DART, Fort Worth T seek private partner to help build Cotton Belt corridor

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T)might establish a public-private partnership (PPP) to build a regional rail line in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The agencies recently issued a Request for Information, seeking firms that would be interested in helping to design, construct, operate, maintain and finance a passenge-rail service along the Cotton Belt Rail Line beginning as early as 2013.

The majority of the service would operate on a 54-mile, DART-owned rail corridor that extends from Wylie, Texas, north and east of Dallas, and west to Fort Worth. The line would serve Plano, Richardson, Dallas, Addison, Carrollton and Fort Worth, as well as DFW International Airport.

The T currently is developing plans to establish rail service on another corridor in southwest Fort Worth, which could become part of the PPP and connect to the Cotton Belt line in the northern part of the city. The Cotton Belt corridor also would connect with DART's Red and Green lines, the Denton County Transportation Authority's proposed passenger-rail service between Denton and Carrollton, and the Trinity Railway Express line at the Intermodal Transportation Center and T&P stations in Fort Worth.