Need help planning a day trip using TRE (Dallas, Fort Worth: spring break, transfer to)

[jcamber]

Hi everybody,

my 3 year old son LOVES trains. I would like to take the whole family down to Fort Worth, jump on the TRE and go to Dallas on a morning, explore around, have lunch and then travel back to Fort Worth. Questions I have are :

1. There seems to be two stations in Fort Worth, T&C and ITC - no idea what these acronyms mean. Which would would be more conducive to the type of trip I'm wanting to take?
2. I'm thinking about arriving at Union Station (I think that's the station over by the American Airlines center?). What places can I visit within walking distance to this station?
3. What family restaurants would be worth checking out close to Union Station?

thanks!

[ChristieP]

There's not much at Union Station, but if you hop on the DART red line and go up to West End, the Dallas World Aquarium and several fun restaurants are an easy walk.

[jbb303]

ITC (Intermodal Transportation Center) has very little (if any) free public parking. T&P (Texas and Pacific) has more free parking but I haven't been to that station since the first year the TRE began service in Fort Worth. If you're in Keller, you could get to the Hurst/Bell station just as easily and it usually has some parking open throughout the day.

Here's an idea that would be great fun if your son loves trains. My wife and I did the same trip during spring break a few years ago and it was a lot of fun. Take the TRE to Union Station and transfer to either the DART red or blue line going north. Get off at the station at Cityplace and follow the signs to the escalators that lead to the west side of Central Expressway. At the surface, you can catch the McKinney Avenue Trolley and ride it to any number of restaurants. If you check out their website, you can probably find some type of family/kid friendly restaurant in Uptown or the West Village. If not, take Dart back south to the West End and there are a handful of family friendly places (Spaghetti Warehouse is the only coming to mind right now). That's 3 different types of rail for only the cost of your $10 TRE fare (your 3 year old rides free).

That's just an idea. It may be a long trip both ways for a 3 year old to sit still for well over an hour. But that's really the only drawback for a day trip that would cost very little.

[RockyJoe817]

If you live in Keller, the TRE on Handley Ederville Road at 121 in Haltom City may be the closest TRE connection to you. Other choices would be Downtown fort Worth or behind the Bell Helicopter in Hurst.

Once your in Dallas, You can do the walking tour, the trolley, dart bus, or bicycle taxi can give you a tour of Dallas in addition. There are some sandwich shops and other types of eateries which populate Dallas. The El Fenix just north of Woodall Rogers is good.

[jbb303]

I intentionally left the Handley-Ederville station out of my post because parking there between rush hours is almost non-existent. There's ongoing construction to add more space, but I think it's a still a few months away from completion.

[jcamber]

yeah I saw the stations in between but I figured my son would want to "maximize" his time on the train LOL and thus I was thinking of just going down to Fort Worth and go across to Dallas.

It looks like departing from the T&P station is the better choice. An important point is, I'd like to do this on Saturday. Do you guys know if the TRE runs on non-working days as well?

jbb> I didn't know about the trolley -that sounds fun! my son will probably freak out happy when we do all this stuff. Thanks!

[jbb303]

It was a lot of fun for us, a couple of adults in our 30s. We're going to do something like that again with my daughter when she's a little older and more tolerant of sitting still for so long.

All 3 services run on Saturday, but with a more limited schedule. Just check the TRE, DART, and MATA schedules carefully on their websites and you shouldn't have any problems planning things out, especially if you want to make a whole day out of it.

[hypocore]

The ride from the Handley Ederville station (which is actually in Richland Hills) takes about 30 minutes to get to downtown Dallas and the view is not a particularly pretty one. You pass through lots of industrial areas and some undeveloped area as well. It becomes boring somewhat quickly for many kids unless they are completely into trains.

Parking at that station is only a problem if you are in a hurry and have to park quickly. If you have enough time before hand, you can usually find a place to park.

[loves2read]

the TRE has a website
and it also has the ability to connect to DART's so you can see how you can catch other trains
Schedules - Trinity Railway Express (TRE)

have you considered the historic train in Grapevine that runs into FTW?

[jcamber]

Originally Posted by loves2read

have you considered the historic train in Grapevine that runs into FTW?

Yep. But it's $18 per kid (I have 3) and the TRE is only $2 roundtrip. We also have not been to Dallas much and I think this would be a great opportunity to go out there and visit.

Thanks for the TRE URL!