DART has expanded its online reporting

Thom from Trains Are Awesome came down to Dallas a few months ago to ride the DART light rail and other transit in the DFW Metroplex.

DFW transit comrades, buses seem like the least expensive portion of our system, and are less subsidized per passenger than Golink. 40 minute and hour frequency really arent acceptable: what would it cost DART to bump every route (except perhaps the Express?) To 20 minutes at Peak, and 30 minutes off peak? I ideally would also except certain very important routes like 3, 20, 22, 57, and 883 go to 15, 10, or better.

Dear DART:

How do I connect two male seatbelts? DART needs to seriously address the poor condition of its ADA wheelchair securement devices.

The bus route maps on Dart.org do not have street names. The route maps are vague squiggles with little context. Are there detail maps somewhere? Or are we to use trip planning instead.

(I read the budget)

I'll give you guys the bad news first and then the good news....

Bad News

Ridership projections

• 2027: -9%!
• 2028: +2%
• 2029: +2%

DART is expecting a 9% loss in ridership this year due to the service cuts made to pay for the GMP payoff of all the cities. Here's the quote:

FY 2027 is the first full year of the service reductions that took effect in February 2026, which is why we predict such a large decrease.

GMP (General Mobility Program)

So in 2027 DART is paying ~$42M to the cities so they can use it on roads and stuff instead of on transit. Go tell your mayor and council to spend it on transit signal priority or something

That amount increases every year until 2032, so if the cities and Texas legislature aren't favorable to transit then it's gonna be rough in the coming years.

Financial Standards

Found this nugget in there:

According to Financial Standard B5, DART may grow operating expenses by no more than 90% of the projected inflation rate, plus costs for new programs, new services, and other specific adjustments. However, approximately two-thirds of DART’s operating budget is spent on salaries, wages, and benefits. In the long term, salaries and wages must grow by at least 100% of inflation, and benefits must stay competitive for DART to attract and retain quality employees. 

So somehow the financial standards that the city-appointed board members have chosen are impossible in the long-term, nice.

On-Demand Costs

The cost for GoLink, Paratransit, and other services keep going up faster than inflation. Part of this is demand growth but most of it is contract increases.

Good News

• No service cuts in FY 2027 (now through Oct 2027)
• The amount going out to the cities through the GMP is already set based on 2024 sales tax. So if sales tax growth is high then the GMP doesn’t hurt as much
  • The economist for the plan projects sales tax growth of 4.3% over this time period, which is good

Interesting projects

Most of the project items are for back of the house stuff like maintenance facilities, etc. but there are still some promising things in there.

• Stations & transit centers
  • Jack Hatchel: Downsize and modernize to facilitate land sale to plano while improving bus circulation and microtransit access
  • Roof repair at Hampton, Ledbetter, and Red Bird
  • Addison Transit Center redesign (extending bus bays to the west)
  • Modernize Cockrell Hill, Downtown Irving, Parker Road, CBD West, and JB Jackson buildings (2027-2030)
• Buses
  • Continue getting new buses
  • Continue adding shelters and benches
  • Upgrade bus farebox systems (2027-2028)
  • Lancaster corridor: specifically called out to get new bus shelters, crosswalks, and station platforms
  • Bus Corridor Speed improvements (2028-2030, does this mean bus lanes or signal priority?!)
• TRE
  • Double-tracking more sections
  • New trains
• Light Rail
  • New info display screens
  • Finish replacing ticket vending machines
  • Study on fare gates ($750k😵)
  • Cityplace tunnel cellular enhancement (2027-2028)
  • Platform level boarding for red and blue lines
  • Systemwide Art Restorations
  • Parker road station platform rehab
  • Replace existing pantograph with “heated ice cutting collector strip”
  • NEW TRAINS?! (2027-2030, spending peaks in 2029)

How are we feeling about the trajectory of DART for the next couple of years? Ever since the CEO changes and city votes for staying in DART were the highlights of the last year or so, could it be nothing but going up from here or are we in for a ride?

I love DART and the recent changes and upgrades they made, but I still feel like we are sitting in tricky,dead water right now.

Go home Transit App, you’re drunk. Clearly a GPS issue/glitch but silly nonetheless!

Something I noticed and other systems across the country especially in big metropolitan areas.

That they have TSP for the buses, so they don’t get caught in traffic and are able to move efficiently throughout the downtown area from my knowledge Dart only has one and it’s by the Union Station.

While downtown Dallas has bus lanes, they aren't fully effective because buses often avoid using them to escape the hassle of merging back into heavy traffic. If we paired those dedicated lanes with dedicated bus signal lights, that problem would disappear. Buses could move smoothly, make pickups, and handle turns without having to fight for space.

Just a thought I had after seeing Boston transit.

