At its meeting June 17, The board of directors of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) approved an Interlocal Public Transit Service Agreement between The T, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the city of Arlington to provide bus services between Arlington’s downtown and The T’s Trinity Railway Express CentrePort station in Fort Worth.
The T’s board action represents the final step in approval of the agreement that was developed by The T and DART and the city of Arlington, whose board and council approved the agreement at their meetings on May 28 and June 4, respectively. The two-year pilot project would operate and manage an express bus service with connections via the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) to Fort Worth and Dallas. The service would run between the TRE CentrePort Station and a stop in Arlington that will serve the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and downtown Arlington. The TRE is jointly owned and operated by The T and DART.
“It was important for Arlington that both The T and DART be partners with their city because they wanted access to both sides of the Metroplex,” said Dick Ruddell, president of The T. “The T believes this is an important step forward for transit connectivity across the region and a great operation partnership between the two transit agencies and Arlington.”
The express bus service will be provided by DART utilizing their buses and operators, along with fare collection and tracking ridership. The T will be responsible for providing and maintaining a bus stop at its CentrePort Station. The T’s planners also took the lead in developing the route and recommending route detours as necessary due to traffic or construction. The routing was based in part upon the bus shuttles that The T operated from CentrePort to Arlington during the 2011 Super Bowl.
The T also will provide marketing services, include information about the service on its website and “trip planner”, customer service staff to answer questions about the service and share the overall management of the pilot service with Arlington and DART.
