Trinity Metro is cutting these bus routes this fall. Will your area be affected?
Trinity Metro will reshuffle public transit routes branching into every corner of Fort Worth in September.
The transit authority Monday afternoon voted unanimously to discontinue five underperforming bus routes, replacing some services with its rideshare program ZipZone. Trinity Metro leaders plan to reallocate the vehicles, operators, and extra funds to other, more popular programs, in hopes of improving their frequency.
Trinity Metro’s 37 fixed bus routes have a ridership of hundreds of thousands every month. More than half of bus commuters use only five lines (the 1, 2, 5, 6, and 89 buses), according to authority data; its 17 poorest performing routes collectively service only 10% of riders.
Among the least used routes are Route 28 (which snakes through southeast Fort Worth to Forest Hill) and Route 45 (which twists around north side); both routes will be replaced with ZipZone services. Route 23, connecting Trinity Lakes Station and Tarrant County College’s northeast campus, will become an on-demand service. The Dash, which runs between the Cultural District and downtown, will be scrapped entirely. So will the 66 express, which runs from downtown to Candleridge.
Routes 5 and 15 are slated to be the principal beneficiaries of the reorganization. Trinity Metro plans to double the frequency of Route 5 buses (from every 30 to every 15 minutes), welcome news for the more than 500 daily riders that use the line to get between south side and downtown. Partygoers in the Stockyards will now have until 12:45am to hitch a ride on the 15 bus, one hour later than usual.
