Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex - Transportation

Transportation

The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (IATA airport code: DFW), located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, is the largest and busiest airport in the state of Texas. It is the third busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft movements and the seventh busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, transporting 59,784,876 passengers in 2007. American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, has its headquarters adjacent to DFW Airport. American, formerly the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers transported and fleet size, is a predominant leader in domestic routes and operations.

Love Field Airport (IATA airport code: DAL) is located in the city of Dallas. Southwest Airlines, the largest carrier in the world in terms of passengers carried, is based in Dallas next to Love Field.

Public transit options continue to expand significantly, though in several outlying suburbs, it remains limited. Dallas County and parts of Collin and Rockwall Counties have bus service and light rail operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit, (DART), covering thirteen member cities. With the completion of projects currently under construction, DART's rail network will grow to 90 miles of track by 2014. The Red Line extends north to Plano and southwest to Westmoreland Road. The Blue Line reaches from Garland in the northeast (with an additional 4.5 mile expansion east to Rowlett scheduled to be complete in December 2012) to Ledbetter Road in south Dallas (with an additional 3 miles south to the University of North Texas near I-20 scheduled to open in 2019). DART's most recent addition, the 28-mile Green Line, which opened in December 2010, connects Carrollton in the northwest through Downtown Dallas to Pleasant Grove in the southeast. The Orange Line, which currently parallels the Red Line from Plano to Downtown Dallas and the Green Line from Downtown Dallas to Northwest Hwy, will be extended in phases from Northwest Hwy. to Las Colinas (Irving) in 2012 and finally to DFW International Airport in 2014.

Denton County has bus service limited to Denton, Highland Village, and Lewisville (with commuter service to downtown Dallas) provided by the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA). The A-train, a diesel commuter rail line, parallels I-35E to connect Denton, Highland Village, Lewisville, and Carrollton. Several smaller towns along this line, Corinth, Shady Shores, and Lake Dallas, voted to abstain from DCTA and do not have stations. There is an across-the-platform transfer in Carrollton to the DART Green Line. A-Train service began June 20, 2011.

Tarrant County has bus service operated by the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (known as 'The T'), available only in Fort Worth. The diesel commuter train that serves Fort Worth and its eastern suburbs is operated as the Trinity Railway Express; it connects downtown Fort Worth to downtown Dallas, where it links to the DART light rail system. A station near its midpoint, Centerport, serves DFW Airport via a free airport shuttle bus. The TRE is jointly owned by FWTA and DART. AMTRAK serves Dallas and Fort Worth once daily in each direction on a route from Chicago to Austin to San Antonio, with connections at San Antonio to New Orleans, Houston, El Paso, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has thousands of lane-miles of freeways and interstates. The Metroplex has the second largest number of freeway-miles per capita in the nation, behind only the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Like most major metropolitan areas in Texas, most interstates and freeways have access roads where most of the businesses are located; these access roads have slip ramps that merge onto the freeways and interstates. North-south Interstates include I-35 and I-45. East-west routes include I-30 and I-20. I-35 splits into I-35E and I-35W from Denton to Hillsboro: I-35W goes through Fort Worth while I-35E goes through Dallas. I-30 connects Dallas and Fort Worth, and I-45 connects Dallas to Houston. HOV lanes currently exist along I-35E, I-30, I-635, US 67, and US 75. I-20 bypasses both Dallas and Fort Worth to the south while its loop, I-820, loops around Fort Worth. I-635 splits to the north of I-20 and loops around east and north Dallas, ending at SH 121 north of DFW Airport. I-35E, Loop 12, and Spur 408 ultimately connect to I-20 southwest of Dallas, completing the west bypass loop around Dallas. A large number of construction projects are planned or are already underway in the region to alleviate congestion. Due largely to funding issues, many of the new projects involve building new tollways or adding tolled express lanes to existing highways.