At their Jan. 12 meeting, Plano City Council members received an update from Director of Policy and Government Relations Andrew Fortune on negotiations with DART and the city’s progress on establishing an alternative option.
Current situation
Plano residents are set to vote May 2 on whether the city should stay with DART unless the city and agency reach an agreement prior to March 18.
Fortune said previously that city officials plan to move forward with an alternative transit service regardless of the outcome of the May election. Additionally, Fortune said Plano officials have set aside $4 million as an initial investment into alternative transit options.
The city is currently in the procurement process for alternative transit partners, including Via, RideCo and Spare. However, Fortune said the city was recently notified that Spare has withdrawn from the process, leaving Via and RideCo as the remaining vendors.
Via is a “one-stop-shop” for microtransit and paratransit services, whereas RideCo and Spare offer software that coordinates with vendors to provide transit services, according to city documents.
Fortune said both Via and RideCo submitted proposals that came back “well within” the $4 million budget council set for the six-month pilot.
Fortune said previously that the alternative vendor Plano moves forward with would have a six-month pilot program, coinciding with the start of the next fiscal year to allow council to evaluate future funding for the transit service.
“We are still committed to having an alternative in place for continuity of service by May 3, ideally with a pilot for both services, the paratransit and microtransit, in place well before,” Fortune said. “We don’t want to move the paratransit community over with an uncertainty like an election, but we want to offer that pilot up to those who are interested.”
City officials originally aimed to select an alternative transit service Jan. 12, which was then delayed to Jan. 26. Fortune said staff would return Feb. 16 if the Jan. 26 deadline could not be met.
If a selection was delayed until February, alternative services would start March 2—prior to the March 18 deadline to rescind the call for the special election, but after the county’s Feb. 23 deadline for finalizing ballot language, Fortune added.
“We’ll certainly meet that second date,” Fortune said. “Our priority as staff is to bring forward a negotiated solution as soon as possible.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Julie Holmer said she wants to see the pilot program launched as soon as possible.
“I don’t want to wait until May,” Holmer said. “I would like to make sure that we have the opportunity to work out any [details] and things like that.”
Some background
After calling the election, Plano officials created the Collin County Connects Committee, a citizen-led group tasked with making a recommendation on the city’s alternative local transit system.
However, the committee concluded its work without a formal consensus Dec. 11 due to questions about cost, coverage and paratransit.
Half of the committee members participated in the rankings, while the other half chose not to submit rankings, providing written comments and an alternative report instead.
According to city documents, Spare and Via emerged as the highest-ranked vendors among the committee members who participated in rankings. Spare is a transit vendor that is currently used by DART, Fortune said.
Diving deeper
After calling the special election, Plano officials formally asked DART to consider a six-year, rail-focused transit agreement as an alternative to holding the election.
The proposal details a six-year agreement under which DART would continue providing rail service and express buses in Plano but discontinue “all standard bus, demand-response and other non-rail transit services within the city” by Jan. 1, 2029.
Fortune said funding proposals related to the agreement are currently being reviewed by DART officials.
After attending the alternative transit committee’s Dec. 11 meeting, DART board Chair Randall Bryant said DART is still evaluating Plano’s proposal to assess the “financial impacts and operational impacts.”
“There are 13 cities that we have to make happy, ... [and] we are working very diligently to meet with all of our cities and try our best to meet the demands of our cities at the same time,” Bryant said.
Zooming out
Since Plano City Council voted to call the special election, several other DART member cities, including Highland Park, Irving, Farmers Branch and University Park, have also scheduled withdrawal elections.
Fortune noted that Addison City Council is expected to discuss a potential special election again at a Jan. 13 meeting, just over a month after a previous vote to call a special election failed.
Fortune said governance and funding proposals are also under discussion, with the North Texas Commission and the North Central Texas Council of Governments leading those efforts. Additionally, Fortune added that DART expects to complete a fee study in the next few weeks that will examine the cost of regional services versus city services.
Looking ahead
Plano City Council is set to discuss next steps in the alternative transit vendor selection process at its Jan. 26 meeting.
Residents can find more information at www.plano.gov/transit.
