DART News

Dallas Area Rapid Transit to change fares and add new buses and trains

DART trains in downtown Dallas.

DART

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is introducing a simplified fare structure starting March 1. According to a release, the updated structure is intended to offer more clarity and convenience.

“Our goal is to make fares more straightforward and equitable for all passengers,” says DART Assistant VP of Service Planning and Development Jing Xu.

Fare changes to DART local fare will be as follows:

Consolidated Passes: Single-ride (used on bus and GoLink), AM, PM, and Midday Passes, will be replaced with a standard 3-Hour Pass.
Day Pass and Monthly Pass: The Day Pass price remains the same, while the Monthly Pass will increase.
Retail Annual Pass: This option is being discontinued; however, members enrolled in the DART Corporate Annual Pass program will see no change in their rates.
Veterans Discount: Starting on March 1, Veterans will receive a 50% discount. They can apply for a DART-issued reduced fare card (GoPass® Tap) online or in person at DARTmart, located at Akard Station, to receive discounted fare.
Discount Program: The half-price Discount GoPass Tap card program, for those receiving benefits from qualifying agencies, is now permanent.
Bulk Sales Discount: A new tiered discount system is available for special events, corporate pass partners, and educational institutions.
Extended Education Institution Program: The educational institution program now includes kindergarten through fifth grade.

Most of these adjustments will begin March 1, but revisions tied to calendar year programs - such as corporate annual pass program and education institution program - took effect on January 1.

DART Transforms modernization program
DART Transforms is a new program to modernize DART's system, focusing on five elements: vehicles, stations & passenger facilities, resiliency, a unified signaling system, and operating facilities.

“Many of our vehicles and facilities have reached their usage capacity, so it’s time to invest in our aging system to ensure our customers have a cleaner, safer, more reliable experience when they are commuting with us,” says DART CEO & President Nadine Lee.

Changes that riders will see include:

New buses and trains with upgraded lighting, system messaging, and convenience features
Raised platforms at 23 stations to provide level boarding and improve access for those with limited mobility or who are travelling with children
Renovations at the Cityplace/Uptown station
Additional resiliency measures to guard the rail system against extreme weather events, and Improvements at stations and passenger and operations facilities

Over the last year, DART has installed 34,000 new vinyl seats on buses and trains, hired more security and fare enforcement officers, implemented an on-board cleaning team, and improved lighting around stations.

New buses and trains
DART has secured a contract to purchase new buses to begin replacing the oldest ones in its fleet and anticipates having them in operation by spring 2026. The process to replace light-rail vehicles (LRVs) will take longer as DART is still in the planning and development phase. Once a final design is approved and manufacturing begins, riders can expect to see the new LRVs in operation by 2029.

Later this year, DART will begin asking customers about their journey to identify pain points accessing their transit ride, while at the agency’s facilities, and on their commute. This will allow DART to better understand the customer journey and take action or partner with the corresponding city to make improvements throughout the DART Transform program. The team will also reach out to non-riders to gauge how they too can become DART customers.

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Airline News

American Airlines to take things up a notch at DFW Airport

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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Fort Worth-based American Airlines is making changes at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), its largest hub and hometown airport, including departure times spread throughout the day.

DFW has an outsized impact on the rest of the airline’s operation and on the journeys of the nearly 700,000 customers the airline serves every day across its global network. More customers and more bags travel and connect through DFW every day than any other airport in American's network. What's good for DFW is good for everyone.

More banks
For more than a decade, American’s schedule at DFW has been concentrated across nine banks, or large clusters of flights across the operating day. As all airline bank structures do, this times large groups of flights together, coordinating arrivals and departures, and ultimately, coordinating quick and seamless connections.

Beginning in April — and visible in the airline’s schedules starting December 27 — American’s DFW operation is evolving to a 13-bank structure, providing more certainty to the airline’s average 100,000 peak daily customers traveling on the more than 930 average peak DFW daily departing flights.

With this structural schedule change, customers will find more departure options in highly desired time windows and fewer early morning departures to DFW.

American is also making an investment in block time for flights to and from DFW. (Block time is the total scheduled time between pushback from the departure gate to arrival at the destination gate.) The goal is more on-time departures, which lead to more on-time arrivals and fewer delays.

Connections
They're also working on improving connection times, making it easier to connect through DFW. The new structure should reduce the concentration of very short connection times.

Customers on the go such as business travelers can still book tight connections when time matters — but the schedule enhancements will now provide more options for a stress-free experience with more time between flights. Reflowing their schedule means fewer air traffic delays and more on-time departures and arrivals.

By spreading out its DFW flight schedule across the day, the airline is also spreading out customer volume, including everything from local customers arriving in parking garages, checking in at lobbies, and clearing security, to connecting customers making their way through American’s terminals to their next flights.

Terminals
Other improvements include modernizing American’s facilities and airport terminals, including Terminal A and C Pier extensions adding nine incremental gates.

They're also adding Terminal F to be completed in 2030, with 31 new gates that can accommodate increased widebody capacity, state-of-the-art baggage technology, dedicated premium lounges, Flagship check-in, and a new U.S. Customs facility.

New programs in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection include TSA PreCheck Touchless ID — allowing customers at DFW (and 16 other locations across American’s U.S. network) to use facial recognition technology for more secure and efficient identity verification.

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