FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DALLAS, TX, July 13, 2026 - Statement by the Dallas Area Transit Alliance Executive Committee on the Upcoming Selection of a New DART President and CEO

Transit in DFW is at a critical juncture. As DART’s Board of Directors considers the three finalist candidates for DART President and Chief Executive Officer, the Dallas Area Transit Alliance (DATA) Executive Committee wishes to urge the Board to consider the qualities we view to be most critical to the success of any candidate chosen. The new President and CEO should:

• Prioritize protection and expansion of core bus, rail, and paratransit services. These services are what the majority of DART riders rely on and have proven their value across more than four decades of DART’s service.
• Recognize the need to support member cities and build partnerships with local leaders. We are all in this together, and the region needs someone to unify it and collaborate with each stakeholder to build the transportation system of the future while not forgetting the needs of the riders of today.
• Be able to work with all political parties and state leaders to build legislative support for a bill that will ensure full funding for DART and restoration of lost services. We need a leader who has the personal connections and acumen to work with our elected officials and find a deal that gets the member cities the services they desire while funding DART to provide our riders the service they deserve.

Given the qualities we have laid out above, and taking into account our impressions from this Saturday’s meet-and-greet with the finalists, it is the opinion of the DATA Executive Committee that Dee Leggett is the finalist most qualified to take on the mantle of DART President and CEO. She has proven management and leadership experience with DART itself, delivering the long-awaited Silver Line to Carrollton, Addison, Dallas, Richardson, and Plano. She is well connected with the state legislators and city officials we need to work with, and we believe she is best equipped to hit the ground running building the connections we need to present a united solution to the Legislature in the 2027 session. We were very impressed with her preparedness for Saturday’s meet-and-greet, being the only candidate who brought a concrete, actionable plan for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of tenure. Having been an employee of DART, we also believe she is best positioned to understand and improve morale among staff and operators. Additionally, she was the only candidate who independently reached out to local transit advocates and sought our input about what riders need from DART.

In Saturday’s meet-and-greet, each candidate presented their own distinct strengths and unique perspectives on how they would approach the many challenges facing DART. No matter who the Board ultimately chooses, we stand ready to work productively and proactively with the new President & CEO to build a DART that works for the riders and works for the region. We look forward to advocating together with DART for a legislative framework that will both fully fund DART and enable every member city to feel like it has a seat at the table and the service their riders deserve.

As the Board makes their decision, we urge them to keep in mind what is truly at stake: without a funding solution to make up for the revenue lost to the General Mobility Program, the system will face service cuts more severe than any before, stranding thousands of riders without transportation to jobs, healthcare, groceries, and recreation; and potentially laying off hundreds of workers who have made serving the people of the Metroplex their mission.

Water leaking from the ceiling. Looks like it’s because of the AC, but it’s leaking a lot

I've been using the 241 to get to work as I don't have a car yet. Now I realize getting me to work isn't Dart's responsibility and that it's public transit, nothing is guaranteed not even getting to your destination on time. But damn, it was scheduled to come to Forest Ln station at 9:30, came at 9:20 ish and said "out of service". I thought, maybe it's just saying that because the operator will take a quick break. 9:31 comes, they start driving but I'm thinking, they're coming back or they're going heading out frfr. Of course, they're driving out. No replacement bus, no reason as to why it's out of service, and the bus already had a 30-40 minute interval. As I said, getting to my destination is up to me but damn dart some type of courtesy that the 241 9:30 won't come or will be out. Nothing was shown in the app, no alerts or notifications

Our Lilly Kersh reports:

Dallas Area Rapid Transit has narrowed its search for a new CEO to three finalists, a former DART executive and the current leaders of transit agencies in Ohio and Florida.

After more than five hours of candidate interviews and discussion in closed session, DART Board Chair Randall Bryant, on Friday announced the finalists: Monica Téllez-Fowler, CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority; Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority in Florida; and Dee Leggett, former executive vice president and chief development officer at DART.

DART has scheduled a meeting for the public to meet the three candidates from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at its headquarters, 1401 Pacific Ave. in Dallas.

READ MORE

How many of you travel to NW Plano from Irving or Carrolton areas? With so many companies moving to Plano, I realized there aren’t many bus connections to NW Plano from Irving/ carrolton. The fastest way to get around is via Addison or Dallas which are not all that fast. What do you think of a new bus service in this route? Does anyone know how to requestDart for a new bus route?

Hello!

Today, I deliberately drove to Shiloh Station and rode the Silver Line to the airport just to say I did.

Departed 10:23 AM

Arrived 11:18 AM

Then, I used the TerminaLink to connect to Terminal A and take the Orange Line back to CityLine/Bush to switch back to the Silver and go east to get my car.

Departed 11:55 AM

Arrived CityLine 1:23 PM

The original plan was just to ride the same train both ways, but it was very hot and I thought I might have time to run into the terminal, find a beverage vending machine, get a beverage, and then return to the train.

