Greetings!

This summer, DART staff has been hard at work designing a new transit network for Greater Des Moines, a core component of Reimagine DART, while also preparing for our annual Iowa State Fair Park & Ride service.

I hope you will take a few minutes to learn what’s happening at DART and explore examples of public transit’s impact on our region. Also, watch for an opportunity this September to view a draft of DART’s new transit network and give input. 

Thank you for reading and for your support!  

Amanda

Amanda Wanke, Chief Executive Officer

DART, Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority

620 Cherry Street, Des Moines IA 50309

In this issue:



• DART Rider Story Update: Leetal Cohn 
• YSS Rooftop Gardens: Making Moves to a Bright Future 
• Iowa State Fair Park & Ride 
• Reimagine DART update 
• How DART Plans its Fleet 

Connecting Leetal to a Career

Last summer, we introduced you to Leetal Cohn, a Drake University senior who relied on DART to balance a job, her classes and the field experience she needed to graduate with an education degree. Recently, Leetal shared with us that she accepted a job as a teacher at Urbandale High School.

“DART definitely helped me throughout college,” Leetal said. “It contributed to my quality of life and gave me the independence I needed to make Des Moines my permanent home.” 

YSS Rooftop Gardens: Making Moves to a Bright Future

We recently learned how DART is helping young people reach the YSS Rooftop Gardens program, which aims to help at-risk youth and young people experiencing homelessness gain valuable work experience while earning a livable wage and learning important job and life skills. 

Read how Rooftop Gardens participants Jasmin and Josiah are making moves to a bright future thanks to the unique program and why public transit is a vital component of community well-being.

What's Happening at DART

Iowa State Fair Park & Ride

DART is excited to once again offer a Park & Ride shuttle service to the Iowa State Fair. Shuttle buses will run all 11 days of the fair from three Park & Ride locations to Gate 10 at the fairgrounds. In 2024, DART provided a record-breaking 272,000 shuttle rides to the fair, and we look forward to another successful year of offering a convenient and affordable service for fairgoers.

Reimagine DART

Staff and local partners recently worked with our consultants to draft a new bus network that we will present for public input in September. The new map is based on decisions the DART Commission made in June. We will ask riders and residents to look at the map and tell us what they like and what we should reconsider before we finalize the new network.

Read what we learned while designing the new network.

How DART Plans its Fleet

Providing reliable public transit service to Greater Des Moines residents starts with maintaining more than 140 buses in DART’s fleet.

Most years, we use primarily federal dollars from our capital budget to buy five to ten new buses to replace aging vehicles in our fleet. Replacing vehicles that are past their useful life is more cost-effective than paying for their upkeep and provides a better customer experience. DART's operations and maintenance teams regularly evaluate our bus fleet and explore new opportunities for increased efficiencies and cost-savings.

Discover answers to five of the most common questions we receive about our bus fleet:

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