Tarrant County residents have plenty of ideas on how to improve the T&P Station in downtown Fort Worth.
Among them: More lighting, security and signage that would help guide people through the station as Trinity Metro transit agency seeks to develop its properties with mixed-use residential and retail projects.
On Thursday, Trinity Metro hosted the first of three meetings at the Fort Worth Central Station to survey residents.
Brenda Howell, a 70-year-old Fort Worth resident, said the T&P Station could be improved with additional parking, landscaping and more shaded areas. She would like to see shopping and restaurants within walking distance.
“They need to do a better job so people feel safe in the station,” Howell said.
Joanne Sifingo said she’d like Trinity Metro to deter homeless people from hanging out in the station’s tunnel.
“We can’t keep them there,” she said. “People don’t feel safe.”
The T&P Station sign outside the downtown Fort Worth train station is pictured on Dec. 2, 2024. (Camilo Diaz | Fort Worth Report)
Hyacinth Szabo, a 24-year-old North Richland Hills resident, often rides the TEXRail train to his job in the Near Southside district. He said he would like to see more establishments where he and his friends can hang out while waiting for a train.
“I do think we need more options,” he said.
Michele Edwards, a former Gilmer resident who recently moved to Fort Worth with her husband for medical care access, said more green spaces and parking are needed at the station.
“We love the community here,” she said. “It’s very well kept.”
Tony Maciulewicz, a rail consultant, said he and his wife often travel on TEXRail from their home in Grapevine to visit their unit at the Texas & Pacific Lofts. He said redevelopment of the area hasn’t moved fast enough over the past 15 years.
“I’d like to see more shopping and retail to draw people in,” he said. “Fort Worth has so much more character than downtown Dallas.”
John Murray, a Fort Worth resident since 1993, said he wants to see more restaurants around the station.
“That would be good,” he said.
The eight-story T&P Warehouse, pictured Aug. 8, 2025, sits between West Lancaster Avenue and Interstate 30. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Many residents said they would like to see the nearby T&P Warehouse, a 580,000-square-foot Zigzag Moderne building, redeveloped into housing, but that property poses challenges.
Property owner Ola Assem, head of Dallas-based Cleopatra Investments, previously told the Fort Worth Report that redevelopment efforts have been continuously delayed due to construction projects around the building.
“My hopes for the building are, with the city and community support, to take the development to the finish line, as I always intended to,” Assem said in an email to the Report last September.
Mike Brennan, former president of Near Southside Inc., was hired in January as Trinity Metro’s vice president of economic development to develop transit-oriented projects. He said the agency is working with the community, stakeholders and developers to create blueprints for new development.
The T&P long-term parking lot off West Vickery Boulevard could be the site of a new development.
“There’s a need for more housing with the proximity to A&M,” he said, referring to the recently opened Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus.
Brennan said a certain level of activity not only has financial benefits for Trinity Metro but will also support economic development in the Near Southside area.
“I think a mix of uses is the best way to describe it.”
Trinity Metro’s next meeting on Sept. 9 will focus on development around the planned station in the Near Southside/Medical District area. That meeting will be from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Medical Center, 912 Northton St.
Trinity Metro officials released a rendering of the planned TEXRail Near Southside/Medical District Station. A groundbreaking for the station is planned in late 2026, officials said. (Screenshot | Fort Worth Report)
Construction on the TEXRail passenger rail extension is set to start later this year, transit officials previously said.
The groundbreaking for the 2.1-mile extension from downtown Fort Worth will occur in late 2026 although an exact date isn’t set yet.
The $167-million-plus project is fully funded with additional money from the Regional Transportation Council, Trinity Metro CEO and president Rich Andreski previously said. The new station — to be built on land donated by Baylor Scott & White Health — will be located on Mistletoe Drive east of Jerome Street near Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center. Service would begin in 2029.
Eric E. Garcia is senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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