Fort Worth Transportation Authority

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Fort Worth Transportation Authority is the operator of the bus system of the city of Fort Worth, Texas, popularily known as The T. The T also partners with DART of Dallas through the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), which offers commuter rail service from downtown Fort Worth to DFW Airport and downtown Dallas.

The T is also nickname of Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and Pittsburgh's Port Authority of Allegheny County.

1 History
2 Current Service Offered
3 Expansion
4 Labor relations
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Through the early 1970s, bus transit services in Fort Worth were provided by City Transit Company, a private enterprise. Starting in 1974, the city's Traffic Engineering Department began coordinating bus operations. In 1978, the city established the Fort Worth Department of Transportation, which took over public transit operations. These operations included the City Transit Service (CITRAN) and the Surface Transportation Service (SURTRAN), with transportation services for the handicapped (MIPS) being added in 1979.^[1]

On November 8, 1983, voters approved formation of The T. To finance the system, voters levied a half-cent sales tax. The CITRAN, SURTRAN, and MIPS services were folded into the new agency, along with carpool and vanpool coordination.

The agency's first addition came on November 5, 1991 when the small suburb of Lake Worth voted 344-206 in favor of joining the T. That prompted three more elections on May 2, 1992 when Blue Mound, Forest Hill and Richland Hills had the issue of joining the agency on the ballot. Blue Mound and Richland Hills voted in favor while Forest Hill declined the measure nearly 2-1.

The T saw its first departure when voters in Lake Worth approved a pullout in September of 2003. Service withdrawal became effective on March 21, 2004. Lake Worth had previously tried to pull out in 1996, but that measure failed.

In 2001, the T saw it's cooperation efforts with DART pay off as the Trinity Railway Express reached downtown Fort Worth. The other end of the line terminates in downtown Dallas.

The TRE commuter line has a daily ridership of 9,100 [6] and is the tenth most-ridden commuter rail system in the country.

[edit] Current Service Offered

The bulk of the T's operations involve 36 bus routes within the service area. Most route through Downtown Fort Worth, where the TRE has two train stations, Intermodal Center and the T and P Station. The ITC is the major transit station for the T, as the TRE trains and 20 bus routes meet.

The T also operates a vanpool/carpool service. A vanpool/carpool is a group of at least seven people who share the costs of getting to and from work. These individuals usually live and work near each other. Monthly fares will vary, depending on the origination point of the van and the daily miles involved. Riders pay only for the portion of the trip they use. For instance, if the service picks up riders in different counties, it’s possible that some riders may pay a few dollars more or less than others.

The last service The T offers is the Mobility Impaired Transportation Service. It offers door-to-door transportation within the service areas of Fort Worth, Richland Hills and Blue Mound. Trained drivers are available to assist passengers in boarding and alighting vehicles specially designed to accommodate the mobility impaired

[edit] Expansion

This article or section contains information about a planned or expected public transportation infrastructure.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available.

Grapevine citizens voted 8,058-2,898 on November 7, 2006 to levy a full cent sales tax, of which three-eights of a cent would make Grapevine part of The T and another 1/8 cent for other transit improvements, like a downtown parking garage.^[2] This includes an expansion of the commuter rail system to link southwest Fort Worth to the north end of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The new line is expected to cost 330 million US Dollars, of which 10 percent would be Grapevine's share. ^[3]

The T's Board of Directors finalized their plans in October of 2006 for the southwest-to-northeast expansion. Two commuter routes, a light rail route and a Bus Rapid Transit route were under consideration. The Board's recommendation was a commuter rail line that runs in the southwest part of the city near Altamesa and Dirks road, run by TCU and the Medical District on its way to the existing T&P and ITC train stations of the TRE line. At that point it turns northwest toward the Stockyards before tunring back northeast toward DFW airport. Preliminary plans call for 9 new stations with 11 total, though that has not been finalized,^[4] and could be contigent on other cities along the corridor joining the agency.

East of Grapevine, the commuter rail corridor is also included in DART's preliminary 2030 plans ^[5]. Together, the corridor would connect downtown Fort Worth, Grapevine, and DFW Airport with Carrollton (at a junction with both the proposed Denton County Transportation Authority commuter rail line and DART's Green Line light rail line), Addison, Richardson, and Plano.

Officials with the T are hoping the new rail line will entice non-T member cities along the line to join the transit agency in its quest to become a regional transit entity. Cities along the route include Colleyville, Haltom City and North Richland Hills. The route also goes through small parts of Hurst and Southlake. Unlike Grapevine, those cities do not have room under the state-mandated 8.25% sales tax cap for the 1/2 cent need to join. Unlike the Hurst/Bell station on the TRE, the T will not build a station along the line in those cities unless they are a member city first.^[6]

[edit] Labor relations

From Monday, November 6 through Saturday, November 11, 2006, around 100 of The T's union workers went on strike, citing the agency's policy regarding termination of employees who had used up their short-term disability benefits. This represented about a third of the workers represented by Teamsters Local 997. Service continued with delays the next morning by non-striking drivers, and The T began advertising for replacement drivers. During the dispute, bus rides on The T were free, and the agency announced that monthly pass holders will receive a 25% discount on their December passes. By Friday, replacement workers and other drivers willing to cross the picket lines had restored service to normal levels. ^[7]

The T offered a new contract proposal late in the week, which was rejected on Saturday by a vote of 37 to 21. But because less than half of the 155 union members voted, a 2/3 majority of the vote was required to reject the contract. That would have required 39 of the 58 votes, so the contract was declared "accepted". ^[8]

Service on the Trinity Railway Express was not affected, as the rail line's employees work under a different contract.

Nine years earlier, a four-day strike in 1997 shut down 75% of The T's service.