22 Comments to this post:

1. newtronan said:

   Send it to DART

   :: 15 Jan 2007 at 9:12 pm ::

2. Kurt Fisher said:

   So let me get this straight - you tried something new that you didn’t have knowledge about, you gave yourself zero time to get there early to figure it out, or to allow for any mix ups (its still travel you know), you paniced and jumped on a train, got preoccupied with your multi-tasking and got off at the wrong place and then, rather than just walking the last block to the meeting, decided to try the free ride.

   Then when you got caught, you blamed it on ignorance and that the original ticket machine was’nt working. Hmmmm, you’re right, sounds like lousy customer service - DART should be ashamed :)

   :: 16 Jan 2007 at 7:06 pm ::

3. Chris Ronan said:

   That’s right! Gosh darn DART! By the way Kurt, I owe you five bucks. The five dollar bill I had in hand was the bill I borrowed from you. Can I give you the ticket when I pay you back????

   :: 16 Jan 2007 at 7:10 pm ::

4. Noah Brown said:

   In spite of Kurt’s assertions, I must side with Chris. The DART Rail might just be one of the most inconvenient conveniences I had experience with.

   :: 18 Jan 2007 at 5:21 pm ::

5. Brandon said:

   sounds like user error

   :: 21 Jan 2007 at 2:09 am ::

6. Dave Stewart said:

   Listen to these comments. Is this site full of DART employee lurkers???

   We need a DUMPDART.ORG grass roots movement here in Dallas. DART wastes public money and gives us terrible service, is always late (or way too early, thank you very much), and only has frequent service to areas where nobody wants to go.

   Everyone I talk to hates the poor service, unreliability, and couldn’t care less attitude of DART. Nobody uses it unless they absolutely have to or just happen to both live AND work close to a bus or rail station.

   Dump the DART now! (come on everybody) DUMP the DART now!

   :: 10 Feb 2007 at 9:44 am ::

7. MIke said:

   OK, I can buy into that maybe the cop was not a sweethart and maybe he could have given you the benifit of the doubt. But you want to blame him for your lack of preperation for an unknown, when you left for a appointment much later than you should. How about taking responsibitlity for your own failure to prepare. I’m sure that the cop hears a poor me story from everyone that didn’t buy a ticket. So Lets dump the transit cops. Who will patrol the transit system? Dallas PD. They are 300 cops short, and dont want to patrol the transit system. You need the transits cops. And DART is all we have. Its imposible to even ride a train in Dallas without being hit up for money by some degenerate hobo. At least DART police chase them away.

   :: 7 Mar 2007 at 7:04 pm ::

8. chris ronan said:

   My name is Jethro Bodine and I don’t know much about how to catch a train. But that officer of the law was not very nice. He hurt Jethro’s feelings and made Jethro late for vittles with Granny. You’re right, Jethro don’t know much ’bout preparations or appointments and such. Jethro realize shortcomings and take responsibilities for his actions and Jethro now run to all appointments. Jethro runs faster than trains and beats them now all the time. Granny, please fix Jethro’s shoes, they are hurting Jethro’s feet. Jethro is speaking in third person because Jethro is thinking about his long lost Hulk blog that he is about to check into. Jethro wants to meet Incredible Hulk on blogspot. Hulk very funny.

   :: 8 Mar 2007 at 1:53 am ::

9. MIke said:

   Well then Jethro, Don’t take the train again. Since you find the experience less than desirable for your delicate nature. You may want to consider this. Public transportation offers basic transportation needs for the most part to a working class group of the community. Not very many CEO’s or the $100,000 per year income class will be riding the DART bus or train. Some may, but not many will. But if you don’t mind giving up the comfort of a BMW or what ever model of personal vechicle you have. And if you don’t mind starting out your day a little early to account for bus or train transfers, late or delayed trains then DART provides basic transportation needs. People in Texas are great, but most of them have never been big on public transportation. Its still something new to most people in our area. Just asking you to try it for awhile and understand that it’s not a perfect system. But it’s the only way to get to and from work for some. So if we dump DART what will they do for their transportation needs. I will be the first to say it neeeds improvement. And it’s not even close to being as profiecint as the NY sub-way. But it is safer and cleaner! You got a ticket from a rude transit cop. You probable have had a ticket from rude traffic cop in one of the many towns that are part of Dallas, but their not Dallas. Which I can’t even start to understand why they have 30 or 40 seperate city governments set up for one area. Just make it all the Dallas Metro area. But that’s a whole seperate story. The point is that you don’t say dump the town of Garland because a Garland cop was rude. There are rude cops out there, as well as cabbie’s, watiers, and bus drivers. I think Improvement is better than dumping the whole system. And yes I have been asked for my ticket. Not by a DART cop, but by one of the fare enforcement people in the white uniforms. And some of them have been rude and some have been nice.

