Addison and Park Cities Vote on Leaving DART Transit

Early voting began Monday in three cities that could reshape North Texas transit as tens of thousands of daily riders know it.

Highland Park, University Park and Addison all opened polls on whether to exit Dallas Area Rapid Transit entirely. Election day is May 2. The outcome won’t just change bus routes, it could unwind financial arrangements built over decades and leave roughly 200,000 daily DART riders to absorb the consequences.

Addison’s case is the one worth watching most closely. The city of about 17,000 residents has put approximately $400 million into DART since joining the system, including $16.7 million in fiscal year 2024 alone. The Silver Line, which runs through Addison and makes it a regional connection point, opened just months before city leaders placed the exit question on the ballot. And yet Addison approved a $240 million mixed-use development near the station, a project whose value depends on continued transit access. That’s not a minor wrinkle. It’s the central tension of this entire vote.

DART Board Chair Randall Bryant didn’t mince words on what withdrawal would mean for the people who can’t drive to a doctor’s appointment or a job site. “For those that need to access jobs or medical appointments, their voices are not being heard, but those are the voices that we’re standing up for,” Bryant told NBC DFW’s Lone Star Politics. He didn’t stop there. “Addison is one of our most integral transit centers for the entire network.”

Opponents of DART aren’t persuaded by that framing. Town Councilman Randy Smith made the dissent plain at a December council meeting. “I stand here with you, as everyone on this dais does. I believe in public transportation. But we are looking at a 1983 business model that has been broken.” That line has become something of a rallying point for the exit movement across the suburbs. The complaint isn’t with transit itself. It’s with how DART’s governance divides power and money.

Earlier this year, suburban cities pushed hard for structural reforms. They got some traction. Changes reduced Dallas’ majority control over the DART board, spreading representation and funding weight more evenly across the DART member cities system. Most suburbs that had threatened to leave accepted those changes and stood down. Addison, Highland Park and University Park didn’t.

Resident Valerie Collins, speaking at a January council meeting, wasn’t interested in waiting. “Addison can and will find alternative solutions. As far as the Silver Line, you can hop right across the tollway. We need to vote. You need to give us the vote,” Collins said.

Two campaigns have organized around the question. Addison Way Forward is making the case for staying. Addison Deserves Better wants out. Both are running organized efforts ahead of the April 28 early voting window and May 2 deadline.

The financial exit, if it happens, won’t be clean. Addison would still owe money into the system after a yes vote, carrying its share of existing DART debt until that debt is retired. The Dallas Morning News has reported that the process can stretch years. “It is kind of baffling,” one observer told reporters, noting that a city would vote to leave while still legally obligated to fund the system it just rejected.

Voters in all three cities can check polling locations and hours through the Dallas County Elections Department. The May 2 ballots will be straightforward in language and consequential in effect.