The bill successfully passed the House Committee on Transportation in a 9-2 vote on May 6. DART immediately released a press statement detailing the catastrophic effects the bill could have on North Texas, entitled "HB3187 Kills DART."
“This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said Jeamy Molina, DART chief communications officer said in the release. “The people of North Texas voted twice to fund a unified, regional transit system. House Bill 3187 completely ignores their voice and puts the future of public transportation in jeopardy.”
The “DART Killer,” as it is referred to by DART representatives, is a bill filed by Rep. Matt Shaheen of Plano. It would restructure the long-standing funding process, allowing member cities to reduce their contribution by a quarter. DART collects a one-cent sales tax from its 13 member cities, but the bill would redirect 25% of that sales tax to a general fund that respective member cities could use for other general mobility projects like the construction of sidewalks, installation of streetlights and improvement of drainage.
The numbers may seem insignificant on the surface, but would result in the stall or delay of $3.5 billion worth of transportation projects, some of which are already underway. If passed, the bill would eradicate 5,800 jobs, cancel future developments, and reduce service levels by more than 30%, according to DART.
Garcia, who doesn’t imagine ever being able to drive, says if DART services decreased, they would, at minimum, need a new job and, in the worst-case scenario, consider moving to a city with better public transportation in a different state.
“I take DART every day,” they said. “It gets me where I need to be. I can't really afford to take an Uber to and from work every day.”
Jasleen Cabriales also rides DART rail lines daily, hopping between the Blue and Orange lines to get from Rowlett to Dallas College’s El Centro Campus for classes downtown. She passes through the West End Station, DART’s busiest stop, which sees over 6,000 passengers a day. For Cabriales, it’s the only way she can get to school. Leo Railsback is another longtime rider of DART, having ridden as a student and now relying on the rail lines to get to work.
“I wouldn't have been able to go to high school if I didn't have the DART,” said Railsback, who graduated from a Garland ISD school last year. “My mom wasn't able to take me to school all the time, so I just hit the DART. It made my life a lot easier. It makes a lot of people's lives a lot easier.”
Students May Be Affected The Most
While DART lines are convenient for the influx of North Texans who use them once a year while migrating downtown for a game at the American Airlines Center or south to Fair Park for the State Fair of Texas, the system is crucial for thousands of students in the area, says Tyler Wright, vice president of the Dallas Area Transit Alliance (DATA).“My understanding is that if the bill passes, the [Trinity Railway Express] goes away completely, so [students] lose any public transit access whatsoever from UT Arlington’s campus to Dallas,” said Wright. “That would dramatically hurt their ability to get to jobs, internships… These are students with limited means who rely on public transit to get to places in an economic manner.”
Many DATA members are students whose universities and colleges are partnered with DART, offering campus rides to students free of charge.
“For the students at UT Dallas, their bus shuttle that goes through Richardson is actually the highest ridership route in the entire system,” he said. “They love it.”
Wright says many of these buses, including UTD’s Comet Cruiser, are provided through highly variable contracts.
“It's harder to maintain that service if you have less money to negotiate contracts, so you've got the most amount of people on a route possible, depending on it and now it is in the most danger,” he said. “It'll probably be one of the first to be curtailed or let go.”
DART In The Suburbs
Wright is among the minority of daily DART-ers, utilizing the less popular suburban lines to travel between his home in Addison and his office in Plano. The public transportation system has been contentious in Dallas’ surrounding areas, with critics citing the general lack of use outside the city center as a reason to cut funding, but the daily public transport commuter says the common argument of empty buses and railcars isn’t fully accurate.“It’s a surface-level read of the issue,” he said. “When you see empty buses, usually those buses are pretty close to the transit center, so they've already dropped off most of their people. [Empty buses are there] just because they just left the station. I've ridden these routes. They pick up dozens of people.”
In April 2024, the Plano City Council approved a resolution to defund DART in the area if the opportunity presented itself. Shaheen’s bill echoes the council's wishes, but Wright says the area’s constituents see the importance of public transportation across the entire region.
“I think it's important to note that Plano, and some of these other cities, don't even represent a majority of the DART service area,” said Wright. “Residents in these areas kind of see what it's there for and they see the value in it. But the city councils are putting this forward, and they don't even represent a majority of the population area.”
Riders like Wright, Garcia, Cabriales and Railsback choose DART over driving for several reasons. Wright and Railsback would have to unnecessarily stretch their budgets to afford a car. Garcia doesn’t have the ability to drive. Cabriales simply thinks driving downtown is a pain and a poor use of gas mileage. All in all, the four agree that cars should not be the only accepted means of transportation in North Texas.
“Dallas has a reputation [of affluence], and I think it kind of reflects in a lot of the richer suburbs, which are the ones pushing the bill,” said Wright. “It is disappointing because people will speak as if this car dependency, this car culture, naturally occurred, like DNT was just built by God or something.”
Wright is hopeful the bill will fail, but says his gut feelings about the issue change hourly. Despite it all, he still looks forward to DART’s next development plans, a 26-mile line that would run from Plano, through Carrollton, and end at Terminal B at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The Silver Line was projected to begin carrying passengers by early 2026 at the latest, but the new bill could significantly delay efforts. Still, Wright perks up when he hears the train horn on the pilot tests outside his apartment.
“As DART improves and you see the Silver Line, we're gonna see more people in the suburbs realize that the rail actually works,” he said.
While every Dallasite has missed a light, or two, because an empty rail car was passing, or trailed behind a slow-going bus hoping a stop isn’t just ahead, Wright argues that DART, as one of the only forms of public transportation in the region, is a missed opportunity for North Texas travelers.
“DART has great plans to make the light rail 15 minutes. They've got bus coverage in 10 to 20 minutes across the entire region. When you take into account traffic or parking, you can get [anywhere] almost as fast as a car and 80% cheaper. I think there's a lot of opportunity there for advocacy and for getting people into it, that will just not be possible if we prematurely cut funding.”
