{"id":37453,"date":"2025-11-06T02:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37453\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T02:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T02:50:08","slug":"plano-voters-set-to-consider-leaving-dart-next-year-after-council-oks-withdrawal-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/37453\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano voters set to consider leaving DART next year after council OKs withdrawal election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plano will let voters decide if it will withdraw from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system<\/a>, after the City Council Wednesday set an election next May to settle the question \u2013 joining Highland Park and Farmers Branch<\/a> in throwing the matter to the ballot box.<\/p>\n

Irving will decide Thursday<\/a> if it will join the three cities in seeking an exodus from the state\u2019s largest transit agency, a movement that has been fueled by dissatisfaction over what some leaders have deemed inadequate service<\/a> from DART in suburban cities relative to sales tax contributions. <\/p>\n

More than 90 people lined up to address the Plano<\/a> council ahead of their vote Wednesday, offering a competing view over the future of Plano\u2019s role<\/a> in the region\u2019s public transportation system.<\/p>\n

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But in the end, the Plano council<\/a>\u2019s eight members voted in favor of holding a withdrawal election next year. <\/p>\n

University students, commuters, working professionals, neighbors, community leaders, people with disabilities and neighbors lined up to speak to the council about how losing DART service<\/a> would make it hard to travel. Some said they chose to live near DART services and use it frequently to get to work or school. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you guys pull out of DART<\/a>, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m going to get to work,\u201d Tyler Wright told the council Wednesday. He lives in Addison and works in Plano. \u201cPlease stop this vote and come to the table. Talk to the ridership and with DART.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

Although the vast majority spoke in favor of remaining with the agency, a few addressed the council in favor of a withdrawal from DART<\/a>, some citing concerns over crime on and near its services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2024 report by the firm EY showed Plano<\/a> contributed more than $109 million in fiscal year 2023, though DART spent about $44 million on services in the city. Plano staff report the city spends more on DART<\/a> than police and economic development combined.<\/p>\n

Nadine Lee, CEO of DART, told the council Wednesday that her agency has tried to work with Plano and will continue seeking to improve service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe progress we\u2019ve made comes from standing together and confronting our challenges as one region,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI invite you to work with us, with transparency, collaboration and good faith to resolve these issues in place of withdrawal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email tips on all things Collin County to lilly.kersh@dallasnews.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano will let voters decide if it will withdraw from the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[960,2261,288,160,162,161,840],"class_list":{"0":"post-37453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-collin-county","9":"tag-dart","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-plano","12":"tag-plano-headlines","13":"tag-plano-news","14":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}