Dallas City Council members yesterday called for a formal probe after learning the city came up $30 million short on money it expected from Dallas Area Rapid Transit, cash officials had already penciled in for sidewalks, bus-stop upgrades, and other neighborhood transit improvements. The surprise shortfall pushed council members to ask both the city inspector general and the city auditor to dig into what went wrong and whether city procedures were actually followed. The move puts new pressure on decisions made during construction of the long-delayed Silver Line and on how regional transit dollars get carved up across Dallas neighborhoods.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the missing $30 million was part of the $111 million DART had planned to return to Dallas in 2023. DART officials told council members they held back that slice of funding to help cover construction delays and cost overruns tied to the Silver Line.
Why the Silver Line Cost More
Raising the rail line over Hillcrest Road created drainage problems that required a new pump station, an expensive piece of infrastructure that was not in the original plans and that sparked strong neighborhood pushback. D Magazine earlier detailed how alignment shifts in Far North Dallas reshaped the project’s costs and schedule and ratcheted up community tensions along the corridor.
What DART Officials Told the Committee
DART board chair Randall Bryant told the city committee the rail project ran into “about 746 days” of delay overall, with roughly 500 of those days tied to direct interactions with the city. Agency officials said they sometimes paid well over appraised values for key parcels, including one property appraised at $1.2 million that DART purchased for $3.35 million, to secure construction access and avoid even longer hold-ups. DART also told the committee the Hillcrest pump station is now owned and maintained by the city, and that the agency is marketing the residential parcels it picked up during construction. The Dallas Morning News reported on the exchange.
Council Reaction and Regional Context
Committee chair Gay Donnell Willis questioned whether city procedures were followed and warned the situation raises red flags about potential waste. Council member Lorie Blair pressed DART on whether any of the lost money could have ended up in her southern Dallas district, where some transit stops still do not have basic seating or shelters. Interim Inspector General Baron Eliason had not immediately said whether his office would formally take on the probe.
The dispute is unfolding as regional leaders and DART try to nail down a compromise that would phase the return of sales-tax dollars to member cities over several years in order to lower the risk of withdrawal elections, a strategy meant to keep regional transit funding on steadier ground. KERA has described that broader effort.
Legal and Accountability Questions
The inspector general and the city auditor will be asked to look for any procedural lapses, to determine whether staff met interlocal-agreement expectations and to assess whether changes to permitting or review timelines could help head off similar cost spikes in future projects. Any audit findings could lead to new internal controls at City Hall, influence how Dallas negotiates future deals with DART and shape what city leaders demand from regional partners going forward…