What’s Next for Keep DART in Plano
The past few months have been a reminder of what happens when a community decides to show up.
Residents spoke at meetings. Riders shared their stories. Volunteers organized events, knocked on doors, and helped neighbors understand what was at stake. Plano showed that people care deeply about how their city moves and how regional decisions affect everyday life.
On February 20, the DART Board approved an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) framework designed to support city mobility projects tied to canceling withdrawal elections. Just three days later, on February 23, the Plano City Council voted to rescind the May 2 DART withdrawal election.
That was a big moment.
Keep DART in Plano started at 3:00 AM the night the withdrawal election was called. It began as a small group of residents trying to understand what had just happened and how to respond. The goal was simple: rescind the election and make sure Plano stayed connected to the region.
Over time, that goal shifted and grew.
What started as a rapid response turned into something bigger. We heard from riders who depend on transit every day. From families trying to get to work and school. From residents who want Plano to stay competitive and connected as North Texas grows.
Today, our work is about more than stopping something. It’s about helping build what comes next.
We’re encouraged to see the City of Plano and DART working together again. Collaboration is a good start. But optimism depends on transparency. Residents deserve clear information about how General Mobility Program (GMP) funds will be used, how new programs like Via are implemented, and whether those investments are actually improving mobility across the city.
That’s why, at the February 23 council meeting, we asked for a few specific, actionable next steps:
Create a Transit and Mobility Committee to keep this work moving in public, not behind the scenes.
Appoint a rider as Plano’s representative on the DART Board.
Publish clear, measurable results from PlanoRides (the Via pilot), including performance metrics the public can actually track.
Our focus moving forward is simple: better outcomes for riders.
That means advocating for transparent spending, measurable results, and mobility investments that improve access to jobs, healthcare, education, and everyday destinations. It also means continuing to support strong regional partnerships that recognize Plano doesn’t exist in isolation. Our economy, workforce, and communities are connected across city lines.
Encouraging ridership remains one of our biggest goals.
Transit works best when people experience it for themselves. That’s why we’ll keep hosting community rides and outreach events to help more residents try DART, ask questions, and see how regional mobility works in practice.
Our next community ride departs from Shiloh Road Station at 3:15 PM on Saturday, February 28, traveling aboard the Silver Line to 3 Nations Brewery near Downtown Carrollton.
Looking further ahead, regional transit discussions are expected to return to the Texas Legislature in 2027. KDIP plans to continue working alongside residents, DART leadership, city officials, and regional partners to make sure Plano remains constructive, collaborative, and focused on long-term success.
Because at the end of the day, strong transit isn’t just about trains or buses. It’s about access, opportunity, and making sure people can get where they need to go.
Thank You to the Community
This progress was not achieved by any single organization or individual.
It happened because residents chose to participate.
To everyone who attended meetings, volunteered their time, donated resources, shared information, or encouraged a neighbor to engage in civic discussion, thank you!
Community leadership begins when residents show up for one another.
Keep DART in Plano will continue showing up alongside you.
Less Than Two Months In — And Look Where We Are
A year-end progress check from Keep DART in Plano
Less than two months ago, Keep DART in Plano was an idea, a few messages, and a lot of “are we really doing this?”
Now? It’s a movement that’s gaining traction.
📰We’re Being Talked About (Beyond Plano)
In under two months, this conversation moved well outside City Hall:
We were mentioned in D Magazine, bringing Plano’s transit debate to a broader North Texas audience
Substack writers began using Plano as a case study in transit governance, funding, and public process
📱We Just Started TikTok… and Wow
We launched our TikTok this week, with one of our first videos passing 40,000 views
Thousands of people are now seeing — and sharing — information about Plano transit, accountability, and process
People want clear, accessible explanations — and they’re not finding them through traditional channels. Short-form video helped turn a complicated civic issue into something human and understandable.
💻Transparency Didn’t Exist — So We Built It
In less than two months, we’ve:
Filed and tracked multiple public records requests
Organized agendas, timelines, and documents into digestible summaries
Compared public statements with documented actions
Shared what we found so residents didn’t have to dig through PDFs
Transparency doesn’t happen by default. It happens because people insist on it.
When Residents Said: “Please Don’t Do This Quietly.”
One of the most meaningful moments this month was when a group of residents sent a certified letter asking the City of Plano not to conduct transit dealings privately.
At the same time, we’ve repeatedly asked whether the residents most impacted by potential service changes are being directly engaged.
To date, we haven’t received a clear response. So we’ll keep asking.
We Truly Couldn’t Have Done This Without…
This work has been community-powered from day one.
💸Our Donors
You helped fund records requests, printing, tools, and community rides. Grassroots advocacy only works when people believe in it. Thank you. If you’d like to help financially, visit our Giving page.
📊DATA
Huge thanks to Dallas Area Transit Alliance for keeping facts front and center — adding regional context, reality-checking numbers, and helping turn complexity into clarity.
🚉 Transit Alliance of Plano
Thank you to Transit Alliance of Plano for being early, consistent, and rider-focused voices who showed that advocacy can be constructive and firm.
💬 Our Friends on the CCCC
To those who served on the Collin County Connects Committee — you asked hard questions, documented concerns, and brought facts into rooms that needed them. That work mattered.
🏢City of Plano Staff
We also want to acknowledge City of Plano staff for being willing to engage. Even when we disagreed or answers were incomplete, engagement still happened — and that matters.
