can you drive? It takes about 30 minutes to pick up a rental and 20 minutes to drive downtown. I think you can make it, but I would advise driving back to the airport with about 2.5 hrs to spare at least. public transport in Dallas is not very big.

For more discussion, please follow the thread as it moves to the regional forum devoted to Texas and its airports. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Are you arriving from a domestic flight or an international flight? The Sixth Floor Museum is only open until 6pm, for example.

If by public transit, then not a whole lot of time :(

The train (TRE - Trinity Rail Express) runs every half hour from CenterPort (airport) station to downtown Dallas starting at 3:10 (not nearly as frequent during the day), but you have to take the shuttle bus to get there (and back).

It's a bit of a hike from TRE to the grassy knoll and museum, or you can go to West End station via Light Rail (one stop) from Victory or Union Station.

Here's TRE airport web page, and you can find train schedules on said web site. Be forewarned, TRE is NOT world's most reliable, so you will most likely be OK, but run the risk of a train being delayed due to MX or hot weather (trains go slower when temps are over 100F 38C). It's rare, but my alert goes off about once a month about a delay.

EmailKid

The new, alternate option is the Orange line light rail, reached via the DART 500 bus from Terminal A. Total travel time should be about the same (quicker if the inbound flight comes into A), but the train runs more frequently than the TRE, and it goes directly to the West End station.

Starting this December December 2014, the train will run all the way to the Terminal A, eliminating need for the bus ride.

http://www.dart.org/riding/dfwairport.asp

Um, respectfully no and no.

I've taken the Orange line from the airport because it drops me off about 10 minute walk from my house, but it is MUCH, MUCH longer ride than the TRE :mad:

Orange line meanders and goes very, very SLOWLY, sometimes 25 miles per hour until it reaches Bachman station, so total time to downtown is about an hour v. less than half hour for TRE. And after 3:10 p.m. TRE runs every 30 minutes v. Orange Line 20.

Second no is with reference to when Orange line arrives at DFW. Per link above

As someone who has watched as Green / Orange line was being built I can assure you that progress along hotels northeast of DFW as seen from 500 bus in no way makes THIS December possible.

EmailKid

Posted schedules show 30 minutes TRE Centreport to Union Station, vs 42 minutes Belt Line to West End on the Orange line. But I've ridden enough mass transit to know that printed schedules may not be accurate, so I'll yield to your actual experience.

Best/worst months for connecting via DFW?
 

Hi all!

I remember some rather awful experiences a few years ago at DFW around June/July where afternoon storms would close the airport and leave me stranded for hours (in one case almost 24 hours) - I understand this still happens.

In this regard, during which months is DFW more likely to be affected by storm closures? Would the winter months be a safe bet (assuming it doesn't snow)?

I've got a few flights coming up (including one just before Christmas that I would prefer to play safe with!) that at appear easiest to route via DFW and I'm trying to figure out when I should avoid it.

Thanks. :-)

Well,

back when I used to connect through DFW, got stuck during a winter storm for 24 hours, so it can happen. But it does not necessarily happen every winter.

But summers and the thunderstorms with lightning can bring groundstop. IIRC this normally happens in July and August. These days I see it on the local news.

EmailKid

Echoing EmailKid I got stuck in a horrendous winter storm at DFW in March of 2008. But other than that it never happened. Here are some pictures of it below:

http://cmk10.smugmug.com/Travel/Flye...DSC01933-L.jpg

http://cmk10.smugmug.com/Travel/Flye...DSC01935-L.jpg

http://cmk10.smugmug.com/Travel/Flye...DSC01936-L.jpg

http://cmk10.smugmug.com/Travel/Flye...DSC01937-L.jpg

I'm pretty sure that's the one I got stuck in.

Oh, I seem to recall that either last winter or the one before that there were cancellations due to running out of de-icing fluid. Don't fly for work anymore ( :( ), so only learned about that on the news.

EmailKid

Wow, an airport the size of DFW managed to run out of de-icing fluid?! That's got to take some effort ...

So it sounds like outside of summer storms, weather interruptions at DFW are probably no worse than any other major airport in the US (LAX, IAD, JFK, ORD, DTW, etc.) ... would this be a fair assumption?

With the exception noted above I haven't had any problems in the last 4 years that I've been passing through DFW/DAL area. And that was quite a while before, but we did have 8 inches of snow (a record, so unlikely to be repeated) that shut down air traffic 3 winters ago. Certainly a lot more reliable in winter than EWR, ORD or DEN, to name a few.

EmailKid

I have a 4hr layover in DFW this Sat. Anyplace at the airport to get some good BBQ?

Daniel Vaughan reviewed all the options a couple of years ago. (At the time, he was the top BBQ blogger in TX; now he's "BBQ Editor" at Texas Monthly magazine).

http://fcg-bbq.blogspot.com/2011/03/...rport-bbq.html