   :: 8 Mar 2007 at 1:23 pm ::

10. JD said:

    Not paying for a train ticket is theft, it like someone stilling your wallet. Also don’t blame others when you don’t known how to work the ticket machine, ask questions. Sounds like you need to learn how to read.

    :: 8 May 2007 at 1:52 pm ::

11. Saq Madiq said:

    As someone who rides DART on a regular basis, having no other alternative, I agree that it is the SCHITTIEST public transit system EVER. I recently got back from San Antonio, a MUCH smaller city than Dallas, and was very impressed with how efficient and timely the VIA service was. Most routes ran more frequently than every 30 minutes– a far cry from the hour-plus wait I experience on a nightly basis at White Rock Station, trying to catch the 466. I catch a bus at 5:41 pm, but don’t get home until almost 7:30 pm… and my trip is only about 5 miles. I have honestly gotten home faster by walking than I do on DART, and were it not for a dangerous stretch of Northwest Highway, with narrow shoulders and no sidewalk, I would walk it more often. Yes, there is another route (519), but I still don’t get home before 7:15. BTW… I get off work at about 5:45, but this bus makes a “double-back” as it serves Mockingbird Rail Station and meanders around the old Minyard store near Gaston and Abrams. On weekends, it’s worse. I work on Saturdays and that MAJOR bus runs only once an hour. So, if I get tied up with last-minute work, I get stuck waiting an hour for the next bus, then having the long ride to get home nearly two hours after my shift is over. Remember: FIVE MILES from home. Two hours. A reasonably fit human can walk 3 to 3.5 mph. Do the math. Now there is talk of eliminating 519 AND 428 service near my work this fall and replacing it with a new route that will not serve White Rock. I would either have to take the 583 to LBJ/Skillman, then the Blue Line to White Rock, then wait for the 466… or go to Lovers Lane, take a Red Line to Mockingbird, then transfer to a Blue Line to White Rock, then catch a 466. Four vehicles for a 5 mile trip is unacceptable. This, after already eliminating the bus that served my neighborhood and replacing it with On-Call, which is hard to catch since there are very few spaces available (seems that certain riders claim daily times and new or occasional riders can’t get a seat).

    I’ve rissen for 15 years, and it has only gotten worse.

    :: 20 May 2007 at 2:24 pm ::

12. Brandon said:

    That sounds extremely complicated and tough Saq. Ever thought of getting a bike to cut out some of those nutty bus commute times?

    :: 22 May 2007 at 5:44 pm ::

13. Saq Madiq said:

    I have a good bike, and I would bike to work, but half the trip is along Northwest Highway near White Rock where there is no real shoulder and no place to go if a car looks like it’s about to hit me– guard rails, etc. I rode it once or twice, but I was petrified the whole way that someone was going to run me off or something. Ditto for walking. It’s bad enough during the lighter time of the year, but downright nuts during the darker times. The ride along Buckner north of Mockingbird isn’t too much better, though there are places to bail out if some moron comes flying toward me.

    I cannot fathom WHY we should pay MORE money for WORSE service. It seems that the ones who propose and implement these changes have NO idea how screwed-up the system is. They obviously don’t ride the bus and have no clue of what the real-world rider needs. WHY the evening rush time ends at 6 p.m. when most people’s workday ends at 5 or 5:30 escapes me. Further, the 466 driver has to take a break sometime, and DART has that break scheduled for when the driver arrives at White Rock Station at 6:36 p.m. So, the bus pulls in and sits for 35 minutes, until the next departure at 7:10 p.m. Okay… recap. I leave work a few minutes after 5:30 and catch the 428 at 5:56 p.m. I arrive at White Rock at 6:05 p.m. just minutes after the 466 leaves at 6:01. I wait over one hour until the next 466 leaves at 7:05. That bus gets to my stop at 7:20. I walk half a mile and get home at almost 7:30 p.m., nearly 2 hours after my shift has ended… and I’ve traveled about 5 miles to do so.

