According to a news story in Dallas, Fort
Worth will definitely join its down-the-road neighbor Dallas in having a rail
link from its city center to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport now that
the federal government has agreed to pick up almost half of the line’s
projected $1 billion cost.
The Federal Transit Administration agreed this month to
provide a $499 million grant to the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T)
to fund construction of the TEX Rail line, which will run nearly 27 miles from
the Texas & Pacific railroad station in downtown Fort Worth to a station at
DFW’s Terminal B. Including the two terminals, the line will have nine stations
when it opens by the end of 2018.
The remainder of the project’s tab is being picked up by
state and local governments.
TEX Rail will be a diesel-hauled commuter rail operation
like the existing Trinity Railway Express, which is jointly operated by The T
and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). DART’s light-rail Orange Line has served
DFW since 2014, when a station opened in Terminal A.
The TEX Rail line also forms the western half of a planned
peripheral commuter rail route using a former Cotton Belt rail line. The eastern
half, which will be operated by DART, has touched off controversy because
critics view it as competing for scarce funding with a new subway line to
relieve pressure on DART’s surface route through downtown Dallas. DART has
opted to pursue both projects, borrowing to build the Cotton Belt line and
pursuing federal grants for the subway, but critics argue that the Cotton Belt
debt will jeopardize DART’s ability to land the grants.
The T projects the line will carry 9,000 passengers daily
when it opens, with ridership rising to 13,700 daily trips by 2035.
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