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DART board members tell Plano council transparency and subsidy gaps remain unresolved
Summary
Plano-appointed DART board members told the council there is limited staff and board appetite to accept or act on an Ernst & Young cost allocation report; members said service changes such as expanded GoLink zones were discussed but that major funding gaps remain.
Members of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) board told the Plano City Council on Jan. 27 that efforts to get more fiscal transparency and to address what an Ernst & Young study identified as a large subsidy gap have progressed only modestly.
Paul Wageman and Nathan Barbera, Plano’s representatives on the DART board, told council members they have pushed for clearer accounting of what the agency spends in each member city. “The agency will either continue to status quo budget, which is to fund everything we already are,” Wageman said, describing staff and board dynamics at DART.
Wageman and Barbera summarized the board-level response to the Ernst & Young report: some board members do not accept the report’s accounting; others question the inputs. Barbera said that, even if a hypothetical $20 million adjustment were valid, Plano would still be paying roughly $45 million more per year than it receives in direct service value according to the report’s methodology. Barbera described the issue as “existential” for Plano because the city cannot sustain that level of subsidy indefinitely.
Council members pressed board representatives on two specific topics: service changes and the Silver Line’s value to Plano. On service, Wageman and Barbera said staff has discussed incremental service additions (circulators in Legacy and Legacy West and express DFW service) and more structural changes such as expanding GoLink microtransit to cover the whole city. “We’re asking that we have more micro transit and, on demand service,” Barbera said, adding that implementing a citywide GoLink zone would be expensive but could be less costly than operating largely empty fixed-route buses in low-ridership corridors.
On the Silver Line, board representatives said the line will add service and development opportunities around stations but will not close the large funding gap that concerns Plano. They estimated two Silver Line stops in Plano and noted an approximate one-hour trip to DFW airport from Plano on Silver Line service.
Public commenters at the presentation mostly opposed wholesale replacement of fixed-route buses with GoLink-style services, saying fixed routes and rail provide reliable, predictable service for commuters and transit-dependent riders.
Why it matters: the city is weighing legislative and other actions to address a recurring fiscal dispute with the regional transit agency. DART system changes (service mix, fare or subsidy policy) would directly affect operations in Plano and municipal budgets.
Next steps: Plano councilors said they will pursue legislative remedies this session if DART staff and board do not produce a sustainable plan for fiscal transparency and equitable service.
