Cotton Belt Trail Corridor
This highlighted regional trail corridor provides a connection between Plano and Fort Worth. The trail corridor generally follows a portion of the TEXRail commuter rail in Tarrant County as well as the Cotton Belt rail corridor in Dallas County and Collin County. Along the way the corridor links several key destinations and municipalities such as two planned transit-oriented developments in North Richland Hills, Downtown Grapevine, Old Town Coppell, Cypress Waters in Dallas, Downtown Carrollton, Addison Circle, CityLine in Richardson, and Downtown Plano.
This regional trail corridor will intersect with three other regional trails including the DFW Discovery Trail, the Dallas to McKinney Regional Trail and the Denton to Dallas Regional Trail. The total mileage of the corridor from Downtown Plano to the intersection with the DFW Discovery Trail (just west of Handley Ederville Rd. in Fort Worth) is approximately 56.95 miles. Approximately 20.6 miles of the Cotton Belt regional trail corridor exist; 21.53 miles are funded for construction; and 14.81 miles need funding for construction.
Cotton Belt Trail Corridor Map - Plano to Fort Worth (updated February 2024)
Cotton Belt Trail Location Map - Plano to Fort Worth (updated February 2024)
Cotton Belt Trail – DFW Airport to Plano
On October 11, 2018, the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) approved funding for engineering design of the trail from DFW Airport to Shiloh Road in Plano (approximately 26 miles). Currently 4.21 miles of the trail corridor exists, with 20.95 miles of the trail programmed with funding for construction as part of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Cotton Belt commuter rail project. This trail construction is funded by a variety of sources approved by the RTC, Dallas County, the local communities in the corridor, as well as other federal transportation funding programs.
Phase 1 construction consisting of several Cotton Belt Trail bridges is underway concurrently with the Silver Line rail project. DART anticipates construction of additional trail and bridge segments (Phase 2) will begin in Fall 2024 for ten miles of trail awarded funding in 2023 from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Texas Transportation Commission, the governing body for the Texas Department of Transportation. In June 2023, the USDOT announced a $25 million award from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program for construction of 5.3 miles of the trail corridor in Dallas, Richardson, and Plano. Subsequently, in October 2023, the Texas Transportation Commission awarded an additional $25 million to DART for construction of an additional 4.7 miles of the trail sections in Addison, Dallas, Richardson, and Plano. These funds supplement other leveraged funds in the corridor to complete the approximate ten miles of trail, expected to be completed and open to the public by Summer 2026.
Phase 3 trail construction along the Silver Line will complete the trail in Dallas and Addison and continue westward, occurring in the future once additional funding is secured. An additional 4.11 miles of planned trail alignment located outside of the rail right-of-way in Carrollton and Coppell will connect with the Cotton Belt Trail to ultimately form a continuous trail alignment between those cities.
Cotton Belt Trail Phase 1 and Phase 2 Construction (updated November 2023)
DART Cotton Belt Commuter Rail Project
Media
Coppell Gazette: Regional Transportation Council commits $8.2 million to Cotton Belt Regional Trail (October 22, 2018)