    Does that make any sense to anyone?

    Now, I’d be dealing with 3 vehicles instead of two under the proposed changes and have an even longer trip. Plus, I’ll pay more for the “privilege”. Where’s the sense in THAT?

    Trust me, a bike sounds great and would certainly cut a lot of time off the trip but with dangerous Northwest Hwy., it’s a risky option. And DART laments the low ridership! Gee, I wonder WHY no one wants to ride! Who wants to spend half a day on a ten-mile round trip? In the same amount of travel time, I could just about drive to Austin. I could make it to Shreveport in the time it takes me to get home at night, for cryin’ out loud!

    DART: Definitely Ain’t Rapid Transit

    :: 5 Jun 2007 at 12:30 pm ::

14. Mark said:

    Saq: Just because NW Hwy is the most direct route to your office doesn’t mean that’s what you should bike on. I live just north of that area and if I was riding in, I would be taking side streets like White Rock Trail, Lawther (which is where I cross NW Hwy), Williamson, Bob O Link, etc, to the Katy trail.

    It might add a few extra miles to your route but you’d still save a lot of time!

    Look at a site like http://www.gmap-pedometer.com to map out a route. There is a commuter forum on http://www.dorba.org with lots of helpful people to help you steer clear of the trouble areas.

    :: 5 Jun 2007 at 6:30 pm ::

15. Dave Stewart said:

    To Mark: it’s so easy to say someone should just go another way but you are avoiding the issue. The problem is that it takes DART 2 hours to get this guy 5 miles. There is nobody in charge at DART who knows what they are doing, obviously. I don’t have it quite so bad, it takes just over 3 hours for a commute that would take 38 minutes by car. Should I take a different route as well???

    MIke said:
    [DART is] still something new to most people in our area. Just asking you to try it for awhile and understand that it’s not a perfect system. But it’s the only way to get to and from work for some. So if we dump DART what will they do for their transportation needs. I will be the first to say it neeeds improvement.

    To MIke: Thanks for your courage for being such a vocal DART apologist. The truth is, DART wastes public money that comes from our taxes and provides horrible and unreliable service to most areas, and adequate service to only a few areas in the city. Maybe they have friends or relatives in those communities??? Who knows.

    The fact is, the transportation needs of Dallas area citizens could be better served by having far more busses that are smaller and more fuel efficient (less polluting would be nice too). The bus system should be shut down and replaced with a publicly owned corporation which is mandated to be more responsive to the needs of each community. Wastefulness and bloated management would be first to go. Did you know that DART pays bus drivers as much as $60,000 per year! This is ridiculous for the job they do. Step one is to replace all the drivers with lower paid workers whose salary is tied to their performance.

    To Saq Madiq: Your experience with DART (long waits and multiple hours to reach a nearby destination) really is typical of everyone I talk to. This is why I say we need DUMPDART(dot)ORG now. Someone needs to build this site and start a grass roots movement to get rid of this poor excuse for public transport. I’ve talked to a number of people (mostly lower income) that have seen the service get worse and worse over the past years. Not a single person has told me that service has improved (anywhere). So DART soaks up our tax dollars (they are funded through a 1 percent sales tax as well as receiving money from the government so that money comes from our taxes also). Why wouldn’t we have the ability to say how our money (our taxes) is spent.

    Here is my analysis and solution.

    DART PROBLEMS:
    1. Too few buses that run too infrequently (caused by having huge busses, paying the drivers too much, having bloated layers of management, and overpaid workers at every level - all that waste takes away from what DART should be doing: getting people to where they need to go within a reasonable time)
    2. Unreliable (caused by drivers who don’t have to care if they keep to the schedule - they leave the station early or late whatever they want - and management who couldn’t care less about customer complaints - nothing ever changes no matter how many times you call to complain)
    3. Too many layers of management. DART has far too many managers who basically do nothing.
    4. The busses spew out tons of stinky pollution (this may be partly a maintenance issue but it’s time for this to change too)
    5. It takes up to a half an hour to get to speak to someone who can say why a bus is late or if it has broken down (obviously DART employees have guaranteed jobs and have no need to respond to customer issues).
    6. DART received over a BILLION DOLLARS this year. Do you think you (the taxpayers) are getting your moneys worth???

