FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD) - Trinity Metro says 55,000 passengers have used TEXRail since service began January 10. TEXRail runs from T&P Station in Downtown Fort Worth to Terminal B at DFW Airport.
“We have had a tremendous response to TEXRail,” Trinity Metro CEO Paul Ballard wrote in a statement. “The high number of riders reflects the region’s desire to leave the car behind and choose public transportation.”
Trinity Metro says more than 18,000 people used TEXRail over the three day Martin Luther King Day weekend, peaking with 8,287 passengers on Martin Luther King Day itself. That has been the largest number of passengers on a single day since service started.
Trinity Metro has predicted ridership would reach 8,000 people per day by the end of 2019.
TEXRail is free through the end of January.
Trinity Metro hopes to expand the line south with a station near the hospitals on the Near Southside of Fort Worth and another near Cleburne Road and West Berry Street, about a mile east of the TCU campus.
“We agree that extending the TEXRail route is a viable option to pursue,” Ballard said. “The initial response indicates that the extension would be a popular option for medical employees to travel to work and for students to go to class.”
The TEXRail line from DFW to T&P Station cost about a billion dollars. Trinity Metro estimates an extension to the Near Southside could cost $130 million; an extension to TCU could cost another $70 million.