For Fort Worth rail passengers, it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
All day long, about 140 passenger trains leaving downtown’s Central Station roll toward the Grove Street headquarters of Trinity Metro transit agency.
The trains don’t go around the building. Instead, they go through it — thanks to a short tunnel built into the back end of the property that includes the rail line.
“That’s pretty cool,” Dave Carter said as he stood on the station’s rail platform.
Trinity Metro employees, who have occupied 801 Grove St. since late 2021, said trains aren’t overly noisy as they go by. A back portion of the building over the tunnel, however, remains unused since it is not certified for office space, officials said.
The rail tunnel — used mostly by TEXRail, Trinity Railway Express and Amtrak trains — is seen as a viable transit solution, although it doesn’t have the same public appeal as the city’s beloved but retired .7-mile-long M&O subway that operated in downtown Fort Worth from 1963 to 2002. Part of that old subway tunnel remains beneath the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus, which opened in 2009.
Reed Lanham, Trinity Metro chief operating officer, said the agency continues to see ridership growth in TEXRail, which runs from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
The agency is planning for TEXRail expansion into the Medical District, aided by a $25 million federal grant officials anticipate they are still on track to receive. TEXRail might expand further south one day since the project was initially designed to include the Texas Christian University area, travel along Granbury Road and travel on to Sycamore School Road south of Interstate 20.
“Our ridership is growing at a pretty good rate,” said Lanham, former Trinity Metro vice president of rail.
TEXRail has grown about 12% to 14% each year as travel has shifted mostly from weekends to include more weekday ridership, thanks to lots of DFW Airport travelers and workers.
“We’re seeing our daily averages go up and up,” Lanham said. “Each month is a new record for that month. Our Christmas time ridership continues to outpace the rest, whether it’s the tree lighting down here or the parade of lights in Fort Worth or all the activities going on in Grapevine.”
Improved rail connectivity is coming to TEXRail once Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Silver Line launches later this year, possibly in late October. The Silver Line will share Trinity Metro’s two DFW Airport stations and connect riders to northern Dallas County and Collin County. At the airport’s Terminal B station, riders can also walk a short distance to access DART’s Orange Line at Terminal A.
“It’s certainly making regional travel easier,” said Glenn Miller, Trinity Metro’s director of marketing.
Customers recognize the benefits of stress-free convenience and affordability of rail travel, officials said.
“We really do feel, once you give it a try, you’re gonna love it,” Lanham said.
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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