Airport Access

City life improves with imminent opening of DART rail line to DFW Airport

Life in Dallas is poised for improvement, with the August 18 opening of a DART rail stop at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The service is part of the Orange Line, with a platform located between International Parkway and the north service road near Terminal A. It's the end point on a 4.7-mile extension from the Belt Line station.

The service creates an alternative to the current slate of more costly options such as the $50 cab ride, $20 shuttle or the minimum daily parking fee of $20. It joins other recent customer-friendly transportation models such as Uber and Lyft in making Dallas an easier, more urban place to live or visit.

Prior to the August 18 opening, DART will start the new schedule on August 4, to work out the kinks. Changes will primarily involve early morning and afternoon adjustments on existing Orange Line service between Belt Line and Parker Road stations, plus additional late-evening downtown Red and Blue Line trips. Green Line schedules will remain unchanged.

Fares and service frequencies remain the same, but some departure and arrival times will change. Earlier and later trips are being added, including five weekday morning trains entering service at Fair Park Station, plus a 5:18 am trip originating from Buckner Station, all continuing to DFW Airport Station at Terminal A.

Two bus routes that currently feed into the Orange Line at Belt Line Station will see some service changes, beginning on August 18. One will bring service to an emerging commercial and residential area, and the other meets a demand for expanded hours of operation.

Route 500 will no longer operate west of Freeport Parkway, but it will extend through Freeport to the Cypress Waters section of Dallas, north of Irving. Service will follow Freeport, Esters Road, Royal Lane, Royal Crossing, Regent, Belt Line, Saintsbury, Cypress Waters, Chapel Oaks and Water Mill.

Route 500 bus service between Terminal A and CentrePort/DFW Station of the TRE will be discontinued. TRE passengers will still be able to access airport terminals using the DFW shuttle from CentrePort. Buses on the new Route 500 will still run daily but less frequently: every 30 minutes during rush hour and every 40 minutes at other times.

Route 509 will be expanded to include Saturday service, once per hour, all day.

For more information, visit DART.org/dfwairportstation.

DART's DFW Airport Station is part of the Orange Line.

Photo courtesy of DART

DART's DFW Airport Station is part of the Orange Line.

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Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates pilfer nearly $2B worth of Texas packages, study shows

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

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’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

holidays porch pirates crime