A Dallas Area Rapid Transit meeting Tuesday started as an effort to organize financing for a suburban commuter rail line, but turned into a showdown between Dallas and the suburbs over which major project should be the greater priority.

The board called the special session to vote on whether to authorize DART to use debt to fund the Cotton Belt commuter railway, a 26-mile line that will take riders from Plano to DFW International Airport.

But the three-hour meeting quickly went off the rails when members questioned whether the special meeting was appropriate, then tried to shift the discussion to funding of a new downtown Dallas subway even though that wasn’t on the agenda.

DART executive director Gary Thomas discusses the proposed Cotton Belt rail line with residents during a meeting in downtown Plano, TX, on Aug. 30, 2016. (Jason Janik/Special Contributor) (Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

Both the billion-dollar Cotton Belt line and the billion-dollar subway were approved by the DART board in October. But Dallas and suburban board members are split into two camps that appear distrustful of each other and worry that one project or the other will be in jeopardy if there’s not enough money for both.

Board members voted 9-5 to allow DART to borrow for its share of the Cotton Belt, but two-thirds were needed. The five who opposed it were all Dallas appointees, including one seat shared by Dallas and Cockrell Hill.

Tensions between the city and the suburbs never really settled after the 12-3 vote in October to fund both projects as part of DART's 20-year financial plan. More recently, Dallas DART board members have been under pressure from City Council members who oppose the Cotton Belt. And all of those Dallas DART board members are up for reappointment as soon as Wednesday.

In a particularly contentious exchange, Timothy Hayden, representing Irving and Carrollton, said he hoped his colleagues who knew they “weren’t going to be on this board after tomorrow” would make a decision for the region, not “as a puppet to the City of Dallas.”

Amanda Moreno, who represents the city of Dallas, shot back, saying that at the last meeting, “we were called cowards and we were called puppets and I think that is completely out of order.”

Ivan Hughes, deputy mayor pro tem of Addison, speaks to the board of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit before they voted on a rail corridor plan on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at DART headquarters in Dallas. The board voted to finance both the Cotton Belt and D2 subway. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

At one point, Jerry Christian, who represents Dallas, said he had been pressured by Dallas council members to vote against the Cotton Belt because he "led the fight" against a plan by some council members to divert one-eighth of their sales tax that goes to DART to the failing Dallas Police and Fire Pension fund. That proposal went nowhere after the Legislature stepped in to save the fund, but only added to the tension between the Dallas council and DART board members.

“Several council members approached me after that and they pressured me. And I know if they pressured me to vote against the Cotton Belt, they pressured other board members,” Christian said.

Christian did not name the council members he alleged pressured him and could not be reached for comment. He has not filed an ethics complaint.

Last month, Dallas abruptly dumped one of its DART board members who had supported the Cotton Belt line midway through his term. Board member Richard Carrizales was removed from his position as vice-chair by the council in a 10-5 vote. His seat is among those Dallas is about to fill.

The failed Cotton Belt financing resolution puts into question how the agency will be able to fund it, but DART spokesman Morgan Lyons said agency staff will continue to find a funding source and work through various options. Meanwhile, work continues on both the downtown subway and the Cotton Belt rail line.

Opponents of the Cotton Belt project say they aren't against the rail line itself, but against the way DART hopes to fund it. They say the amount of debt taken out by DART to fund the project could threaten the downtown subway line.

DART’s plan to fund the subway, for now, hinges on a federal Capital Investment Grant to fund half of the cost, or about $650 million. The rest would come from sales taxes. Some people are concerned that the funding could fall through if DART isn’t granted the entire $650 million from the federal government, or if the CIG is eliminated as proposed under President Donald Trump’s budget.

For the Cotton Belt, DART staff had proposed using a Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan, which would be a $908 million loan. The estimated cost for the project is around $1.1 billion, with the rest of the funding coming from various other sources.

Dallas council member Scott Griggs, who has been an outspoken opponent of the Cotton Belt, said after the meeting that he was very proud of the Dallas DART board members who voted down the resolution.

“They understand that to have a strong region, you must have a strong core and that means a strong Dallas,” he said. That includes better bus service.

“The city of Dallas cannot continue, and the taxpayers, putting in hundreds of millions of dollars into an agency with such failed bus service,” Griggs said.

Council member Lee Kleinman, who chairs the city’s transportation committee and supports the Cotton Belt rail line, said he supported finding a backup funding plan for the D2 subway line. But he was concerned that blocking the proposal to borrow for the Cotton Belt could end up hurting the downtown subway, too.

“D2 is the city’s primary objective, but the Dallas board members seem not to understand that they need 10 votes to get funding for D2 as well,” he said. “Suburban neighbors have made it clear they think D2 can go on the surface and going underground is something the city of Dallas wants. My guess is they would probably push for D2 being on surface, which would cost probably about 30 percent of current anticipated cost of D2.”

Cotton Belt supporters hold up signs as the board of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit voted to finance both the Cotton Belt and D2 subway plans for a rail corridor on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at DART headquarters in Dallas. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Suburban cities such as Addison, Plano and Richardson have supported both the Cotton Belt project and the downtown subway. Those cities say the Cotton Belt is a regional project that would help spur economic development and better connect the region.

But Addison has a particular stake in the Cotton Belt. A founding member of DART, Addison has contributed millions of dollars since 1983 and does not have rail service. The Cotton Belt is Addison's only shot, and the town has previously threatened to leave the agency if it does not get rail service.

After the vote, Addison officials said in a statement that the board’s vote “appears to indicate that the interests of the city of Dallas are more important than that spirit of regionalism that Addison has supported both conceptually and financially for more than three decades.”

In the statement, Addison officials said that they hope DART will able to find a solution to develop both D2 and the Cotton Belt, but that as a result of Tuesday’s vote, “Addison plans to seriously assess its withdrawal as a DART member city.”

If Addison chooses to leave the agency, that would require a pull-out election, which can occur only every six years. The next one can’t occur until 2020.

Meanwhile, other supporters of D2 took Tuesday’s failed vote as a victory.

“Today was a victory for smart urban planning and transportation,” Matt Tranchin, executive director of Coalition for a New Dallas, said in a text message. “This was not a vote against the Cotton Belt, it was a vote for process, transparency, and accountability.