TX: Will Dallas suburbs deal DART a death blow?
A lot of people may have grown tired of hearing it, but Dallas Area Rapid Transit is a major regional asset that needs regional support.
Abandoning the system now would squander billions of dollars and decades of planning that still need time to pay off. Sadly, DART may not get that time from suburbs that have grown impatient, with fair reasons, about the return on their investment.
Highland Park’s Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday to call an election asking voters whether they want to remain part of the system. Farmers Branch was set to consider the same topic that day too, though no decision had been made as of this writing. Plano is expected to discuss a DART withdrawal tonight, and Irving to do the same tomorrow.
Each of DART’s 13 member cities fund the agency with a 1-cent sales tax contribution. Withdrawing would let cities leave the agency and end DART service. But let’s be clear about this: Suburbs that leave will still pay, at least in the short run, for DART.
Withdrawn member cities must continue to pay their full, 1-cent contribution to the agency as long as they have an outstanding debt obligation, DART spokesperson Jeamy Molina said. Based on recent estimates, the average length of that obligation would be 10 years, she said.
If a city’s withdrawal were to succeed, all buses would depart, GoLink services would no longer be available and trains wouldn’t stop at the city’s light rail stations anymore. That would happen as soon as the ballots were certified, Molina said.
Since Plano has end-of-line rail stations, the trains would just stop running into the city, DART CEO Nadine Lee said. In Irving, the train would probably still run to DFW International Airport, but wouldn’t stop at any stations, she said.
Fracturing the system this way hurts riders, especially those who depend on it most. And all this at a time when the world’s eyes will soon be on North Texas. People from around the world have experienced excellent public transportation. Our region’s inability to offer even basic service won’t accrue to our good reputation when the World Cup arrives.
The potential withdrawal elections also represent a waste of economic development potential along DART’s rail lines. Those opportunities are what got the suburbs interested in light rail in the first place.
It’s our view that DART leadership made a fatal error when they let their focus on economic development fall down the priority list. Prioritizing bus service may have been efficient, but it backtracked on how DART sold itself to the suburbs.
We’re not blind to DART’s issues. There’s crime, the perception of it, long travel times, struggling ridership and a region laid out in a way that is terrible for mass transit.
But simply defunding, dismantling or otherwise destroying this system is only going to hurt our region.
What the suburbs get back in short-term gain may come to haunt us all as time wears on.
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