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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moms deserve better

Texas earns discouraging rank as 9th worst state for working moms

Working mother, best and worst states for working moms in 2026

Photo by Filipp Romanovski on Unsplash

Texas is far from the best state for working mothers, the study determined.

A new national study comparing the best and worst states for working mothers has painted a bleak picture for Texas. The Lone Star State earned a disappointing rank as the ninth worst state for working moms in America.

WalletHub's 2026 report compared the work-life balance, childcare, and professional opportunities for working mothers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine the rankings. Metrics analyzed include the quality of daycares, childcare costs, school system quality, gender pay gaps, the share of families in poverty, female unemployment rates, a parental leave policy score, the average length of a woman's work week (in hours), and much more.

The top five best states for working mothers in America are all located in the Northeast, according to the study. Connecticut claimed the top spot nationally, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Vermont respectfully rounded out the top five.

Texas ranked as the 43rd "best" state overall. The bottom three worst states for working moms are Louisiana (No. 51), Alabama (No. 50), and New Mexico (No. 49).

Texas' best ranking was in the national comparison of states with the best median salaries for women, adjusted for the local cost of living. The state ranked No. 22 overall, but it earned middling and poor ranks across numerous additional categories.

The average length of a woman's work week in Texas is the fifth-worst in the country, and the state's female unemployment rate is the 11th worst nationally. The ratio of female executives to male executives in Texas is also the sixth-worst in the U.S.

Here's how WalletHub ranked life as a working mom in Texas in other categories, where a No. 1 rank is considered the best and No. 25 is considered average:

No. 26 – Childcare costs (adjusted for the median women’s salary)
No. 26 – Pediatricians per capita
No. 27 – Parental leave policy score
No. 33 – Daycare quality
No. 35 – Gender pay gap (women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s)
No. 38 – Percentage of single-mother families living in poverty

Unfortunately, Texas' poor livability for working mothers may not surprise some. Earlier this year, Texas was dubbed the No. 4 worst state for women in a separate study by WalletHub. It shouldn't be a stretch to expect better for women — who make up nearly half of the workforce — yet still get paid 82 percent of what men make per hour.

"The U.S. still has a lot of work to do when it comes to improving conditions for working moms, given the wage gap and the lack of representation women have in certain leadership positions," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said.

He said the best states for working mothers offer equitable pay, strong career advancement, strong parental leave policies, top notch school systems, and high quality childcare and healthcare.

wallethub texas reports women's equality