My trip to DFW Airport on the DART train

DART’s DFW Station

DART opened their new Orange Line Monday to provide light rail service to DFW Airport, so I ventured onto the train to check it out. I admit I made it easy on myself – I traveled at nonpeak mid-afternoon – but, long story short, it was a low-stress, low-cost way to get to DFW.

Here’s how I did it.

I departed the Lake Highlands station at 2:14 p.m. (check DART schedules here) on the Blue Line and switched trains to the Orange Line at Mockingbird Station. A train change is also necessary if you board at the White Rock Station. The switch was quick and easy, but I could have boarded the Orange Line directly at Forest Lane, Walnut Hill or Park Lane Stations in LH. See a map here. (Link updated 2:53 p.m.)

After that, I enjoyed an easy one-hour ride to DFW. We glided past homes children playing in backyards, through downtown and Thanksgiving Square, past Victory Park. We had a close-up view of the gleaming new Parkland Hospital, and we were buzzed by the jets at Love Field. We saw Bachman Lake in all its splendor from our elevated tracks, and we slipped through the heart of Las Colinas past sparkling Lake Carolyn and the modern Irving Convention Center. We peeked out at Byron Nelson’s Four Seasons Golf Course and shot over the North Lake College soccer fields before pulling into DFW’s shiny new station.

There’s a (mostly) covered outdoor walk from the station to Terminal A (about 200 yards), and walkways are wide and signage is clear. When you get inside Terminal A, you’ll find helpful volunteers and a security entrance, then you can use the Skylink high speed train if your plane is boarding elsewhere.

There is no cost to park at DART stations (though parking is limited in some places) and overnight parking is now permitted, but “overnight parking at your own risk” means “don’t you dare leave anything of value in your vehicle.”

The cost of a one-way ticket on DART is $2.50. You can download the DART Go Pass app to your phone here to go paperless. You’ll save on gas and you won’t pay to park.

The train was one-third full through town at mid-afternoon and one-fifth full on the airport run. Coming home, it was about half full from the airport and quite full in town as rush hour approached (though by then I already had my seat). DART trains carry no luggage racks, and rules say you can only bring onboard what you can carry in one trip without a luggage cart and that you may not block the aisles. (If you’re a Kardashian, I’m thinking this isn’t for you. If you travel like George Clooney from Up in the Air, you can do this.)

For me, the primary benefit of taking DART to DFW is the convenience of handling a few last minute emails, the pleasure of reading a novel, and the relaxation of watching the world swish by. It’s also avoiding the guy in the car one lane over who’s hopped up on adrenaline (or whatever) and determined to cut me off on LBJ. And it’s knowing, almost to the minute, when I’ll arrive.

Thanks, DART.