Hello Ride,

DART staff recently wrapped up a thorough process of working with our consultants to draft a new bus network. As we shared with you last month, we prioritized ridership for the new network overall, with fewer bus routes running more often in the busiest areas of our region, with the exception of Ankeny, Altoona and Clive where we prioritized greater transit coverage. This approach reflects what we heard during public input in April.

The draft network we designed also has 10% less service than DART has today, aligning with the budget the DART Commission (DART’s governing body) approved at its June meeting. This decision will limit property tax growth among our member communities and allow us to maintain closer to existing service levels than other budget scenarios the Commission considered earlier this year.

Below are a few highlights from the design process to give you some perspective on our approach and to prepare you for what you’ll see in September!

Insights from Designing a New Network

Difficult Choices: Although we know there are many transportation needs in our region, we cannot serve everyone with the funding we have, particularly as the region continues to develop further away from the downtown core. We had difficult conversations about how to design a new network that meets the needs of our communities while staying within our projected budget.

Useful Service: We spent a lot of time discussing how each bus route could be useful to many people by connecting multiple places instead of drawing a route to connect to one place or for one purpose. This means a few places in the region might lose transit access, but the network will work better for more people because they can get to more places more quickly. 

New Opportunities: Even with a slightly smaller network, we are proposing significant changes to routes that will help meet riders’ needs, including increasing frequency on several routes in the most transit-friendly areas of the metro. We are also proposing more service on weekends and introducing microtransit service in suburban communities that expressed a preference for transit coverage.

Greater Efficiencies: The proposed new network generally maintains a hub and spoke model but improves how quickly our buses run on routes by spacing bus stops farther apart and timing when buses arrive and leave DART Central Station to allow for faster transfers to other routes. Connections will also be possible at some key locations, including the Walmart in Windsor Heights and Merle Hay Mall.

Next Steps

Our consultants will fine-tune the map this summer and analyze how the proposed new network will change people’s access to opportunities and jobs.  

We will share a map of the draft network for public input this September. Along with the map, you will see proposed hours that service will run, how often buses will run on each route and bus stop locations. We encourage you to take a survey and let us know what you like about the new network and what we should reconsider. The feedback we collect will help us finalize a network that the DART Commission will vote on in early 2026.

The new bus network will be implemented in summer 2026. DART will continue to operate its current bus network until then. We plan to communicate all changes to service well in advance.  

Thank you for staying informed on Reimagine DART. We look forward to sharing the new network with you in the coming months.

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