DART presents two network concepts for Des Moines as funding questions loom

DART officials and consultants on April 15 laid out two alternate concepts for the agency’s Reimagine DART network and warned that funding uncertainties — including a pending property-tax bill at the Iowa legislature and a proposed local franchise fee — will determine which version the region can afford.

At a city meeting, Amanda, a DART staff member, said, “63 percent of the total boardings were in Des Moines,” noting that figure excludes Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) trips and Iowa State Fair service and that the whole system must be considered when allocating service.

The difference matters because DART staff presented a status-quo budget and a smaller-network scenario that use the agency’s same accounting metric — revenue hours on the road — but that would produce different service patterns and different impacts on local property tax levies. Amanda said the status-quo scenario would require roughly a 5 percent increase in property taxes to sustain a forecasted 4 percent annual expense growth; the smaller-network scenario spreads a one-time reduction and then applies the same growth assumptions going forward.

Why it matters

DART and its consultant, Jarrett Walker & Associates, said the city and the regional commission must decide two linked questions by mid-May so staff can draft a network: how much service the region can afford, and whether to prioritize ridership (frequent service on major corridors) or coverage (less-frequent service that reaches more neighborhoods). Staff asked member governments for guidance at a May 6 commission meeting and said the commission will vote on network funding and direction at a May 19 special meeting.

What the two concepts would do

Ricky Engad, a consultant with Jarrett Walker & Associates, described the “ridership” concept as concentrating fewer routes with higher frequency — “ridership is just one goal,” he said, but the ridership concept boosts frequent, all-day service on core corridors so more destinations are reachable in a typical trip window. In DART’s modeling, the ridership concept increased the average Des Moines resident’s access to jobs and other destinations (roughly a mid-teens to 20-percent gain in access measures shown in the presentation).

The “coverage” concept spreads the same amount of revenue hours across more routes to provide service closer to more residents; frequencies are lower and the system’s hourly productivity declines, but more places retain some service. Jarrett Walker staff showed microtransit (on-demand) zones as a coverage tool for low-density edges; consultants noted microtransit typically yields about 3–5 boardings per driver-hour versus 10–35 boardings per hour on fixed routes and is therefore more costly per passenger.

Budget and reserves

DART staff presented scenarios that factor in several variables: a modeled 2.5 percent franchise fee (the city could enact a local fee to fund transit), a $2 million one-year franchise commitment for FY 2026 that the council discussed, and an uncertain outcome from the state legislature’s property-tax proposals, which staff said could require 30–40 percent cuts under the current draft of that bill. Amanda said starting a franchise fee earlier would build reserves (staff cited roughly $3–4 million more in reserves if the fee were in place for FY 2026 in the modeled scenarios). The presentation also showed that a smaller network would reduce DART’s federal formula funding because those grants are driven strongly by service miles.

Officials repeatedly emphasized choices are separable: the region must decide a funding envelope (how much local revenue to provide) and separately decide whether the service in that envelope emphasizes ridership or coverage. “The amount of service we provide is actually a bigger driver than the overall population,” Erin Hockman, DART’s chief strategy officer, said when explaining how federal formula grants track service miles.

Student riders, safety and operations

Staff clarified that DMPS decides which students get access to DART, and many student trips use standard or deviated fixed routes. Amanda said DART has changed unlimited-student access hours (now 4:30 p.m. start for unlimited access) to reduce overnight unsupervised presence and that off-duty Des Moines Police Department officers assist DART during high-staffing hours at Dart Central Station. Council members and staff discussed the operational trade-offs of student ridership: it raises overall boardings but can complicate operator workload and station supervision.

Timeline and next steps

DART’s schedule in the presentation asks member jurisdictions to indicate funding direction by mid-May so consultants can begin producing a draft network the week after the May 19 vote. The consultant plans to publish a draft network in August, gather additional public input in the fall, and seek a final commission decision in December so changes could be implemented in summer 2026.

Council response and outstanding questions

Council members expressed different preferences but emphasized the need for clearer funding commitments from Des Moines before the May vote. Council member Mike said he favored the ridership concept for flexibility, federal funding implications and corridor-focused land-use alignment. Council member Chris and others asked staff to return specific dollar commitments and to explain the proposed franchise-fee structure, including whether a sunset clause would be included. Staff advised that the commission must decide how much the region is willing to fund so the draft plan presented for public comment is affordable.

What remains unclear

Staff repeatedly cautioned that legislative action on property tax or other state-level changes could force deeper cuts than the scenarios presented. Several council members asked staff to model a “worst-case” smaller network in case the legislature’s bill passes in its current form; staff said they could prepare alternative draft maps for a lower-budget scenario but reiterated the ridership-versus-coverage choice remains relevant at any budget level.

Ending

DART’s staff and consultants framed the April presentations as part of a multi-month public process. The commission will take action on funding and the plan in mid- to late May, and DART said it will release a draft network to the public in August and seek final approval in December for a planned summer 2026 roll-out.