Fort Worth authority eyes rail to the airport
Written by Douglas John Bowen The Fort Worth Transportation Authority has completed an environmental study assessing commuter rail service from southwest Fort Worth to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The proposed service, possibly using diesel multiple-unit (DMU) trains, would interface with existing DART light rail service at the Airport.
“The plans for the Southwest to Northeast project started several years ago when the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Regional Transportation Council did a study of regional rail and regional transit and what was needed,” said authority President Dick Ruddell. “This Southwest to Northeast corridor was identified as a high-ridership and low-cost [option] and highly likely and viable to undertake.”
Estimated cost of the project currently is $471 million, with the estimate to be updated this spring. Potential funding sources include sales tax revenue from the city of Grapevine, sales tax revenue from the authority itself, approximately $20 million from a transportation bond package passed in 2007, and about $60 million from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Texas Mobility Fund, and federal sources.
The project could open for revenue service in late 2012 or in 2013. It is part of a 250-mile regional rail network identified by the Texas Local Option Transportation Act, formerly known as the Rail North Texas project. Pro-rail legislators seek to give Texas counties the ability to hold elections on bondissues, offering greater decision-making power to the counties to choose their transportation priorities. However, other, similar measures to bestow such decision-making power to localities and counties have been turned down by the state legislature.