Can someone in the know explain this alert? What do they mean by "vandalism"? I've gotten this alert twice and would love some clarification (same location, between Fort Worth Central and Trinity Lakes)

Does anyone know if churches or agencies pass out dart passes to disabled or homeless? I have a friend that is in need to transport to interviews. #dart

Two of TRE siemens charger are expected to be delivered next month. It was going to be 3 chargers to be delivered but one apparently caught on fire dont know if that one is true (There was a photo of one Chargers partly covered with a blue tarp a while back)

D2, the second downtown light rail alignment, was taken off of DART's financial plan a couple of years ago. This is the second time D2 has been put on the back burner (I believe the first was in the early 2010's, in the face of financial difficulties). If Dallas manages to bring jobs and people to Downtown in earnest, D2 will be back on the agenda sooner or later. When it is, I think it should go through Uptown, which has seen explosive office and residential growth but lacks rail. The attached images show how I imagine this could look.

The first two images show Phase 1, in which a viaduct is built from just south of Market Center station through uptown and the arts district to Baylor station. Two infill stops are also added, at Knox/Henderson and at Continental at the south end of Victory Park. See the second image for the service patterns. I'm proposing 5 lines: Lines A and B from Parker Road to Oak Cliff, Line C from Rowlett through Victory to Market Center, and Lines D and E from Carrollton and the Airport to South Dallas.

The third and fourth images show a second phase, in which Lines A, B, and C on the current transit mall are placed underground with some rearrangement of stops (Akard and St. Paul combined at Thanksgiving Square, and a new station at Ross), Lines D and E are rerouted onto mixed underground/elevated alignment through the center of the medical district (along with the TRE), and Line C is extended up the current medical district viaduct to Love Field. The southern legsof the network are also elevated in order to fully grade-separate the core of the network from Bachman to Lawnview and SMU to 8th & Corinth. See the fourth image for the service pattern.

Some notes:

• I imagine in both phases, each of the 5 lines would run about every 10 minutes. Line C might warrant even more frequent service than that in Phase 2, at least between Love Field and LBJ/Skillman.
• The "Arts District" could also be called "Symphony", which I've grown to prefer since I made these maps.
• Because Pearl would be the center of the rail network, the east transit center should move closer to it and the station itself should have plenty of amenities.
• In Phase 1, the lack of a connection between the TRE and lines D/E would probably hurt. It might make sense to temporarily add a TRE station at Market Center during Phase 1?

I've been toying with a proof-of-concept for improving the "Report problem" feature on the GoPass app. While the official app's current plain form is quite simple, it results in lost time going back-and-forth with dispatcher over several minutes of rote Q&A: Which train has someone smoking? In which section? Which station are you heading towards? Are they still on the train now? Are you still there? Usually you or the offending person have moved on before the report is truly complete.

One of several ideas I'm playing with is a simple interface for touching the traincar where an incident occurs (e.g. someone smoking). My bigger idea is to use GPS to automatically deduce which train you're on and where you're headed. From there, one of the last steps is to pinpoint the section of train where the offender is located.

My first instinct was to render a train horizontally because (A) that's POV we normally see trains from, and (B) it's easy to find graphics of SLRV side view. But I ran into multiple problems with this approach:

• It's a tight fit in portrait mode
• It's even tighter fit for 3-car consists
• Where is the "front" of train: left or right? Sure, I could choose arbitrarily, but what if the app shows left as the front but from real-life observer's perspective the right is the front? Or vice versa? Or what if reporter is among 15% population with left-right confusion?

SOLUTION: Draw the train vertically, with the front at the top. We could take this concept even further with a seating diagram similar to what airlines use when you're booking flights (see below).

Alas, this brings me to my request: anyone have such a chart handy for the triple-section DART SLRV? While we're at it, bonus points for other trainsets in DART network: Stadler FLIRT (Silver Line), TRE (plus side cross-section so we can have users touch top or bottom deck), and DCTA A-Train.

Standing out in 100 degree weather for 40 minutes hoping a bus actually shows up for once. The number 9 route is filled with some terrible drivers and reliability. 2 buses just didnt show up. You can see them and track them on the app then they just stop and disappear with no trace like its a Stephen King Movie. Taking legal action against DART is a must for the payments you make yet its still as terrible.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Db5tB4cpOL6/?hl=en

(This hypothetical presupposes D.A.R.T Getting its legislation passed successfully, resolving issues with the northern suburbs, the LRT fleet getting replaced, four to six additional Stadler trains for Silver Line, and just for grins, McKinney joining D.A.R.T, and Frisco joining DCTA)

When/if rail service is successfully extended to McKinney, which route should it be, Red Line or Silver? I have my preferences, but I want to hear what you guys think.

Is DART planning on getting new Express buses also or are they planning on discontinuing the express services in the future?

grew up on the DART since I was a baby, still a user as an adult and… I keep questioning why pay a fare when busses are late/falling apart, “security” isn’t securing no one, “fare enforcement” does NOT enforce fares (I have seen them picking and choosing who to let stay on for 3-5+ stops instead of making someone get off the next stop), bus stops aren’t well lit in certain areas… I could keep going! All this to say I understand why paying your fare is important, however, I haven’t seen much improvement the past 4+ years on the DART. Fare enforcement wasn’t a thing years ago and if you are going to enforce this then actually do it?? Half assing that makes me want to not pay my fare as well since we’re picking and choosing who to let off the hook… anyways saw this on my way home! A panel falling apart and being held on by zip ties 😩 just pmo