At Tuesday’s work session, the Fort Worth City Council received the second part of a presentation on the Transit Moves Fort Worth Master Plan. They received the first part of the presentation at the Sept. 17 work session.
Strategy areas include:
*Improving existing transit service, including bus stop optimization, more frequency in the transit network, and longer hours, exclusive bus lanes, and peak period only bus lanes.
*Expanding service to new areas, especially as the city grows.
*Developing high capacity and premium services, such as light rail, bus rapid transit (BRT), rapid bus, commuter rail, and freeway BRT.
*Improving access to transit.
*Improving facilities and amenities, including mobility hubs, bus stops with more comfortable facilities and better amenities, and complete streets (designed to safely accommodate all users and modes).
*Making service easier to use.
“This is important for the city to really look at transit and how we move through this,” said Chad Edwards, Fort Worth Regional Mobility and Innovation Officer.
Of the many potential strategies, it was noted most are complementary, but not all. For example, light rail and BRT would not be implemented in the same corridors. Also, different approaches will have different costs and outcomes, and different combinations will be examined through the scenarios.
Scenario 1 is incremental improvements. Key elements include:
*Three high capacity transit lines, all rapid bus.
*12-route frequent transit network, comprised mostly of local routes.
*Modest but still significant improvements to service frequencies and hours of service.
*Service to nearly all areas where demand is moderate or higher.
*Short TEXRail Medical District extension.
*Longer distance trips largely served with express bus.
*Five microtransit zones for connections with jobs.
Scenario 2 is an aspirational outlook. Key elements are:
*11 HCT lines, BRT and rapid bus.
*16 route frequent transit network.
*Significantly more frequent service for longer hours on nearly all lines, but less than Scenario 3.
*Service to nearly all areas where demand is moderate or higher.
*Three commuter rail lines and four regional rapid routes for longer trips.
*Five microtransit zones for connections to jobs.
Scenario 3 is listed as a visionary city model. Key elements include:
*15 HCT lines, light rail, BRT, or rapid bus.
*19 route frequent transit network (15 minutes or better).
*Much more frequent service for longer hours on nearly all lines.
*Service to nearly all areas where demand is moderate or higher.
*Five commuter rail lines and four freeway BRT lines for longer trips.
*Nine microtransit zones for connections to jobs.
“I think we should be shooting for the visionary,” District 9 Councilwoman Ann Zadeh said.
An evaluation is designed to measure how well improvements would meet the project’s goals and objectives. Key measures will include:
*Capital costs.
*Operating costs.
*Percentage of increase in average weekday service frequency.
*Percentage of increase in average weekday span of service.
*Number of residents within a half mile of transit.
*Number of jobs within a half mile of transit.
*Number of additional residents within a half mile of transit.
*Amount of services to majority minority areas.
“That is a master plan you can build on incrementally one-by-one,” District 6 Councilman Jungus Jordan said, praising the plan, but then adding, “The elephant in the room is how do you pay for it, and how do you pay for it incrementally. Now it’s up to us to say what increments can we pay for?”
Upcoming public engagements will be on the scenarios in October and November, followed by draft recommendations in December and January. Engagement methods include a technical advisory team, the project website (www.transitmovesfortworth.com), scenario survey, project bus and public meetings.
Next steps include finalizing scenarios and evaluating them, September through early October; soliciting input the public and stakeholders, October and November; examining governance, funding, and implementation options, November and December; and developing recommendations, December through February.