Star Transit

itsjrd1964
Posts: 1231
Joined: 28 Jul 2018 07:38

Star Transit

Postby itsjrd1964 » 18 Nov 2018 15:52

This suburban transit system operates shuttles and traditional bus routes in several area cities and towns, including:

#101 "Midtown Express" - Balch Springs (connects by request to DART Buckner Station)
#102 "Midtown Express" - Balch Springs
On-demand, prior-day reservations - Mesquite, Rockwall County
On-demand, same-day reservations - Terrell
Compass (DART express route 282) - Mesquite ←→ Dallas
#401 Shuttle - Hutchins, DART UNT-Dallas station, Lancaster
#501 - DeSoto, DART UNT-Dallas station, southern-SW Dallas
#802 "The Link" - Terrell ←→ Kaufman
#803 "The Loop" - Terrell (circulator route around town)
Trolley - Kaufman (fixed route; east and west options)
Express - Seagoville (connects by request to DART Buckner Station)
Medicaid transport - all of the above, as well as Ellis County and Navarro County

https://www.startransit.org/

Too bad we don't have one united system for all the areas where DART, Trinity Metro, DCTA, and Star Transit serve. I guess it's better to have something for now, than the alternative of nothing.

User avatar
electricron
Posts: 392
Joined: 29 Oct 2016 11:07

Re: Star Transit

Postby electricron » 19 Nov 2018 08:09

One size doesn't fit everywhere, and the multitudes of transit agencies in and around DFW metroplex prove it. Each has its own revenues sources from different taxes, different allocations, and different rates.
Each does its' very best to maximize the services provided while retaining a balanced budget of expenditures vs revenues.

User avatar
TNWE
Posts: 348
Joined: 03 May 2017 09:42

Re: Star Transit

Postby TNWE » 19 Nov 2018 13:03

It's a little interesting how each system deals with the "fringes" of their service areas. Fort Worth is so sprawled out that their express services to the Alliance area are effectively serving non-members like Keller and Roanoke, plus the TRE serves Richland Hills and Hurst, with the latter station technically being in Fort Worth, but only barely.

Once upon a time, DART was very insistent that any service that went outside a member city was subject to a whole slew of conditions about having to hold a vote to join DART within X months of signing a contract agreement, etc. Seems like they've more or less abandoned that stance and are happy to get whatever marginal fare revenue that comes from STAR dropping passengers at their stations, especially since AM northwest-bound Green Line trains aren't packed to the gills the way AM Red/Green trains are into downtown.

Some of this softening may be due to DART realizing that they can't reasonably discern between residents and non-residents of their service area (see the failed paid parking idea) so they might as well let outside cities run a shuttle bus (like STAR), or build stations that are all but inside non-member cities (like Cypress Waters).

On the whole it would make a lot more sense if there was a single agency with one big pot of money to allocate for appropriate service levels in different areas of the metroplex, but I think we all know how quickly that would fall apart. Activists who represent a relatively small fragment of the Dallas sales tax base already want DART's entire budget for their personal wishlists - I'm frightened to think of how they'd gut TM, DCTA, and the TRE if they got their hands on that money.