Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Awaits Rail Service

Posted on Mon, Mar. 22, 2004 

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Awaits Rail Service

By Bryon Okada, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News


Mar. 22 - When Dallas/Fort Worth Airport's plodding
passenger trains halt service next year, the tracks
that snake along International Parkway will be
destroyed and the land will be preserved.

The train is already closed to the public, but airport
workers can ride until the SkyLink people mover starts
running.

The track land will be saved for future commuter
trains, light rail trains -- and possibly real
American bullet trains -- to whisk passengers to and
from D/FW terminals and connect them to other major
Texas cities and beyond.

"It's already part of our planning process," said Jeff
Fegan, the airport's chief executive. "You won't see
us putting a building there, or an inadvertent pylon
in the right of way."

Transportation officials envision someday linking the
region's current and future passenger rail lines to
the heart of D/FW.

Connecting different transportation modes -- air,
rail, roads -- is a key to seamless travel in big
cities.

In plans to create a statewide system of passenger and
freight travel, Gov. Rick Perry has advocated using
several forms of rail, including high-speed passenger
trains. Last month, North Texas transportation leaders
expressed support for an American bullet train to
D/FW.

"We've already worked out the alignment," said Michael
Morris, transportation director for the North Central
Texas Council of Governments. "It's over Airport
Freeway and east of International Parkway. We're
basically in the Texas 360 corridor."

Under current plans, outbound trains would speed under
D/FW's south crossover taxiway, rise onto an elevated
track, then shoot over Texas 183 and through Arlington
on what is now the Dorothy Spur to a new transit
station on the Union Pacific line.

South of Interstate 20, the track would return to
ground level, connect with Perry's 4,000-mile,
multimodal Trans Texas Corridor and head south toward
Austin, Houston or wherever.

The proposed high-speed route is supported by the
Regional Transportation Council, the metropolitan
planning organization for the Metroplex. However, it
would not mesh with plans for the Trans Texas
Corridor, which emphasize routes that skirt
metropolitan centers.

But linking to the Trans Texas Corridor could -- if
the political winds prevail -- bring quicker
environmental clearances, design streamlining and the
possibility of federal funds, officials said.

The land preserved after the airport train's demise
will allow for a two-way track, Fegan said. A long
straightaway along D/FW's SkyLink track between
Terminal D, opening next year, and the future Terminal
F will be home to the airport's transit station,
nicknamed the 13th Station.

Proposed links to the airport would include a commuter
train on the Cottonbelt line, stretching southwest
through Tarrant County to Fort Worth and northeast to
Collin County. Also included would be a light rail
line linking D/FW with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit
system.

The Trinity Railway Express on the Rock Island line is
already operating, and Morris said he believes that
more system parts can be built and operating during
this decade.

The DART line, originally envisioned to reach the
airport in 2012, may be delayed a year or two, Fegan
said last week after meeting with DART officials.

Building the 13th Station would take at least two
years, Fegan said.

But airport officials say they will be ready as soon
as construction begins on the links to the airport.

"Rail into the airport to link up with the SkyLink,
our new people mover, is one of our highest priorities
in the decade ahead," D/FW board Chairman Max Wells
said.

 

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