Fort Worth Streetcar

Page in progress.

Thanks to the Fort Worth Central City Redevelopment Committee, there is once again a light rail proposal in the works for our city. With all the terms and information floating around out there, how’s a person to make sense of it all?

With Fort Worthology, that’s how.

This page will serve as a repository of information on the Light Rail proposal. To make sure you know where we’re coming from, Fort Worthology wants to see this proposal happen very badly, and we feel this is an extremely important city issue. If you feel the same way, we encourage you to tell the council, the mayor, and the media how you feel.

That out of the way, let’s get right into it. This is the proposal’s system map, showing all lines presented to the council:

According to the proposal, the system could easily be built in phases. The proposed earlier phases are the Downtown-to-Cultural District line (excluding the Ridglea Village extension), the Downtown-to-Bluebonnet Circle-via-Fort Worth South line, and the Downtown-to-Texas Wesleyan-via-Evans/Rosedale line. The Ridglea Village extension, TRV/Mercado/Stockyards, and Six Points lines could be added on later.

You may notice that the lines follow existing streets. That’s because this is not a light rail line in the style of DART’s, with heavier trains running on dedicated right-of-ways. This is, in fact, a modern streetcar system, like that found in Portland, Oregon. It runs on-street, just like the streetcars of the past, and can navigate compact neighborhoods with ease.

Why not DART-style Light Rail?

Put simply, streetcars are more appropriate than light rail to connect urban neighborhoods. They can operate in mixed traffic, preserving the traffic patterns of neighborhood streets. They can stop more frequently and offer a more flexible service appropriate for a high density neighborhood. Streetcar systems can be built less expensively, more rapidly, and with less disruption from construction than light rail lines.