    THE SOLUTION:
    1. A grass roots movement needs to be started here in the DFW area to force the politicians to get off their seats and fix DART.
    2. Boycotting the bus will do nothing. DART doesn’t care if nobody rides because DART is just a jobs program and not a transportation system.
    So, political action is needed by us citizens. Environmental and consumer advocacy groups should be enlisted to rally support in the community.
    3. So what changes are needed?
    a. DART needs to be terminated. All employees (drivers, managers and mechanics included) need to be replaced. DART is rotten to the core and needs a clean start.
    b. DART needs to be responsive to its customers just like any other company, so it should be a regular company. DART Corp. should be either publicly owned or employee-owned.
    c. New employees will be hired and paid in line with the job they do (no more $60k for bus drivers). There are hundreds of people in the DFW area who would jump at the chance to work at DART Corp.
    d. Huge, polluting busses will be replaced by double or triple the number of smaller, more efficient busses. Paying drivers $8-10 an hour and smaller busses are so much less costly so this will keep costs the same or less.
    e. Bus drivers (and all other employees) will be paid a normal wage like the rest of us. Anyone who doesn’t like it can be replaced quite easily.
    e. All operational information of DART Corp. will be public, including all financial, route and ridership data. You can’t be responsive if everything you do is a secret.
    f. Oversight will be mandated (exact details to be worked out later)

    :: 28 Jul 2007 at 5:31 pm ::

16. Dave Stewart said:

    Never forget.

    dumpdart.org is needed now.

    Volunteers and visionaries are needed to get this started.

    :: 28 Jul 2007 at 5:39 pm ::

17. Hurricane said:

    I got my first ticket from one of the DART cops this morning. I am often disappointed with TRE and DART because the train is never on schedule…it’s always way early or way late. Imagine my disdain as I was walking to the platform to board with 10 minutes to spare along with a dozen or so other passengers and the train pulls away. What is the time table for if they don’t keep it? Anyway, I thought maybe my watch was wrong, so I compared mine with a few others’ and found that my watch was not wrong. Should I call DART and ask for wages lost due to the hour I lost from work?

    TRE and DART has plenty of room for improvement. Their parking lots say “no overnight parking”…but you can take the train to a hotel and the airport. I can understand that they don;t want vehicles left there for weeks at a time, but what’s the point of taking the train to the airport if you can’t leave your vehicle there? Perhaps a pay lot for those who wish to par overnight could be added?

    Now…to my ticket…yes, it was my fault, but the rent-a-cop didn’t have to be such an a$$. They ask for tickets on a random basis. I found it interesting that the hispanic male cop chose to ask me ( a “white” female) for my ticket first. Of course, I did buy a ticket, as I do every other day of the week, but, having a newborn and little to no sleep each night, I’m very prone to mistakes.

    I won’t bore you with details on how I lost it… the point is, I dug and dug and today’s ticket wasn’t there. We lost the baby’s pacifier twice last night, so I wasn’t surprised. I assured the officer that I did purchase a ticket and showed him the tickets from the other days this week, but he said something along the lines of “trying to pull one over on him”. Whatever.

    I apologized for my mistake and complied with his requests…gave him my driver license, answered his questions, etc. Of course this was all very embarassing, so when he asked my weight, I joked, “A lady never tells her weight.” and laughed…I was getting the ticket anyway, might as well make light of it, right? WRONG!

    Anyway, I had 45 minutes to spare, so I continued to search for this dad-blasted 1 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ piece of paper. Well, I did find it, tucked in a book, so I gathered my belongings and sought out the offer who issued the ticket to me. He didn;t believe me and said that it could have been another passenger’s ticket that I was trying to pass of as my own. I can see his point, but come on…really. So he took the ticket away and wouldn’t give it back. That ticket was an ALL-DAY PASS…so now, I have to buy another ticket to get back to the station where my vehicle is parked and pay a $75 fine to avoid being arrested!

