“We have been unable to get clearance to operate the entire 27-mile corridor from the Federal Railroad Administration,” Trinity Metro, the train’s operator, said in a statement and on social media. “We will announce the new start date as soon as we obtain full clearance from the FRA.”
The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported that Trinity Metro is waiting on paperwork granting permission to operate trains through a stretch of track in Fort Worth. The segment includes the “hole in the wall,” a complicated part of the construction process which routed tracks used by several different railroads and highway overpasses through a geographic bottleneck.
“Everything is trending very positive, in our conversations with the FRA,” Trinity Metro board Chairman Scott Mahaffey told the Star Telegram, “Everything has been inspected and is approved for passenger service. We just have to have FRA sign off on some paperwork.”
TEXRail operated its maiden voyage on Dec. 31, 2018, and carried several hundred individuals involved in planning for and building the train and its right-of-way to a celebration at DFW North station. Several federal employees were unable to attend due to the shutdown.
