DART Says “Sorry”

After nearly a week, DART's president, Gary Thomas, apologized for a malfunction that left hundreds of Mavs fans stranded underground, for close to an hour.

“We’re very sorry the incident happened last Thursday,” said Thomas.

Passengers said no one informed them of what was going on when the northbound red line train, packed with people, stalled in the tunnel under Cityplace, following the Mavs parade.

“It was sweaty, people were yelling, people getting very aggravated and it was very packed in there,” said passenger, Amanda Allbritton. The recent college graduate was among about 200 people who got off the train and walked up the tunnel to the next stop, a decision DART initially called illegal and life threatening.

“I had to be at work, I couldn't sit on that train and wait and potentially put my job in danger,” said Allbritton.

And at Tuesday night’s DART board meeting, Thomas acknowledged how trapped passengers, like Allbritton, may have felt on that train. “If I were in their shoes, I’d be worried, especially if no one talked to me about what was happening,” said Thomas. He said the agency plans to learn from its mistakes.

“It really is all about communication, our job is a figure out a way to do better job making sure the message from the operator is heard,” said Thomas.

Allbritton said the agency ruined what otherwise would have been a perfect day.

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