The TEX Rail commuter service from Fort Worth to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport is to begin boarding passengers from late 2018.
Airport officials have said they will be ready when the service begins with their own station at the other end of the 27-mile long line. The DFW Airport board has agreed to hire contractor Archer Western for the estimated US$28.4m build of a station at Terminal B.
A walkway will connect the station with the transit agency DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail station that opened in 2014 on the ground level of Terminal A, making it simpler for passengers to make transfers.
Speaking of the planned TEX Rail station, DFW Airport chief executive Sean Donohue said, “We’re excited about that and we are on track. The look and feel of the station will be very similar to the DART station at Terminal A. We will pretty much use the same design.”
The commuter line will start in downtown Fort Worth and have stops near the Stockyards, the Mercantile area of north Fort Worth, North Richland Hills, and Grapevine.
The TEX Rail station is expected to be complete by September 2018, with service scheduled to begin in the following November.
It will be designed to accommodate a second rail line for DART’s planned Cotton Belt project, which would extend TEX Rail north and eastward into Addison, Dallas and Plano by building across airport property. The project is expected to reach completion by 2022.
Story by Kirstie Pickering