DENTON, Texas — The Denton County Transportation Authority’s A-Train, a 21-mile commuter line operating between Denton and Carrollton, Texas, has announced plans for a 2-mile extension, allowing a direct connection to rail service to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The agency announced last week that it will extend the line from its current southern endpoint — the Trinity Mills station in north Carrollton — to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Downtown Carrollton station, to be used by the commuter rail Silver Line. From there, it will be three stops on the Silver Line to Terminal B at DFW airport. Without the extension, A-Train passengers would need to change to DART’s light rail Green Line for one stop, then switch to the Silver Line.
The DCTA did not immediately announce a timeline for the project, but the Denton Record-Chronicle reports it will come after the Silver Line begins running late this year or in early 2026.
Currently, to reach DFW airport by rail, A-Train passengers must take a roundabout route involving riding on the Green line for five stops, then changing to the Orange Line for seven stops to the airport’s Terminal A.
The DCTA says it also plans to work to increase the speed of its route, and in the long term to add track and signal capacity to allow trains to run on 15-minute headways during peak periods. Currently, trains run on 30-minute headways for most of the day.
Is the A Train electric? The Silver line is not. It’s propelled by diesel locomotive.
To comments about the A-Train running to the airport: take a look at the Downtown Carrollton station, where the change from A-Train tracks to Silver Line tracks would occur. There really isn’t a good place to build a direct connecting track. There’s an apartment block (which looks to be about 8 years old from Google Earth aerials) on the ideal place for said track. Anywhere further north, there’s other buildings and no good place to cross I35-E. You *might* be able to use an existing connecting track in the northeast quadrant, but that area was rebuilt for the Silver Line and changed up the layout. A train going from Denton to the airport would have to go half a mile past the Carrollton station, reverse direction, and then come back to the Carrollton station to access the Silver Line tracks. And changing directions would take a while since the operator would need to change cabs.
Would it be possible to run A-Train to the airport? Well, technically yes. Would it be very expensive to do directly or time-consuming to do indirectly? Also yes. Unless the Silver Line proves very crowded I think a transfer at Carrollton is the way to go.
It shouldn’t be a connection. It should simply RUN TO THE AIRPORT. A couple of years ago I was doing some work in that area and looked up the schedule. There was also a weird gap between stations (9 miles or something absurd) so it didn’t stop near where I needed to go.
American transit agencies so often refuse to see themselves as part of a whole system. It’s very very weird.
Now, if DCTA were less timid, they would ask DART for trackage rights over the Silver Line from Downtown Carrollton to DFWIA-B to provide through service, rather than requiring a change of vehicle at Carrollton. DCTA could do that without buying additional vehicles by sharing “standby” equipment with DART. It would require some minor additional track work at Downtown Carrollton but is well within the range of the possible.
As indicated in the second map, the A-line’s current southern endpoint is Trinity Mills, not North Carrollton which it does not serve.
Correct. The DART Trinity Mills station in Carrollton is the terminus for the DCTA’s A-train commuter rail line… Remember that the line’s current rolling stock consists of 11 Stadler GTW 2/6 units using diesel-electric hybrid motive power.
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