On Wednesday, Texas’ Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) will celebrate exceeding one million A-train passengers since the agency launched A-train commuter rail service on June 18, 2011.

In fiscal year 2012, the first full year of operation, the A-train carried 387,478 passengers. With the implementation of midday service and other schedule improvements since the launch of service, ridership is projected to exceed 500,000 this fiscal year.

In total, the A-train has carried 1,006,397 passengers, as of last week, in less than 28 months of operation.

“Over the past year, we’ve fully implemented the new Stadler GTW vehicles and implemented several improvements to the A-train schedule. These recent operational improvements combined with the increase in demand for an I-35E commute alternative, A-train ridership has steadily increased,” expressed Dee Leggett, chief operations officer. “We expect to easily exceed 500,000 passengers in fiscal year 2014.”

DCTA staff will celebrate exceeding one million passengers onboard the late afternoon A-train trips and will greet passengers with goody bags. In addition to the onboard celebration, DCTA will also host a media event at the Euline Brock Downtown Denton Transit Center where members of the DCTA executive team will greet and thank passengers as they disembark train #5946 arriving in downtown Denton at 6:06 p.m.