TX: Public transportation in Texas ‘at a crossroads’ as population booms

Dallas-Fort Worth’s transportation needs will continue to grow alongside its population in the coming years, according to industry leaders — and regional cooperation will be key to keeping residents on the move.

Last week, transportation leaders from across the region gathered at the 2025 Infrastructure Summit in Irving to discuss what’s working, and what isn’t, in North Texas.

Top of mind for speakers, from the Texas Department of Transportation to local transit agencies like Dallas Area Rapid Transit and Trinity Metro, was moving North Texas forward with its number of residents expected to grow to 12 million by 2050.

With more than 80% of Texans commuting via automobile, roadway maintenance and expansion is key, TxDOT leaders said.

Proposition 1 and Proposition 7, ballot measures in 2014 and 2015, respectively, have increased funding to the agency over the past decade. But projections in TxDOT’s 2050 long-range transportation plan shows available funds will still fall well short of what’s required to combat increasing congestion.

“That 100 million dollar UTP [unified transportation plan] that we have now for a 10-year period, by 2035 really needs to be doubled. It needs to be about $200 million UTP to meet the needs of the state,” TxDOT executive director Brian Barth said last week.

“So we really need to start having that serious conversation with the legislature and building some momentum for what can we do to meet those needs in Texas, because they are needs right now.”

Aging infrastructure like Interstate 345 in Dallas —which is being planned for reconstruction — is costing the state “more and more every day” to maintain, Dallas District engineer Ceason Clemens said.

But reconstruction projects are increasingly expensive, too, given the inflationary costs of building materials and labor.

‘Generate more interest’ in public transportation
Officials say public transit can offer alternatives to decrease roadway congestion and reduce demands on Texas’ highway system. Denton County Transit Authority has seen unprecedented growth in ridership by investing in data about where to deploy different kinds of resources, like microtransit or fixed-route, DCTA CEO Paul Cristina said.

With some member cities wanting to claw back funding from Dallas Area Rapid Transit, the future of Texas’ largest transit agency is being questioned, at a time of rapid population growth. That’s where leaders say regional cooperation will be essential to moving the state forward.

Strategies like leaning into development around rail stations can help cities leverage more value out of their investments, officials say. Between 2020 and 2023, Grapevine saw a surge in real estate values and economic activity around its transit stations, according to Rich Andreski, president and CEO of Fort Worth’s Trinity Metro.

“It helps us because we’re able to generate more interest in people riding the system and accessing the system. The cities definitely can generate more property tax revenue as well as sales tax revenue, and then DART’s partnership financially in that arrangement can actually help leverage additional resources,” DART CEO Nadine Lee said.

“The idea here is that we participate financially in the future development of our cities.”

Expanding services that connect North Texas residents across cities will be central to leveraging the full power of transit to move people with greater efficiency, DCTA’s Cristina said.

That includes plans to optimize the A-train which runs from Denton to Carrollton’s Trinity Mills station where it connects with the DART Green Line. Work to make the train faster, improve frequencies and expand service two miles into downtown Carrollton should enter the design and build stage sometime in 2027, according to Cristina.

Transit 2.0, a study examining how transportation investment could help the region meet growing demand, is exploring how to best leverage shared assets to make regional transit more accessible for a rapidly expanding population.

The framework includes methods for increasing cooperation, funding and efficiency of transit as demand outstrips current roadway capacity.

The takeaway for transportation planners — and one at the heart of the question over what North Texas mobility will look like in the future — is that transit can only help alleviate roadway pressure if it’s competitive with what many Texans see as the comfort and convenience of driving.

“We have to define an overarching regional approach, but one that still incorporates local priorities,” said Mike Schneider, partner at consulting firm InfraStrategies, which helped lead the yearlong Transit 2.0 study.

“That’s not easy to do, but we know it’s important.”