The plan was conceived in March amid the progression of the “DART Killer” bill, which was preceded by a yearlong funding battle with the city of Plano. DART officials are halfway through a series of 16 community meetings across all member cities, sharing details on the plan and collecting public opinion before a hearing before the DART board of directors on July 8. The board will cast a final vote in August. If approved, the changes will go into effect in January 2026.
“DART doesn't take this change lightly, and we don't undertake these changes just because,” Tracy Cantu, a community relations representative, said at a meeting in Cockrell Hill on June 17. “There are several factors that have led up to us having to take these actions.”
DART officials emphasized that the proposed cuts, totaling $60 million, are preparation for the “worst-case scenario.” The changes, described on the DART website as “the largest service cuts in agency history,” are in response to a new general mobility program (GMP) and new, unfunded service demands.
The GMP is a recently approved initiative that will “redistribute 5% of the agency’s annual sales tax revenue among seven member cities for a period of two years.” The initiative, which the board of directors voted in favor of in March, is likely in response to a failed piece of state legislation that would have cost DART billions in tax funding, said some of the critics at the community meetings.
“DART celebrated its 40-year anniversary in 2023,” Mark Broadhurst, an Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1338 board member and DART mechanic, told the Observer at the meeting. Broadhurst, who testified against the DART Killer bill in Austin, has attended four of the community meetings. “My question is, after all these years, why now does Plano all of a sudden have a problem? They’ve mismanaged their budget and destroyed their infrastructure. They need money from someone, and have pointed their finger at DART.”
How We Got Here
DART and the city of Plano have been at odds for over a year now. It started in 2024, when Plano became the first of 13 member cities to support reducing their contributions to the transit system by a quarter if the opportunity presented itself. DART estimated total losses at several billion dollars if Plano and a few other cities that passed similar resolutions minimized their contributions.The conversation became much more than just conversation when state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Republican from Plano, filed a bill, dubbed “DART Killer.” The bill would restructure the long-standing funding process. DART collects a 1-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.
DART estimated the bill would have stalled or delayed $3.5 billion worth of transportation projects, eradicated 5,800 jobs, and reduced service levels by more than 30%. After a mass public outcry, the bill failed. It was the third time a bill of that nature had been foiled, but it made more progress than other sessions’ versions.
“This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said Jeamy Molina, DART’s chief communications officer, in a May press 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.”
Broadhurst and others say the GMP adoption seems like an attempt to appease the Plano puppet masters, but comes at the expense of thousands of North Texans reliant on DART for a paycheck and a ride.
“The GMP helps nobody, except for the small handful of politicians who are trying to grease their buddies' pockets," the mechanic said. "The [Americans with disabilities] community does not want this. Ninety-five percent of the ridership doesn’t want this. DART employees and staff don’t want this.”
Paratransit Community Hit The Hardest
Broadhurst said that in all the meetings he’s attended, the disabled community and their support systems have emerged as the most vocal opponents of the proposed changes. A number of concerned parties advocating on behalf of the local disabled community spoke at one of the community meetings in University Park. One of the critics attacked the rapid rate at which the planned service cuts have been implemented.“We're in June, and you're going to vote on this in August,” said a Preston Hollow resident with a 25-year-old son with autism who relies on paratransit services to get to life skills classes in Plano three times a week. “That's crazy with the lives you’re impacting. I would say you have a well-run organization, [this] doesn't tell me you do. ... I don't want to be confrontational, but it's absolutely two words … clown show.”
Per the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, transit services with fixed routes must also provide paratransit services. DART has historically offered more than the legal minimums, which only require door-to-door paratransit services within three-fourths of a mile of their fixed routes, by covering the entirety of its 700-mile range. But with the new changes, this service range will be reduced, and the price of each ride will double, increasing to $6.
Most paratransit riders cannot drive or work, and 100% price increases will prevent some from traveling at all.
“I'm not going to say [you’re picking] on the disabled, but that's what I'm seeing here … paratransit has lower usage. You're putting a lot more [on] individuals that aren't going to be able to afford that increase,” said the Preston Hollow father advocating for the disabled community, which will be most affected by prohibitive pricing increases. “To me, that's wrong.”
If the changes go through, it will affect more than just the intellectually disabled. Mary Witherspoon, a visually impaired DART rider who relies on paratransit services to get to and from doctor appointments, pointed out to the DART team that there was no tactile version of the map, and riders like Witherspoon have no way of knowing if their homes or provider offices are within the affected range. The lack of accessibility features highlighted the negligent and expeditious speed of the planning process.
Another representative of a different community affected by the proposed changes was a physician, who spoke on behalf of her patients.
“A lot of patients have to say, 'I couldn't buy my medication this month because I had to choose between paying bills, getting nutrition or medication,'” she said. “If we increase the fares or we have to make these kinds of cuts, now they have to add, ‘Can I make it to you for my doctor's appointments?’ ... A lot of us have the privilege of not having to worry about that, but these are still people in our community that we have to worry about, and they are equally important as those who don't have to worry about those kinds of things.”
Everyone Suffers
Community members from many walks of life, including DART police officers, transportation union members and riders, have attended the meetings to share their heated opinions about the changes. Broadhurst said he heard from one person in support of the changes at a meeting in Plano, but otherwise, every person he's spoken to has been adamantly against them. He points out that with the impending World Cup, and all the travelers it will bring to the heart of North Texas, now is not the time to be restructuring our largest and most expansive public transportation network.“Service cuts are poison to DART at a time when we need more mass transit in North Texas, not less,” Broadhurst said at the Cockrell Hill meeting.
But the loudest message he's trying to send is that a few powerful critics should not drown out the riders, mechanics, officers and community members who need it and keep it running at its fullest capacity.
“The people who are going to be most affected are the people who keep this organization going,” said Broadhurst.