    And my comment about him being a hispanic male and me a “white” female…..if I had been the rent-a-cop and singled out any non-white person for “random” checking, it would have been considered racial profiling.

    :: 14 Sep 2007 at 4:56 pm ::

18. Hurricane said:

    An Update to my situation:

    I tried to pay my fine today, using their online system. Well, they couldn’t find my citation number, so I had to call their support services. Come to find out, they put in the wrong date. They said I got my citation on July 14 instead of September 14. This resulted in 1) a warrant for my arrest and 2) an additional fine of $500. Ain’t that somethin’?

    :: 1 Oct 2007 at 1:31 pm ::

19. Saq Madiq said:

    Okay, so here we are 2 months into the service changes and all of my worst fears have come to light– along with some that I didn’t think of. The 583, my first bus on my evening commute, is NEVER on time. Ever. And when it does arrive, it’s just in time to get me to Lovers Lane so I can watch the train I’m needing to catch back to Mockingbird Station chugging out. Which means that I wait for the next train… which also means that I miss my connection to the 519 South Garland and have to wait an hour for the next one. This means that my trip now takes nearly 2-1/2 hours FROM ABRAMS/SKILLMAN to GARLAND/BUCKNER. And of course, DART doesn’t give a sh** that I have to travel several miles WEST to go southeast.

    Not only that, in an obliquely related issue (it’s still DART)– we have requested a bus shelter and a guide-a-ride schedule at Garland and Peavy for 15 years. There have always been 3 major routes at this stop (currently 519/475/466). The requirements for a shelter say that a stop must serve 50 boardings per day. That’s a cinch– that stop meets the requirement, and I was even informed of that when I placed yet another request for a shelter and sked this spring. In June, Rodney from DART Customer Service called me to tell me that the amenities were approved and would be placed at the stop in 60 to 90 days… or sometime in August or September. When it turned into December and no amenities had yet been added, I called DART for a status check. I gave the reference number and Rodney’s name. Customer Response couldn’t even find my request and service number. I was told that someone would call me back. Of course, no one ever did. Today, after almost daily calls, I finally spoke directly with Rodney when he just happened to answer the phone. I refreshed his memory on the timeline and what was promised to us, and told him that I had called several times in recent days for status reports. He said that there was no record that I had called recently. I told him that I had spoken most recently with “Hymie”, and that Hymie told me he would call me back that day, but of course he didn’t. Rodney acted like he was making notes, then he told me that he would have to call me back. I’m not holding my breath. Of course, no one is able to provide me with a manager’s name or number so that I can go higher up the chain. So, that’s what that EVERYONE who lives or does business in a DART community pays for– a job service for incompetent morons and their pals.

    It IS time to DUMP DART.

    :: 7 Dec 2007 at 12:37 pm ::

20. Saq Madiq said:

    HURRICANE said:
    “And my comment about him being a hispanic male and me a “whiteâ€? female…..if I had been the rent-a-cop and singled out any non-white person for “randomâ€? checking, it would have been considered racial profiling. ”

    …

    Yup, it’s not cool or proper to be an English speaking white American in America anymore. Even DART has gotten on that bandwagon. Anyone else notice the bus-sized advertisements that are solely in Spanish? MiCash from Mastercard/Home Depot immediately comes to mind. There are many others. And I have seen MANY ethnic/”minority” bus drivers who allow other minorities to ride for free, while closely scrutinizing the credentials of any white who presents a Reduced pass and ID card.

    :: 7 Dec 2007 at 12:45 pm ::

21. Boris said:

    Hello Everybody,

    I’m a Service Planner at DART. I just discovered this site, and I’m not sure if anyone still reads it (since the last posting is a few months old). I find many of the comments quite disappointing, and would like to do what I can to address some of your complaints/concerns/criticisms. Please feel free to e-mail me directly any time you feel that you are not getting proper customer service, and I will do my best to address whatever issue you have, or else see to it that the proper person at DART addresses it.

    Thanks,
    Boris

    :: 3 Mar 2008 at 11:30 pm ::

22. Boris said:

    Sorry…the e-mail is bpalchik@dart.org

    :: 4 Mar 2008 at 3:15 pm ::

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