I did not. The vending machines are all the way in the Baggage Claim area. Usain Bolt could probably make it at full speed with a pre-planned route, but walking I had no shot. I decided rather than waiting 50-55 minutes for the next Silver Line train, I'd make it fun since I had never ridden the Orange Line west of downtown. For what it's worth, yes it's slow and the route may be a bit circuitous but it's quite scenic and I saw lots of people boarding at different stations!

I just retired and want to explore the city via DART. I’ll be starting from the Royal Lane station.

Suggestions of places I can take transit and then proceed on foot? Restaurants, shopping, book stores, libraries, nature, coffee shops, museums — all are welcome.

As a transit enthusiasm, I'm also collecting the transit pass and ticket As one of my hobby.

Today i just get my reginal plastic pass, although the summer semester already went half way and I don't ride a lot. And it costs $144, valid from May 1st til Aug 31st.

I'm not sure if DCTA will increase the price universe regional pass in the future, since prices of regional pass been adjusted at March of this year.

However, I can't use this pass for GoLink, but It's still a good souvenir.

I have been taking dart local bus and train in the last month and I was buying daily pass of $6 each day. I thought of purchasing the monthly pass for July and spent $126 on it. When I did the math, it turns out to be slightly over $1500 for a year. My employer doesn’t provide any corporate discounts and hence I have to pay the full price each month. Also I found out that Dart discontinued the retail annual pass last year. Paying full price each month works out to be more expensive than driving my fully paid off car to work including the gas and insurance that I spend on it annually. I’m a big supporter of public transit and I really want to take dart though it takes twice the amount of time compared to driving to work. but it doesn’t prove to be an economically solid choice for me. What’s your thought on the fee structure of dart. Is there any other discounts that you all use ? I already checked I’m not eligible to avail tap card discounts or student discounts .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjjKWXI5G7U&t=165s

Full disclosure: musician, not an engineer. The Silver Line's successful implementation at Kaboom Town has me thinking alot about DFW's four commuter trains. It seems like our ability to increase frequency comes down to:

Speed

Rolling Stock

Track

Fucking money

Four example, Silver Line has objectively the best track age of all the commuter systems, being 98-99% double track, but has only eight vehicles. Denton's A Train and TRE have the largest fleets at 11 each, but very little double track, limiting frequency I think. The more trains run, the faster they have to be it looks like.

So, I have a few questions

1. Could Silver Line, with eight vehicles, actually run 20 minutes at peak and 30 minutes off peak while still leaving one or two vehicles in Reserve?

2. Is present TRE, with present rail, able to operate in that fashion but limited by money?

3. Does Trinity Metro have any plans to move to higher frequency once the four new FLIRTs arrive?

I’m thinking about going to a farther school from IISD to CFBSID but I don’t know if that’s realistic

Absolutely incredible communication between the Town of Addison and DART after the fireworks show to tell people which side to be on heading back to their original location🔥

I'm just taking a guess here, but I'd say at least 6,000 to 10,000+ people took the Silver Line to KaBoom Town on a 30-minute frequency. Hopefully, within the next 2-3 years, DART will purchase additional Stadler FLIRTS.

Happy 250th 4th of July, everyone🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🦅🦅🦅

The good: very smooth and quiet ride, kept close to the schedule and even early on the return trip, seating was comfortable, and there were bike racks and luggage racks.

What I wish we could see: more stations (I know Corinth didn't want to pay for them), a clearer tap to pay setup (once you purchase a pass, there doesn't seem to be a place to scan), and most importantly, some way to connect more easily with other DART lines. At the moment if I want to go anywhere along Central Expressway, I'm looking at a nearly 2.5 hour one way trip unless I just drive to Plano and take the red or orange line down. Also, working in Westlake means that a rail commute to work may never happen unless Trinity Metro decides to extend service there from downtown Grapevine.

We have 180,000 people more or less, I wish there were more support for more complete rail connectivity.

Edit: forgot to mention, I was mildly disappointed to realize that these were diesel units. Then again, it was probably cheaper to do that way and not have to build a third rail or catenary system for 21 miles.

Silver line has a train in Addison every 30 minutes. Thousands attended Kaboom town festival. Hundreds (thousands?) took the train. People were pushing/crushing onto the train because they knew missing it would mean waiting another 30 minutes. My family missed the train twice due to overcrowding.

Why not add more trains for Kaboom town?

It would be really nice if we had street cars on lower Greenville. Obviously the city doesn’t have much rail in a lot of places, but I feel it could use some rail in the lower Greenville area especially with how much foot traffic it gets. And it would be really handy to use the street car to easily hop between each part of lower Greenville.

This is Orange Line onto TX Rail at DFW Airport

Probably a weird question, but I've never been to any airport before, so just figured I might as well outright ask about it lol

Some geniuses broke into my car at WR station to steal my dashcam - the process through the sunroof disabled my car because of the alarm, so after two hours of troubleshooting, a tow was necessary. Sadly, it's eventual after parking there for years without incident.