Trinity Metro Rolls Out Redesigned Transit Service

Trinity Metro this week rolled out a redesigned system that adds frequency, extended hours, better connections to TEXRail stations, and more direct routes that don’t run through downtown’s Fort Worth Central Station hub.

The redesign, called A Better Connection, followed a planning process in which Trinity Metro invited the public to provide feedback. The redesigned system includes no operating budget increase, and no fare increases. “The scenario that generated the most interest was a ‘walk more, wait less’ option that would provide more frequent service to more customers,” Trinity Metro said.

“We have been developing this plan for the last year or so by analyzing our routes and gathering public input about the greatest needs,” Wayne Gensler, vice president and chief operating officer for bus and paratransit, said in a release. “These changes will provide more service options and easier access for our customers – and all without any increase to our operating budget.”

In the redesign, Trinity Metro worked to “standardize the schedules” on its main north-south-east-west routes: 1, 15, 89, and 2, Sandeep Sen, the system implementation manager, said in a video presentation that accompanies the explanation of the changes. The service on those routes runs every 15 minutes between 6:15 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. weekdays, and 8:15 a.m.-6:15 p.m. weekends and holidays. Late evenings, the service runs every 30 minutes.

“We have good ridership,” Sen said in the presentation. “What we have done is we tried to standardize the schedules on these main trunk routes.”

The new system includes seven routes to neighborhoods that had no service, Trinity Metro said. 

“These routes mean new access for 27,400 people in 8,500 households,” Trinity Metro said. “They will be within 1/4-mile of a bus route as will 3,600 jobs. Additionally, 17 schools will have access within 1/4-mile.”

The Route 4 East Rosedale and Route 6 8^th Avenue/McCart will increase service to every 15 minutes. Route 4 ran between downtown and Stop Six. Under the changes, it no longer runs to downtown; it instead turns around at Cook Children’s Medical Center.

On the East Rosedale end of the route, Trinity Metro changed the terminus to the TCC Opportunity Center at Fitzhugh Avenue and Stalcup Road, from Stalcup at East Berry Street, because of complaints by bus drivers about safety, Sen said. “There were a lot of complaints from the operators about safety at Stalcup and Berry,” Sen said.

Route 6 runs between downtown and south Fort Worth. It no longer runs to Hulen Mall, but instead runs to Columbus Trail in south Fort Worth. The route 4 and 6 maps previously overlapped each other between downtown and West Magnolia, with staggered service that effectively ran every 15 minutes. A Church south of Columbus Trail and a YMCA branch in the vicinity requested service to Columbus Trail, Sen said. Trinity Metro also expanded its Crowley-Everman shuttle Zip Zone.

By going to every 15 minutes, that means 44,500 more people in 15,100 more households are within ¼-mile of high-frequency transit, and 25,100 more jobs, Trinity Metro. The two routes are within 1/4 mile of seven hospitals, 40 schools, and the Tarrant County College downtown campus.

Trinity Metro added seven route segments with new Sunday service, serving 25,600 more people in 9,300 more households and providing access to 9,600 more jobs, the agency said.

It extended service to between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on 12 routes. It combined 14 crosstown routes into eight longer routes, and changed 13 routes to allow for faster and more direct service. With “system simplification,” the bus system is running eight fewer routes.

In the system’s Northwest quadrant, Trinity Metro expanded its Mercantile Zip Zone to include TEXRail’s Mercantile Station, and expanded the North Side TEXRail Station Zip Zone.

It combined its former routes 7 and 10, both of which started at downtown, into a new Route 53 that starts at the Walmart on Jacksboro Highway and River Oaks Boulevard south to Wabash Avenue and Trail Lake Drive south of Seminary Drive. The bus route travels along University Drive to White Settlement Road, east to Carroll Street and the Foundry District, south along the west side of Montgomery Plaza, west on West 7^thStreet back to University Drive, and south again through TCU and Bluebonnet Hills. The route takes in several major grocery stores, Trinity Metro noted in its presentation.

Trinity Metro also moved its Stockyards Transfer Center to the nearby North Side TEXRail station, where the Route 15 bus line connects. “There is opportunity for out-of-town visitors to come by TEXRail, take Route 15, and go to the Stockyards area,” Sen said.

Trinity Metro also combined two routes into a new Route 54 that runs between the North Side TEXRail Station and Tarrant County College South, and does not connect at downtown.

Among changes to the West Side, Route 2, which starts at downtown and runs west along Camp Bowie Boulevard, no longer ends at Ridgmar Mall. Instead, it turns away from Ridgmar on Calmont Avenue south of Interstate 30 and continues west to Las Vegas Trail, where it turns around on the frontage road and stops between two hotels at Laredo Street. “That is a safe place,” Sen said.

On the East Side, changes include the coverage of a Fort Worth public library on its Route 21.