Fort Worth leaders want better buses and trains, but balk at the $86 million cost
Fort Worth city leaders agree that the city needs better passenger trains, buses and other transit services.
But the cost is giving them sticker shock.
Trinity Metro, the transit agency for the western half of Dallas-Fort Worth, recently asked the Fort Worth City Council for $86.1 million in improvements during the coming year. Much of the money — about $61.1 million — would be used to extend the TEXRail commuter line about two miles south to the medical district, and the remainder would be needed to build a new bus rapid transit system on the city’s east side.
That’s on top of the $10 million Trinity Metro requested about a year ago for other capital and operating needs.
Councilman Dennis Shingleton said Trinity Metro’s request “kind of blew my doors off” because of the dollars involved. He and Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray asked for more details about the scope of work and how the money would be spent.
Councilman Cary Moon doubted it was the city’s responsibility to use debt capacity to fund Trinity Metro through a bond election. The city has not done that in the past and the request would take up nearly a quarter of the city’s debt capacity.
That means council members would have to sacrifice projects they want funded in their districts to make way for Trinity Metro without a tax increase, Moon said.
“I think both of these are important,” Moon said of the TEXRail station and the planned rapid bus line on East Lancaster Avenue. “It’s not worth increasing taxes at this time.”
He suggested Trinity Metro take another look at how it spends its own dollars before requesting city funds.
The chilly reception Trinity Metro once again is receiving at Fort Worth City Hall is frustrating Jeff Davis, Trinity Metro board chairman. Davis noted that Trinity Metro’s counterparts to the east, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, are currently working on multiple projects worth more than $1 billion each.
At some point, Davis said, Fort Worth leaders have to accept that good public transportation services are expensive, but worth the investment — especially when local dollars can be used to leverage federal funds, which can then cover nearly half the overall capital costs.
“At some point, we have to a make decision in Fort Worth about what we want,” Davis said. “Do we want to have better transit and to become a better city, or do we want to continue being a bedroom suburb of Dallas?”
The latest spat began Sept. 15, when Trinity Metro president Bob Baulsir submitted a letter to the city requesting $61.1 million to extend TEXRail, which currently terminates at T&P Station on the south end of downtown Fort Worth, another approximately two miles to a planned new station at Mistletoe Boulevard.
Federal funds totaling $58.9 million are already available for the TEXRail project, as long as Trinity Metro can come up with a local match.
Baulsir also asked for $25 million to expand rapid bus service that would run along East Lancaster Avenue, from near the city’s downtown area to the historic Handley neighborhood in far east Fort Worth, near Arlington. The rapid bus project is expected to cost $160 million, including federal funds and also possibly a $50 million contribution from the Texas Department of Transportation.
On Oct. 15, Fort Worth city manager David Cooke wrote back to Baulsir, explaining that the city’s executive staff would need more details on the scope of each transit project, engineering reports, a summary of negotiations with other entities who might provide additional funding and many other documents.
Cooke also asked Trinity Metro, whose budget is approved annually by the City Council, to provide the agency’s balance sheet, income statements and cash flow statements for 2019 and 2020 and audited financial reports for 2018-2020. Cooke said city officials are concerned about Trinity Metro’s drop in sales tax revenue during the pandemic, and how the agency’s collection of a half-cent sales tax will work going forward.
Cooke also noted with concern some previous comments by Fred Crosley, Trinity Metro chief financial officer, regarding the use of new revenue funds to pay for debt service, a major expense line item that did not appear on Trinty Metro’s operating budget
“Additional documents may be requested after we review the above documents,” Cooke wrote to Baulsir.
Councilman Jungus Jordan also was among the city officials concerned about Trinity Metro’s funding request. He wondered whether it was outside the city’s jurisdiction to allocate part of the bond election to Trinity Metro, saying he wanted clarity on the law.
But Councilwoman Ann Zadeh came to Trinity Metro’s defense. She said it appeared Trinity Metro was doing exactly what the city has asked — to prepare budgets ahead of time and identify priorities. She said the metro was just being proactive about lining up funding for the system.
“I don’t think this is something we need to get really excited (about),” she said, “or worried that they’re over-asking.”
