Woven reinforcing fabrics for such conveyor belts characterized by an improved resistance to tearing in the longitudinal or travel direction. The woven reinforcing fabric includes a plurality of weft yarns and a plurality of warp yarns aligned substantially orthogonal to the plurality of weft yarns. The warp yarns are woven through the weft yarns to define a plurality of passages arranged in substantially parallel first and second planes. At least one of the weft yarns is positioned in each of the passages and two of the weft yarns are positioned in at least one of the passages in each of the first and second planes.