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ARTICLES - AUGUST 2008
Airy New Buses Ready to Shuttle Commuters to Fort Worth
Commuter Bus Service to downtown Fort Worth won’t begin until Tuesday but City
of Arlington officials and representatives from the Fort Worth Transportation
Authority got a good look at the 35-seat, two-tier buses when they climbed
aboard for a short, trial run today.
What they found inside was an airy, comfortable vehicle equipped with luggage
storage, reading lights, individual air controls and enough carpeting on the
sides and ceiling to help reduce noise levels.
The buses are fueled by compressed natural gas, an environmentally clean
substitute for gasoline and diesel.
The quick trip from the Lamar Boulevard Park and Ride Lot at I-30 and Cooper
Street to Eastchase Parkway and back followed a morning news conference.
When the service begins Tuesday morning, commuters will be able to board buses
from two Park and Ride Lots in Arlington and have a choice of downtown Fort
Worth destinations in the Intermodal Transportation Center.
The other pick up location in Arlington is the South Park and Ride Lot at I-20
and Park Springs Boulevard.
“This is a great day in Arlington,” Arlington City Council Member Kathryn
Wilemon said during her remarks. “It’s very important that we give our citizens
an alternative transportation system. Our city has deserved this for a long
time.”
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said the nonstop commuter service that will offer
three morning peak-period trips to Fort Worth and three evening peak-period
trips back is important because getting more cars off the road is just one part
of “a serious public health issue that we all need to work on.”
“Until we do that, we will continue seeing kids with asthma attacks, bad lungs,
and other respiratory ailments,” he said. “And this commuter service won’t cost
the city a penny. Sue Pope Fund understands what’s at stake and has picked up
the tab.”
The service is funded by a $75,000 grant from the Sue Pope Fund North Texas
Pollution Reduction Program, a project of Downwinders at Risk, which funds
projects that reduce ozone emissions in north Texas.
