Trinity Railway Express inaugurated service on December 31, 1996, operating 10 miles between Dallas and South Irving. Midday and late-evening service was added on December 15, 1997, and Saturday service on December 5, 1998.
Four new stations joined the TRE system on September 18, 2000, when service was extended 17 miles to Richland Hills. The 7-mile route extension to Fort Worth was opened on December 3, 2001, and features a rail tunnel carved right through the ground floor of Fort Worth’s Alarm Supply Building.
Ridership on Trinity Railway Express exceeds 2 million a year.
The ex-Rock Island line used by Trinity Railway Express was jointly purchased by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in 1983 for $34 million from a Rock Island trustee, under the supervision of a bankruptcy court judge in Chicago. Their respective transit agencies, DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority) and the T (Fort Worth Transportation Authority), developed and now manage TRE. Plans for the commuter service began in earnest in 1989, but protracted negotiations with freight railroads and delays in receiving equipment pushed back the scheduled start-up date.
Track maintenance is provided under contract by BNSF Railway, which has rights to operate freight trains on the line, as does Union Pacific (inherited after its acqusition of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in 1988). Herzog Transit Services dispatches and operates TRE trains under contract.
In addition to TRE’s original fleet of 13 Budd Rail Diesel Cars (purchased from VIA Rail Canada and refurbished by AMF Transport), Trinity Railway Express operates diesel-powered push-pull trainsets. GM F59PH locomotives and refurbished bilevel coaches were purchased from Canada’s GO Transit, and are supplmented by five cab cars from Bombardier and F59PHI locomotives from General Motors.
Service is provided Monday-Saturday between Dallas, the CentrePort/DFW Airport rail station, and Fort Worth. There is no Sunday service.
Evening and Saturday TRE trains also make a 10th stop at Victory Station, for passengers attending Stars and Mavericks home games and special concerts at the American Airlines Center.
At Dallas Union Station, passengers can make an across-platform transfer to DART’s Red and Blue light rail lines, and also connect to Amtrak’s Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle, which runs to Fort Worth on a Missouri Pacific-T&P routing. TRE shares the Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center with Amtrak’s Texas Eagle and the Oklahoma City-Fort Worth Heartland Flyer, as well as city buses.
Airline passengers can take advantage of the free shuttle buses that run between terminals at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and the Trinity Railway Express CentrePort/DFW Airport station.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit
P.O. Box 660163
Dallas, TX 75266-0163
(214) 979-1111, and (877) 657-0146
www.trinityrailwayexpress.org
