DART Offers New Promises for Bus Service Improvements After Years of Complaints

Dallas City Council members Monday received new promises from Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials for bus service improvements.

It comes after years of complaints from riders and city officials about poor bus service and a big bus route overhaul in January.

At the West Transfer Center downtown Monday, passenger Teresa Williams said she still struggles with the routes that changed nearly 9 months ago. Williams said she now needs two bus routes for the trip that used to require only one.

“Which takes longer time and it's stressful, confusing, and I just don't want to travel anymore because I'm confused,” she said.

The January change was to more of a grid network to provide new crosstown service and less of the hub and spoke system that fed DART rail stations for transfers downtown.

But transfers are still necessary for many trips.

"And when I try to call the system to find out, they give me the wrong information," Williams said.

Go Link vans were added for on-demand service within zones to fill in gaps in the new network.

“For as long as I've been on council and certainly longer than that, we have been asking for a more robust bus service,” Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn said.

Confronting DART officials in a special joint meeting between the DART board of directors and the city council transportation committee Monday, DART staff members offered new promises for additional bus service changes.

“DART is looking into the future and trying to figure out how we're going to improve our system over time. We're starting from where we are today, which is building back ridership after the pandemic,” DART CEO Nadine Lee said.

Ridership is just 60% of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. As recently as June, one in four bus routes was missed altogether from a driver shortage.

It was a serious hardship for rider Luis Cabrera who works does custodial work all around the city at changing locations.

“I work late hours and stuff, like a lot of people out here, and that was a big problem before. But, it seems like it's better now. It's going pretty smoothly,” Cabrera said.

Monday’s report to the city council said missed routes are currently near zero.

The new plans called Mobility Plus call for more route adjustments, adding additional routes, more bus shelters and bus corridor improvements. Dedicated bus lanes and signal timing could be added to keep buses moving on busy streets.

Councilmember Tennell Atkins wanted answers about when the next phase of bus improvements will begin.

“I want to know how much money you’ve got because you keep saying I got to wait till 2024. But, right now I need sidewalks. Right now I need shelters,” Atkins said.

DART officials said they are still working out details.

“If we can identify additional funds that have more flexibility within our financial plan, we might be able to accelerate some of that work and make it happen sooner,” Lee said.

The DART budget receives sales taxes collected in Dallas and 12 other member cities, along with fares and federal grants.

DART has agreed to return some excess sales tax proceeds to the city to use as they chose.

City of Dallas staff has proposed using $8 million for bus shelters in underserved areas.

Some council members said bus shelters should remain a DART responsibility.

“I would love to see DART shoulder the shelters and help us with the intersections and direct more of our dollars to city streets which you also consume,” Councilmember Gay Donnell Willis said.

Mendelsohn said DART should provide free bus service since people have already paid DART with sales taxes.

Transportation Committee Chairman Omar Narvaez thanked the DART representatives for ongoing efforts to improve bus service.

“It’s great to see that you all have listened, not just to us but to our actual residents here in the city, by expanding that bus service. We’re not there yet but we’re getting there. We’re in a much better place,” Narvaez said.

Williams said she would send the DART people a message.

"We rely on you guys to get us where we need to go and we really don’t want to sightsee," she said. "We just want to go where we need to go. And that's it."

Luis Cabrera said the changes required patience.

"It’s better now that I know the routes. I had a little trouble at first because I had to stop and find out what bus goes where now and stuff. But now that I know the routes, everything is worked out pretty good," Cabrera said.

DART officials said more details on additional changes with Mobility Plus would be provided soon.