Fort Worth's The T marks 30th year, schedules hearing on TEX Rail environmental statement

Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) officials and riders on Friday celebrated the agency's 30th anniversary.

Since its founding in 1983, annual ridership has nearly doubled to 9.6 million, as the agency expanded bus service, vanpools and partnered to launch the Trinity Railway Express commuter-rail service, The T officials said in a press release.

On Nov. 8, 1983, Fort Worth, Texas, voters approved a dedicated sales tax that created the authority. The goal was to provide stable funding and expanded services for 5.2 million annual riders who perviously depended on the CITRAN system to travel through the growing city, The T officials said. The communities of Richland Hills and Blue Mound joined the system a few years later.

The agency's growth has included the development of TEX Rail, a proposed 27-mile commuter-rail service between downtown Fort Worth and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW). On Aug. 12, The T's board approved the project's first phase of construction.

Meanwhile, The T will host a hearing on Nov. 19 at DFW to provide the public an opportunity to review a proposed floodplain impact as part of the proposed Final Environmental Impact Statement for TEX Rail.