How do people get onto a manmade island in the middle of a big city? For Fort Worth’s future Panther Island, public transportation options remain to be seen.
As city officials and planners continue the reimagining of 800 acres of open space north of downtown into a flood control project that will also spur economic development, transportation to, from and on the island is being given more consideration.
“When you look at downtown, you look at the emergence of a new neighborhood on Panther Island and then, of course, the developments that are occurring in the Stockyards. It’s pretty logical to invest in transit in this corridor,” said Rich Andreski, president and CEO of Trinity Metro, Fort Worth’s transit agency. “This is where transit can really work in Fort Worth quite well.”
Although the vision for transit remains fairly conceptual, glimpses are emerging into how people will move around the future island.
Andreski said any implementation of the different options will be contingent on how the island develops. Currently, the only certain change coming is the rebranding and relaunching of the Route 15 bus that currently connects downtown to the Stockyards.
Route 15 will be rebranded as an orange bus, similar to the soon-to-be-eliminated red Dash bus, which connects downtown to the cultural district. The Route 15 service will be extended until 12:45 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and run with an increased frequency of every 15 minutes during those evenings.
The relaunch of the bus route is expected in fall 2024.
“It’s an opportunity to simplify the use of our system,” said Chad Edwards, executive vice president of strategy, planning and development at Trinity Metro. “Those frequent routes that go to major destinations for visitors, jobs, restaurants — whatever that might be — we’ll have those color codes over time. That’s kind of the system we’re trying to prepare for.”
While the original plan for Panther Island transportation featured a streetcar as the leading public transportation option in a loop around the project, a newer report dismissed that possibility because of the size and scale of the district.
However, Andreski said, a streetcar or another urban rail look-alike remains a possible option for travel from downtown to the Stockyards through Panther Island.
“(The Route 15 bus rebrand) is a forerunner to that (high-capacity) service. Someday, as development takes shape on Panther Island and downtown is further developed and then, of course, the Stockyards continues to grow, this service would evolve into a high-capacity transit service. And high capacity could be streetcar, trolley, urban rail, running in the lanes on Main Street,” Andreski said.
Accessibility was a major point of discussion in public engagement sessions for Panther Island, during which community members emphasized potential mobility challenges.
In response to the need for better mobility across Panther Island and in surrounding entertainment districts in the city, Mayor Mattie Parker’s office is creating a committee that will look at the possibilities of a fixed-rail system connecting all entertainment districts in Fort Worth, including Panther Island.
According to Parker’s office, work to create this committee is ongoing and details will be shared in the future.
The city’s transportation and public works department is also working on a future mobility study for the island that connects to the Stockyards, downtown and Butler Place, a former public housing project across the tracks from downtown.
Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., said any future infrastructure decisions will be made with mass transit in mind. As Panther Island develops, it will become a significant piece of the puzzle when it comes to innovative transportation options along the downtown-Stockyards corridor.
“The idea of testing out innovative modes of routes as a function of density and riders — right now, it’s very premature to even have that kind of conversation,” Taft said, noting there currently is only one apartment complex on Panther Island. “What Panther Island was talking about doing — connecting downtown to the Stockyards with a more appealing, easier-to-use transit route — that’s very interesting, and I think it’s got great potential.”
Ultimately, several of these proposals are mid- to long-term projects but the goal remains the same, Andreski said.
“It’s not just a question of transit. It’s a question of what transit can do for tourism and economic development,” he said.
Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @ssadek19.
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