2024 40 Under 40: Jing Xu

Jing Xu, assistant vice president (AVP) of service planning and scheduling at Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), works to promote the access, usefulness, convenience and appeal of DART to the community. She leads and motivates her colleagues to apply new approaches to achieve the desired outcome of greater transit usage.  

Xu is the youngest AVP in DART’s 41-year history and oversees more than 20 staff members across four divisions within the department. Her contributions to the agency play a major role in DART’s vision to strengthen the agency’s purpose as a valued strategic economic and mobility asset for the community. 

In her recent endeavors, she has led DARTzoom, DART’s overall bus network redesign project, to work towards significantly enhancing service frequency, coverage and transit access for DART’s 13-city service area. As part of this overhaul, Xu’s efforts resulted in improved bus services to a larger population while reducing the size of the revenue fleet and consolidating one third of the bus stops.  

Xu has also led a community- and data-driven approach to transforming DART’s GoLink program from a small pilot to the major microtransit system. She engaged communities and stakeholders to expand the reach and visibility of GoLink through a 360-square-mile area that transports 5,000 daily users. Xu enjoys developing services for DART customers, using policy research, data analytics and partnership building with an empathetic mindset. She recently led DART’s first comprehensive fare study to explore fare policy industry best practice, structure and new programs that align with the agency’s future vision and community feedback. 

The study includes, among other challenges, an in-depth look at feasible options to improve access to discounts for cash-paying customers – a demographic that is often overlooked in studies of transportation affordability. During the course of the study, Xu demonstrated tenacity and adaptability as she explained complex financial modeling concepts in understandable terms, maintaining poise and composure while facing a range of challenging audiences, such as community stakeholders, local leaders, the DART Board and executive staff.  

Xu’s experiences overcoming issues related to immigration, language and culture has led her on a personal mission to promote cultural awareness and workplace inclusion. She mentors students at both Southern Methodist University and the Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, the first public all-girls school in Texas. Through her position at DART, Jing advocates for residents in underserved and disadvantaged areas of west and south Dallas by establishing bus routes and microtransit to access jobs and services that would otherwise be out-of-reach without a car.  

She has played a major role in supporting DART Cares, an agency program that helps DART cities with riders who struggle with consistent housing. She regularly gives hours of her time to Austin Street and Good Samaritans, Dallas-area non-profits that help the local unsheltered populations.  

Xu is a current nominee for the agency’s annual Employee of the Year recognition and has earned the DART Transportation Excellence Award in 2023. Xu has also claimed the Women’s Transportation Seminar Dallas-Fort Worth Innovative Transportation Solutions Award in 2022.  

In the broader transit industry, she works to share her knowledge with her peers by presenting at MPact (formerly Railvolution) and the American Public Transportation Association Mobility Conferences, where she most recently presented her work on the DART fare study.  

 Is there a specific experience that led you to where you are today? 

A full scholarship at Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning brought me to the United States. A mission to connect people and nurture communities brought me to transit. I have been very fortunate to have mentors who trust and develop me professionally, as well as family who understand and support me personally. All those important factors, along with the desire to keep improving myself, have led me to where I am today.

What do you enjoy most about your job? 

I enjoy developing services for DART customers, using policy research, data analytics and partnership building with an empathetic mindset. I recently led DART’s first comprehensive fare study and played an instrumental role in developing DART’s new bus network, to enhance service frequency, coverage and equity for the public.

What is an accomplishment you would like to work towards in your career? 

Building world-class public transportation systems that North Americans take as the first-in-mind choice when moving around.