🧑🤝🧑The Residents Who Showed Up
Riders. Seniors. Workers. Students.
Those who emailed, spoke at council, filed records, sent certified letters, and asked tough questions.
You reminded everyone that democracy isn’t passive.
🗳️Eyes on the Vote — And Beyond
Between now and Election Day, we’ll keep:
Sharing information
Encouraging civic participation
Showing up to Council
We’ll also give Plano’s new transit option a fair, good-faith try once it launches — because outcomes matter.
But our work does not end with the election.
We’re already planning what comes next:
Holding Plano to its public commitments
Measuring promises against reality
Strengthening relationships — including with DART
Keeping riders at the center, no matter the outcome
🎄 One Last Holiday Nugget
We hope you’re all able to take the Silver Line to the airport soon — suitcase rolling, stress low, holiday playlist on.
Friendly reminder:
🎅 Dallas Area Rapid Transit service hours are limited on holidays, so check schedules
🥳 Rides are FREE on New Year’s Eve night for the first 10,500 riders who redeem code COORSNYE25 in GoPass, making it easier to celebrate responsibly and get home safely
Thank you for riding with us, learning with us, and building this together.
Statement on C4’s Final Meeting
Last night’s Collin County Connects Committee (CCCC) meeting underscored both the gravity of this decision and the growing disconnect between those impacted by transit policy and those driving it.
To be clear, the committee was not unanimous. Some members expressed preferences and supported moving forward. However, as the meeting progressed, more questions were raised than answered — particularly around cost certainty, service coverage, long-term viability, and the consequences of eliminating fixed-route bus service, especially for Plano’s most vulnerable residents.
Those concerns were not abstract.
One committee member, who works directly with riders to access DART paratransit services, raised critical questions about ADA compliance and real-world accessibility. Another noted that non-member cities face limitations when transferring riders into DART paratransit, while remaining a member city ensures eligible riders can access the rides they need without artificial caps. These realities matter to seniors, people with disabilities, and residents who rely on transit for basic mobility.
As these questions surfaced, several lines of inquiry were curtailed by legal guidance, leaving essential issues unresolved. The result was a process where concerns accumulated without full examination, contributing to hesitation among members unwilling to endorse outcomes that lacked clarity or safeguards.
While there was one notably forceful objection to including DART as an option, the broader tone of the committee reflected unease — not confidence — in the vendor alternatives presented. Concerns about fragmentation, scalability, accessibility, and loss of regional connectivity were raised repeatedly. Even where support existed, it was often conditional.
During the meeting, the committee and City staff publicly acknowledged and thanked community members in attendance — including advocacy groups such as Keep DART in Plano — for sustained engagement and participation throughout this process. We appreciate that recognition and remain hopeful City Council will hear the message emerging from the committee’s work.
However, it is difficult to reconcile that acknowledgment with how the process itself was structured.
One committee member stated plainly that it was irresponsible to expect meaningful outcomes from four meetings compressed into two weeks, all held on week nights, with one meeting serving as an introduction and another functioning as a conclusion. That left, at most, two working sessions to evaluate complex transit systems, contracts, costs, legal obligations, and long-term impacts. While this timeline was framed as an effort to empower citizen participation, multiple members made clear that they did not feel empowered to make an informed decision.
This constraint was not incidental — it was imposed.
City Council specifically hobbled the committee’s ability to perform its charge. Other cities, including Carrollton, formed advisory groups well before placing any ballot measure, made clear they would not consider withdrawal until alternatives were fully developed, and provided their committees with substantial detail on proposed service models, costs, and timelines.
Plano did not.
When committee members requested additional information regarding procurement, contracts, and pricing structures, they were told that releasing such details could harm the city by allowing vendors to “price each other up.” As a result, members were asked to evaluate proposals without access to the very information needed to assess viability, risk, or long-term sustainability.
That is not empowerment. It is constraint.
What this process has made increasingly clear is that the city is prioritizing the protection of its pocketbook over the protection of its most vulnerable residents. Whether this initiative is driven by City Council, city management, future political ambitions, or some combination thereof remains unclear. What is clear is that it is not being driven by the people most impacted — transit riders themselves.
City Council initially punted the decision to voters by placing DART withdrawal on the ballot, avoiding a direct policy position. The committee was then asked to evaluate replacement options under narrow constraints — and when that process surfaced unresolved risks, the issue was effectively punted back to Council.
Transit planning should begin with riders, access, and mobility. Instead, financial recapture has dominated the conversation.
That is unacceptable.
We are calling on every Plano resident who depends on transit — seniors, people with disabilities, service workers, students, business owners, and downtown Plano residents — to speak at the December 16 City Council meeting. If the city is moving forward with a solution it claims is viable, it must do so on the public record, fully aware that its own transit riders, business owners, and residents have raised serious objections.
If Council will not listen voluntarily, then we must make ourselves impossible to ignore.
Transparency Disclaimer
For full transparency, one member of the Collin County Connects Committee also serves on the board of directors of Keep DART in Plano. We explicitly requested that this individual refrain from advocating for our organization’s position during committee proceedings, as we believe strongly in the separation of roles and responsibilities.
This statement was written by members of our organization who do not serve on the committee, based on their experience observing these open meetings and reviewing publicly available materials.
We are disclosing this voluntarily because transparency matters — especially when the city has failed to provide it.