It will take more than a year until ground is broken for the proposed TEX Rail commuter line connecting Southwest Fort Worth to Grapevine and the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

But officials with the City of Grapevine and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority are spending time this year getting their plans in order. For The T, that means overcoming some hurdles, such as submitting a federal environmental impact study and receiving approval from the Federal Transit Administration to proceed to the final design phase. Both processes are anticipated to begin next year, pushing the project back from the timeline Grapevine and TEX Rail officials had originally planned.

Construction cannot begin until the project receives the FTA's final approval for a full funding grant agreement, which guarantees federal funding, said Dick Ruddell, president and executive director of The T.

The T is awaiting FTA's answer on whether it can enter preliminary engineering for the project—a decision that could come as early as next week. The current plan is to have the TEX Rail in service in 2016, rather than the end of 2015 as previously planned.

Last year, The T submitted its application for a federal New Start grant. The T is seeking $300 million, which will cover half of TEX Rail's anticipated cost.

Meanwhile, Grapevine already purchased a vacant building for its proposed TEX Rail station and council members have begun discussing what the city's future rail station will look like. Residents will continue to offer input to that process, officials said.