Fort Worth wants faster action on rail

Advancing with new rail idea

Marci Gilbert, Mar 30, 11.

Expressing shame that their city ranks among the lowest in the United States in public transit use, Fort Worth officials gathered Tuesday to call for faster action on developing new passenger rail lines on North Texas’ fast-growing west side, according to a story in the Star-Telegram.

“We have a desperate need for commuter rail,” Mayor Mike Moncrief said during the joint meeting of the City Council and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority at the city’s convention center.

Moncrief, who is not running for another term, called upon elected leaders to learn more about the region’s long-term transit plans, and make it a priority to hook Fort Worth’s neighborhoods—whether in the mature city center, or on the fledgling suburban edges - into that system.

Only 1.3 percent of Fort Worth residents takes transit to work, compared to 4.3 percent in Dallas, 5 percent in Austin, 7.9 percent in Denver and 54 percent in New York, assistant city manager Fernando Costa said.

Moncrief emphasized the need to move faster on a proposed commuter rail line from southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and the north end of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport—a $500 million-plus project that is now years behind schedule—and advancement of a relatively new idea: a commuter rail line from downtown Fort Worth to the AllianceTexas area in far north Fort Worth.

Moncrief noted that Fort Worth officials in the 1980s opted to focus their sales tax resources on police, fire and other public safety improvements, while the east side of the Metroplex invested its funds in Dallas Area Rapid Transit and now has one of the most expansive light rail lines in the western U.S.

“We have one of the safest cities in the U.S., but we have a desperate need for transportation,” Moncrief said. He urged council members to gain a thirst for information about how mass transit works, and how it could be made better. “How do we decide bus routes? How do we decide frequency? Where do those measurements come from? Why do we have so many people who are disabled who still don’t feel like we have the products they need to get to and from work?”

The city’s recent debate over streetcars, which the council opted not to pursue, showed that many elected leaders don’t share a common vision about mass transit, other members said.

Source: Star-Telegram