if a train passed through.The power was restored at 6:38 p.m.The outage was caused by an issue with DART's energy provider, TXU Energy, Ball said.DART experienced other power outages Tuesday, but those only lasted a couple of seconds or up to a minute. The latest outage was the longest one, Ball said. The power outages only caused minor train delays but resulted in traffic buildup on the streets around the crossings.  Continue reading...