Iowa’s largest transit agency is proposing a new plan that reduces the number of bus routes from 27 to 10 and prioritizes fewer, high frequency routes in denser parts of the Des Moines metro.
The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) introduced the plan as part of its 18-month “Reimagine DART” initiative. The project is aimed at redesigning the system to address shifting travel patterns and looming budget challenges.
While the network currently has a balanced budget, a host of factors, including high inflation, increased labor costs, legislative changes around property taxes and drying up of one-time COVID relief dollars have shifted the transit network into more precarious financial positions in recent years…