The vote is off for Plano and I think Farmers Branch as well. No surprise to me this happened. Plano has done nothing on it’s own to remediate the main issue it is complaining about so it had a weak argument to begin with. Just added AT&T to the Legacy Business Park with no real plan for transit there, their best opportunity for a bus transit depot in Legacy was to work out a deal with AT&T for a smidgen of the former EDS campus (they are tearing down the EDS buildings now, got a few last glimpses…still had Ross Perot’s giant bronze Eagle…too heavy to pilfer)…but…nope, nothing doing still no plans for a transit park for Legacy. Of course Dallas compromised as well. So hard to tell who blinked first. Nobody wanted to see DART rail end service to Plano.
How much is the proposed move of the Dallas Stars to Plano affecting this decision? When we go to Stars games, we park north of AA Arena and ride DART to the game. Free parking and no traffic.
I don’t think that had much to do with it myself but I am also not on the city council. Seems to me there was fairly significant public pressure on the city council to keep DART rail service going. At one point they took great pains to say this was not about DART rail service but only about DART bus service. DART responded it was a package deal and they would not get one without the other.
Then about 6-8 weeks later I get in my FB feed about how Dallas will give up DART council seats which was a key demand of the suburbs and that DART will listen to the suburban voice more. To me that appeared to be frosting on the cake so to speak and then Plano announced it would withdraw the ballot. Also, I think the state might be about to flip Blue in one significant race (within Collin County)…which also erodes Plano’s arguing position in my view…that is an early call on my part I have no clue but local county and region politics impacts these positions as well.
It seems like the short sightedness typical of those regions where the political donor class would never dream of using public transport.
According to DART figures, less than 2 to 3 percent of the residents in the communities served by it ride public transit on a regular basis. In Plano, which is one of the more affluent communities served by DART, the percentage is probably lower.
I commuted from my North Dallas home to downtown for more than 25 years. I was the only person in my neighborhood that rode transit on a regular basis. Most of the people that rode the #36 bus, which was the route that served my neighborhood, were low income workers that worked in the neighborhood or in nearby retail businesses.
For the 10 years ended 2024, DART ridership declined 21.8%. It fell to an even lower point during the pandemic, but it has rebounded somewhat since then
.
If those who use public transit in a community are lower paid workers, does that mean transit shouldn’t be available to them?
[quote=“charlie_hebdo2, post:6, topic:420704, full:true”]
If those who use public transit in a community are lower paid workers, does that mean transit shouldn’t be available to them? [/quote]
No! Public transport is essential for people who cannot drive, i.e. cannot afford a car, are disabled, etc. Or like me, just did not want to drive to work.
Residents of University Park and Highland Park, two super affluent communities surrounded by Dallas, voted for the DART Referendum. Most of them did not back public transit for themselves. They supported it so their maids and gardeners could get to their communities and back home.
I worked on the DART Referendum. My corporate employer supported it, and I was assigned to help get it across the line. My role was to attend Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, etc. meetings and discuss the advantages of public transit. I met many of the makers and shakers in Dallas as well as several surrounding communities. They saw the benefit of transit for their lower level employees, but I never met anyone from the upper middle class or wealthy that commuted on public transit. Sometimes a few of them would use it to get to special events, i.e. State Fair of Texas, events at the American Airlines Center, etc.
Having lived in communities with good public transit, i.e. New York City, Hartford, Dallas, Melbourne, Australia, I have supported it by my vote, whenever was on the ballot, and by using it regularly, which speaks louder than words. But I am somewhat atypical, at least in Texas. I was the only director level employee in the Dallas based Fortune 200 corporation where I was employed that used pubic transit. My colleagues thought I was nuts!
Glad to hear and thank you.. It confirms some of my impressions of upper level Texans. I wonder what the deal is in Plano?
Just released today via DART. So for JPS1, no more sitting on someone’s lawn waiting at a bus stop. I actually am happy myself because I have seen some of those stops myself and a big first incentive to get folks to ride a bus is a decent bus stop with arrival times on a digital display. Otherwise, not much different than hitching.
This should boost ridership on the rail intermodal stops I would imagine.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reposted from DART FB page:
DART Approves Major Investment to Upgrade Bus Stop Amenities Across North Texas
Dallas, TX March 26, 2026 - The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Board of Directors has approved a major investment to modernize bus stop infrastructure across the region, enhancing safety, accessibility, and comfort for thousands of daily riders.
