The story
Precursor agencies
The Dallas Transit System (DTS) was a public transit service operated by the city of Dallas, from 1964 to 1983. DTS was formed by the consolidation of various privately owned transit companies and streetcar lines. Prior to DTS, the company was formerly known as the Dallas Railway and Terminal Company when Dallas had an extensive streetcar system that spanned from Oak Cliff to North Dallas. The name was changed shortly after the last streetcar ran in January 1956. DART formally took over operations of the DTS in 1988.
In 2000, DART employees restored a 1966 DTS bus to its original state.
Creation of DART
DART was created on August 13, 1983, as a regional replacement for the DTS (Although the name "Dallas Area Rapid Transit" was intended to reflect the new agency's coverage of the greater Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, its acronym DART almost immediately evoked comparisons to San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART). Citizens of 15 area cities had voted to levy a 1% sales tax to join the system by the time it began transit services in 1984 (though the formal acquisition of the Dallas Transit System wouldn't be complete until 1988).
In 1985, member cities Carrollton and Farmers Branch held elections to pull out of DART, though the measures failed. But shifting suburban politics and a loss of confidence in DART management after voters declined to support DART's measure to incur long term debt in 1988 led to seven more pullout votes, two of which (Flower Mound and Coppell) were successful. Just one suburb joined DART – the tiny community of Buckingham, which was later annexed by DART member city Richardson.
Financial scandal
In December 2007, DART revealed it was facing a $1 billion shortfall in funds earmarked for the Blue Line rail service to Rowlett and Orange Line rail service to Irving, and the DFW Airport.
In January 2008, DART announced it would divert monies from rail lines being built in Dallas. When Dallas officials protested, DART president and executive director Gary Thomas—who had known about the shortfall for at least eight months—announced the agency would borrow more money.
In late January 2008, DART Board chair Lynn Flint Shaw, who was also treasurer of Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert's "Friends of Tom Leppert" fund-raising committee, resigned from her DART post. In February, she surrendered to the police on charges of forgery. On March 10, Shaw and her husband, political analyst Rufus Shaw, were found dead in their home in what turned out to be a murder suicide.
2016 shooting
On July 7, 2016, one DART officer was among several people shot in a mass shooting targeting police officers providing security at a Black Lives Matter protest. One of the officers, identified as seven-year veteran Brent Thompson, died from his injuries and became the first DART officer to be killed in the line of duty since the department's inception.
Read the full text
New bus network
On January 24, 2022, DART's bus network, which had dated back to DART's 1983 incorporation, was completely overhauled. The overhaul, branded as DARTzoom, was intended to improve the bus system's service reach, frequency, and hours of operation. All DARTzoom local routes would be available 5 AM to midnight, seven days a week. The centerpiece of the system was 22 "core frequent" routes, which would be available from 4 AM to 1 AM with 20-minute headways for most of the day and 15-minute headways during peak periods.
DARTzoom saw many short or low-use routes consolidated or removed, and bus stops were re-organized to be a constant distance apart. Eliminated routes were usually replaced with GoLink zones. The system also introduced a new route numbering scheme, which assigned route numbers and colors based on a route's frequency, rather than the previous network's type designations. Only one route (883, a shuttle route sponsored by the University of Texas at Dallas) retained its original designation.
To celebrate the new network and allow riders time to adjust, all rides on the new network were free for the first week of operation.
2026 withdrawal elections
In 2023, a study by Ernst & Young detailed each DART member city's sales tax contributions relative to how much DART spent in each on services, highlighting an imbalance where several of the agency's wealthier, suburban members, such as Plano and Highland Park, contribute disproportionally to the agency. In 2025, the Plano City Council, as well as Republican representative Matt Shaheen, asked the state legislature to consider a bill which would redirect 25% of DART's sales tax revenue back to member cities for their own transit projects. This bill, called the "DART killer" by opponents, failed to advance through both chambers, though the city planned to continue to pursue other options. By Fall, Plano had officially begun considering calling an election to leave the agency, explicitly citing the EY study's findings as a primary factor. On November 5, despite substantial opposition from speakers, the council voted 8–0 to schedule a withdrawal election in May 2026. Farmer's Branch and Highland Park had voted to call elections on November 4, while Irving voted to call one on November 6. University Park joined the group on January 6, 2026. Addison became the sixth and final city to call an election on January 28 after having previously rejected calls to do so in December.
The cities that scheduled withdrawal elections primarily planned to replace DART with microtransit services, although some, including Plano, sought agreements to continue limited partnerships with DART to retain access to the agency's rail network, preventing the closure of the stations in their city limits. As a part of negotiations to get the cities to cancel their elections, the Dallas City Council voted to give up the city's majority on DART's governing board, allowing room for greater representation to the agency's smaller cities. The final compromise, which also included returning a smaller portion of cities' sales tax contributions for microtransit services, led Plano, Irving, and Farmer's Branch to cancel their withdrawal elections. Withdrawal elections in the remaining cities were held on May 2, with Addison and University Park voting to stay, while Highland Park voted to leave, becoming the first city to leave the agency since Flower Mound and Coppell did in 1989.
From Wikipedia’s article on Dallas Area Rapid Transit, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5