Downtown Fort Worth's subway may be nearing the end of the tunnel.

Fort Worth's miniature subway is so cute and historic that it's easy to forget how handy it is for residents and how crucial it is to relieving downtown parking woes. Granted, the Tandy Center subway is a mere pinhole in the prairie compared to something like the New York City subway system. Then again, Fort Worth doesn't have rats the size of Great Danes eating our children, badda bing.

The Tandy Center subway tunnel stretches only 1,400 feet, and its track covers barely a mile. A subway car doing 25 mph can traverse the entire length of track and make three station stops in just a few minutes. But size isn't the only thing that matters. Downtown workers and visitors adore the tram that has provided millions of people with free rides since it debuted 39 years ago as the Leonard's Subway.

The free ride, however, is about to come to an end -- something officials of RadioShack Corp., which owns the subway and the parking lot, announced late on Feb. 22. Oddly enough, that was only three days after a company spokeswoman told Fort Worth Weekly that its upcoming story predicting the subway's closure was "premature" because "a lot of discussion" was still needed before the subway's future could be decided.

RadioShack timed its pre-emptive strike for about 5 p.m. on a Friday, typical timing when a company doesn't want a news story to draw attention. Newspaper deadlines and happy hours are looming, markets are closed, sources have gone home, and few business reporters work weekends to do follow-up stories.

The company's ploy appeared to work in the short run. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram buried a story at the bottom of its business news section cover on Feb. 23 announcing the subway's demise. The story mainly regurgitated RadioShack's spin that their current parking lot will be replaced with covered parking for RadioShack's downtown employees, who were "overjoyed."

The story failed to mention that a whole lot of people who use the parking lot and subway but won't have access to the company's new covered parking are, you might say, under-joyed. Among them: thousands of jurors and county employees who now depend on the subway and the riverside parking lots.

About 1,800 jurors a week travel to the downtown courtrooms, and most ride the subway, said Tarrant County Juror Services Administrator Peggy Matthews. "It's vital, it's very vital," she said. "It's the only free parking we have. Jurors only get $6 a day, and that doesn't pay for parking. The Tandy subway has really been the only way for the majority of our jurors to get up here."

Recent real estate transactions that will soon alter downtown's skyline and expand its perimeter spelled the last stop for the subway. The beginning of the end came in November when RadioShack, formerly Tandy Corporation, paid $20 million for the Ripley Arnold public housing complex and announced plans to replace those red brick units with a sprawling corporate campus. RadioShack has long been headquartered in the Charles D. Tandy Center's twin towers a few blocks away, where the subway now terminates.

After 25 years of ownership, RadioShack sold the towers in December to PNL Companies, a development firm that plans to convert the property into a combination of residential and office space. PNL didn't buy the subway and didn't include the light rail in its redevelopment plans.

RadioShack's corporate complex is expected to be complete in three years. The company's 2,500 downtown employees continue to use the subway to commute to the Tandy Center from the free parking lot near the Trinity River, but RadioShack appeared to have little incentive to keep the subway beyond 2005.

RadioShack officials were vague and noncommittal about the subway's future. "There is still a lot of discussion that needs to be handled about where and how the subway will play into our future headquarter plans," RadioShack spokeswoman Kay Jackson told a Weekly reporter on Feb. 19. "It's too premature right now. We're still looking at site plans and how the building is going to be situated."

Tarrant County officials are the group most worried about the tram's demise, since thousands of the county's workers and jurors rely on it. RadioShack has long allowed free parking at its huge lot, which lies between the Trinity River and the Ripley Arnold housing project. The company gives free rides to everyone, not just company employees. RadioShack doesn't release ridership figures, but the subway consistently carries passengers throughout the day and is packed during morning and afternoon peak hours.

Hundreds of Tarrant County employees and other downtown workers also use the subway each day. So do shoppers at Fort Worth Outlet Square mall, where the subway drops off and picks up passengers every few minutes. People who ride the subway save $5 or $6 in parking fees and avoid a long walk that includes a steep hill. "It's beneficial to the people," said Ted Christopher, an attorney who for 35 years has parked at the Tandy lot and hopped the subway for court appearances. "Downtown doesn't have a lot of parking."

Tarrant County purchased the downtown Tandy Technology Center and an adjoining parking garage in December. Jurors could eventually park there and at another county parking garage currently being built farther east on Belknap Street. Still, it is doubtful that 1,800 parking spaces a week will be available for jurors. And those county garages won't help the other downtown workers, visitors, and tourists who now use Tandy's 3,000 parking spaces and subway.

The subway is one of the only privately owned subways ever built. Leonard's Department Store was downtown's major retailer during the first half of the 20th century, thriving during the 1920s boom years, surviving the 1930s depression, and becoming a household name by the 1940s. The Leonard's owners built the subway in the early 1960s to transport shoppers from its Trinity River parking lot to its store near Throckmorton and Third streets. The initial vision was to extend the tracks all the way to Seventh Street. They tried to get other retail stores and government entities to share in the costs, but found no takers, so they built the subway with their own money and ended the tracks at their store's basement.

The free parking and subway ride are credited with helping Leonard's remain a viable downtown shopping center in the 1960s despite a trend of stores abandoning downtown for the suburbs. Leonard's owners sold their store to Tandy in 1967. The department store remained open under the Leonard's name until 1974, when Dillard's bought it. The building was leveled and replaced by the towers and a connecting retail center in the late 1970s. Dillard's moved out in 1995, and the retail center was developed into Fort Worth Outlet Square mall the following year. Through it all, the subway kept running.

RadioShack sent a memo to subway drivers after the Tandy Center was sold, stating the subway would remain in operation, said subway driver Don Dees. However, RadioShack officials closed the subway on Sundays beginning in May 2001, and discontinued Saturday service in September. The Outlet Square's small museum that showcased the history of Leonard's and the subway closed in August.

Danny Castillo will lament the subway's loss. He grew up in the 1940s in a house near the Trinity River. As a 21-year-old apprentice plumber, he helped install a drainage system in 1962 in the newly dug subway tunnel. He and his wife and parents attended the subway's grand opening in February 1963. "It was a big hullabaloo," he said. "People came from all over the state and all over the country. The subway wasn't a very long ride, but it was a thrill. It's still amazing to some people."

Castillo is now retired but continues to ride the subway on weekdays. He takes daily walks downtown for exercise and climbs aboard the subway after he tires. The subway should stay, he said. "Even though there aren't a lot of shoppers left downtown, there are still a lot of people who use it," he said. "I don't think they should end it, I think they should extend it."