The Board authorized a five-year contract, with two one-year options, to Tolar Manufacturing Company, Inc. for the fabrication and installation of upgraded passenger amenities at bus stops across the DART Service Area. The contract authorizes an investment of up to $71.5 million to significantly improve the rider experience.
The program will add and replace critical infrastructure at bus stops, including 1,350 shelters equipped with benches, real-time arrival displays, and modern passenger technology, along with up to 1,500 steel benches, 3,000 trash cans, and 500 bus stop blade lights.
Over the next several years, DART will also expand bus stop amenities with 350 new shelter locations, upgrade more than 1,000 existing shelters, and improve accessibility through new concrete pads, sidewalks, and curb ramps.
These improvements are designed to create bus stops that are more accessible, informative, and comfortable, with better lighting, seating, and protection from weather while providing real-time service information to riders.
“Investing in modern bus stop amenities is about improving the daily experience for our riders,” said Nadine Lee, Chief Executive Officer at DART. “These upgrades will make our system more accessible, safer, and more comfortable while delivering the reliable travel information our customers expect. This investment reflects DART’s commitment to enhancing transit infrastructure and improving mobility across North Texas.”
The initiative builds on years of planning and pilot programs that tested next-generation shelter designs and incorporated rider feedback. Surveys conducted with more than 4,200 respondents found that 90 percent of riders believe the proposed shelter design is an improvement over existing stops, highlighting the importance of improved lighting, weather protection, and real-time travel information.
Installation and upgrades will occur in phases through 2030, supporting DART’s broader efforts to modernize infrastructure and improve the customer experience throughout the transit system.
Very good. For modern bus service , stops of that type are essential.
What is “modern passenger technology” as applied to bus stops?
I always thought Bus Stops were a sign affixed to a utility pole saying which bus lines stopped at the sign location when the bus driver saw people congregating in the area of the sign.
“Bus Stop” good tune by the Hollies.
In Chicago, the bus stops have electronic signs indicating which bus and when it arrives, much like for DB trains in Germany and elsewhere.
It sounds like DART plans to implement a system similar to what Austin Metro has on four of its express routes. It has many of the features of Rapid Bus systems. In addition to enhanced waiting areas, they have information boards indicating when the next two buses will arrive at the station. They are in the process of upgrading the signs with the latest electronic technologies.
On the route that I rode for many years, there were sheltered waiting areas at several of the stops between Harvest Hill and Preston Road, which was my stop, and downtown Dallas. They had a covered bench were riders could sit until the bus showed up. I rode the bus daily from 1979 to 1999, when I departed for Australia, and from 2005 to 2007 after returning from Australia until I retired.
I think it is what is defined in the article itself, I don’t want to read through it again so I will just go from memory (I just remember two items):
- Arrival time of next bus estimate (guessing they will use GPS for that).
- The red / green blade business for the bus driver to know there are passengers present. I noticed this recently on Silver Line, they seem to have finally total transit time as a goal. So it appears they might implement a skip stop approach to bus stops with this flagging system but it is only a guess.
This is what they are upgrading from. Some of the Bus Stops in Plano, TX were pretty laughable. They just had the regular bus stop sign on pole in a location with no sidewalk, concrete or shelter. You had to stand in the grass of what appeared to be private property on the side of the road.
Now onto responsibility. I have been pretty scathing in my attacks on the City of Plano because my contention is the bad transit condition which Plano complains about is not 100% DART’s fault. The City has repeatedly cancelled plans or refused to plan for transit over and over again which really set me off when they stated they were not going to pay DART as they viewed it as all DART’s fault. When I moved to Texas, Plano was still only about 30-40% developed. There was still a lot of open land. On some of the East-West roads (Legacy and Spring Creek, Pkwy) they were engineered to have overpasses at specific locations so you could cross Plano faster. Plano cancelled the overpasses and now it is a nightmare during rush hour to cross the city on surface streets. The space is still set aside for the overpasses but Plano has completely abandoned plans for them.
Plano is an upper middle class suburb, North of Dallas, population about 290,000-300,000 and City operating budget of about $800 million. Plenty of money there for decent transit. Even more so it is still growing with higher density residential buildings being planned.
300,000 is a very large suburb. But for transportation infrastructure at least, they seem to act like a village of 10,000.