Riding the rails: Trinity Metro reports more passengers on its trains

Hundreds of thousands more Fort Worth-area residents are taking a train.

Trinity Metro is reporting significant growth in its rail services as the transit agency plans a 2.1-mile expansion into the Near Southside district and works with the city to determine a rail project for one of Fort Worth’s entertainment districts.

Passenger counts on the agency’s two rail services, TEXRail and Trinity Railway Express, in 2024 have exceeded ridership figures over last year.

“We’re thrilled with the numbers seen on both of our rail systems…The growth has been pretty amazing,” said Reed Lanham, Trinity Metro’s vice president of rail.

Richard W. Andreski, president and CEO of Trinity Metro, said the region’s growing population, expected to reach 12 million by 2050, has fueled train ridership during the past three years.

“This is not a service for a few,” he said. “It’s a service for a large part of the population.”

TEXRail, a 27-mile commuter train from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, is exploding in popularity — thanks in part to an agreement with the city of Grapevine to promote rail transit for tourism-related events such as GrapeFest, officials said.

Since 2021, TEXRail ridership has grown by more than 166%. The 5-year-old rail system is part of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Silver Line under construction to the east.

In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, TEXRail ridership was just 261,041 as lockdowns and social distancing took its toll. The next year, 2022, ridership started taking off, nearly doubling to 478,861 passengers. In 2023, that number boomed to 592,129 passengers.

Here is the route for TEXRail, which runs from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. (Courtesy image | Trinity Metro)

Year-to-date figures through August show TEXRail ridership in 2024 reached 711,636 — 119,507 more passengers than in 2023 so far.

Monthly figures also show significant increases. In July, 69,800 riders used the service — more than 10,000 new passengers over July 2023.

The most popular TEXRail stop? DFW Airport’s Terminal B, which had 21,100 riders in August 2024. That stop was followed by the Fort Worth T&P Station (9,400 riders), Fort Worth Central Station (8,700 riders) and Grapevine’s Main Street Station (6,900 riders).

Lanham said TEXRail’s long-term parking at stations is popular, prompting Trinity Metro to add more spaces to several spots, including the T&P Station.

Trinity Railway Express, the commuter line between Fort Worth and Dallas jointly owned and operated by Trinity Metro and DART, is also booming, ridership figures show.

Here is the route for Trinity Railway Express, a commuter train between Dallas and Fort Worth. (Courtesy image | Trinity Railway Express)

TRE ridership went from 709,297 in 2021 to 977,414 in 2022 before passengers exceeded 1 million last year. The agency reached 1.1 million passengers this year, figures show.

In August, most TRE riders — 23,000 — headed to the Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station in downtown Dallas, a rail hub that also provides service for DART and Amtrak passengers. Central Station in downtown Fort Worth was the second-most popular stop with 13,300 riders, followed by the Victory Station, just north of downtown Dallas, with 11,000 riders and the Downtown Irving/Heritage Crossing Station, which had 9,900 riders.

Monthly ridership on the Trinity Railway Express this year exceeds 100,000 riders most months.

On-time performance for both rail services exceeds 98%, Trinity Metro figures show.

On Sept. 16, Trinity Metro board of directors agreed to extend a 10-year contract with Herzog Transit Services Inc. for commuter rail operations and maintenance that includes Trinity Railway Express. The current contract expires on Sept. 30, 2025.

The five-year extension, part of a 10-year option, for TRE operations will cost about $228 million and will be split equally between Trinity Metro and DART, with each transit agency paying about $114 million, Lanham said.

Trinity Metro, which also approved a $163.7 million operating budget for the 2025 fiscal year, on Sept. 16, expects to spend about $33.7 million on TEXRail and about $19.2 million for Trinity Railway Express.

Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.

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This article was originally published by Eric E. Garcia at Fort Worth Report - (https://fortworthreport.org/2024/09/19/riding-the-rails-trinity-metro-reports-more-passengers-on-its-trains/).

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