FORT WORTH, Texas — A rail authority combining four current or about-to-open commuter rail operations could be an option to help maintain service in North Texas in the face of potential funding cuts, a regional transit official has suggested
According to news site Fort Worth Report, Michael Morris, transportation director of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told Fort Worth-area transit agency Trinity Metro at a March 17 meeting that the regional authority could be a good alternative if the Texas legislature passes bills that would allow member communities to reduce their funding to Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
House Bill 3187 and Senate Bill 1557 both seek to allow communities to retain 25% of the tax funds currently collected for DART, with that money to be used for local improvements for roads, sidewalks, and other projects.
Trinity Metro currently operates the 27-mile TEXRail commuter rail operation between downtown Fort Worth and DFW International Airport, and shares with DART the operation and funding of Trinity Railway Express commuter service between Dallas and Fort Worth. DART, which operates a 93-mile, four-line light rail network in Dallas and neighboring communities, plans to launch the 26-mile Silver Line commuter rail option between Plano, Texas, and DFW Airport this year.
The proposed regional rail authority would encompass Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties. Along with the Trinity Metro and DART operations, it would include the Denton County Transportation Authority’s A-Train, a 21-mile line from Denton to Carrollton, Texas, where it connects with DART’s light rail Green Line. With dedicated funding from an 8/10th of a cent sales tax and cohesive branding, it could be a viable option to the current, separate systems, Morris said.
Passage of the state legislation could threaten operation of the Trinity Railway Express, used by 1.1 million riders per year, DART and Trinity Metro both told the news site. It also could mean the Silver Line could be limited to one round trip a day, compared to the half-hourly service offered for much of the day by the similar TEXRail operation.
State Rep. Matt Shaheen of Plano, sponsor of the House legislation, told the news site in a statement that his community is “overpaying DART by more than 200%, paying over $100-plus million into the DART system while receiving less than $45 million service.” He did not address the potential loss of service.
Good god. YES. New agencies could not be endlessly created. Duplicated bureaucracies are silly and wasteful of limited funds.
I once counted and stopped when I got to around 40 in the Bay Area (where I lived for 20 years). Transit is regional. It should be treated as a regional issue and funded and governed regionally.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is something like 60 years old, something like 1964. MBTA has done a fantastic job coordinating and improving and extending subways, buses, ferries and commuter rail. Comparing what the Boston area now has, to what it had in 1964, is a whole new universe.
No doubt about that. But (as you, Mike, imply in your post) the REAL reason for MBTA’s creation: to spread the tax base from (originally) 14 cities and towns (Boston and the inner-core suburbs), to 74 (or was it 78?) cities and towns, and has since expanded even further into exurbia.
Also, let’s not ignore the inconvenient fact that (like all transit agencies across America) MBTA can’t print money and is hurting for resources.
Same in Illinois. The 1970’s creation of RTA coordinated and propped up what now are called CTA, METRA and PACE. That was a needed first step, but this is 2025 and the challenge is to keep it all going as costs increase and revenues stagnate.
So yes, Mike by all means have regional transit coordination. Totally agree. Then figure out the economics.
There has been some talk about merging the 3 RTA entities into just 2, but it always got blocked by the Chicago political delegation. Patronage baby, patronage.
When I would attend conferences in Dallas I would book the cheaper hotels in Plano and ride the DART to the convention center. And then transfer to TRE to reach the airport coming and going. The Orange Line had not been built yet.
Didn’t make sense to stay in a $200+ a night hotel downtown when I could stay for less than half that and use public transit.
With the new line from the airport to Plano coming on line, I could skip the transfer downtown, and go straight to Plano, and still take DART to the convention center.
JOHN — I’ve never been to Texas. but I have become very curious about public transportation to airports. WSJ comment page had a discussion about renting cars at airports – the double-trouble difficulties of figuring out the controls of some rental cars, and making your way out of an airport to the main highway. I’ve had bad experiences with both issues on the same rental, most recently at PVD Rhode Island T. F. Green International. (Worse still, the rental car locations remote from the terminal – SeaTac Washington being the worst I’ve run into but not the only bad one.)
So I looked up TRE as in your post. TRE has a full schedule early to late, frequent trains weekdays and Saturdays. But if I read the website correctly, no Sunday service. That’s not only weird for aviation, it’s weird in and of itself. I’ve seen commuter rail schedules with no weekend service, but I’ve never seen a commuter timetable with plenty of Saturday trains but none on Sundays. Did I read the website wrong?
It was probably dropped after the new line to the airport was built.
The TRE station is not the most optimal for DFW. You have to drag your luggage from the platform, across a commuter parking lot to a shuttle bus stop, which then takes you to the terminal.
After the new line opened, I would surmise the traffic pattern switched from coming from Dallas to coming from Ft Worth.