North Texas Daily

The Denton County Transportation Authority will offer local college students free A-train commuter rail rides between the Trinity Mills Station in Carrollton and the Downtown Denton Transit Center starting August 27.

DCTA’s A-train starts at the Downtown Denton Transit Center and ends at the DART Trinity Mills Station where it connects with the DART green line. The A-train stops in Denton, Highland Village, Lewisville and Carrolton.

Faculty, staff and students at UNT, North Central Texas College and Texas Woman’s University can participate in the free promotion, which ends on Jan. 14, 2019, by presenting their university identification.

Adrienne Hamilton, DCTA communications manager, said the promotion helps their efforts to increase ridership. Back in April, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported DCTA’s A-train ridership has dropped every year since 2014.

“Increasing ridership is one of DCTA’s main priorities, and we have launched key rider promotions in the past year to encourage people to ride our system and remove any potential barriers to people riding,” Hamilton said.

Another recent effort to increase ridership is the A-train’s free fare zones, which allows riders to use the train between the Downtown Denton Transit center and MedPark station as well as between the Hebron and Trinity Mills stations for free.

Trista Moxley, UNT transportation senior communications specialist, said the promotion will help students explore areas around Denton and Dallas and provide an easy way to commute from areas along DCTA and DART routes.

Vocal performance doctorate student Yixuan Han is a fan of the promotions as long as it is free.

“It’s very good for students if it’s for free,” Han said. “It’s very convenient and a good system if they never charge students. We already have so many charges for studying.”

UNT and DCTA have been partners since 2005, and DCTA provides buses for the campus shuttles system. In May, the UNT Board of Regents approved a 10-year agreement with them.

“We work closely on a day-to-day basis and meet quite often to further discuss our growing partnership,” Moxley said.

Hamilton said the university A-train promotion is a thank you to their partners. 

“Our university partners are a significant component to our business, and this promotion provides an opportunity for DCTA to give back to some of our valued partners,” Hamilton said. 

A-train information and schedule can be found here.

Featured image: File