News for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

DART Riders React To Fare Hikes: 'It Just Makes It Tougher'

Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus and rail fares rose Monday for most riders. Passengers didn’t necessarily like it, but accepted the hike.

At DART’s busy West transfer station in downtown Dallas, regular DARTrider and shelter resident  Shanice Tyree knew most one-way fares would jump Monday from $1.75 to $2.50. But she says others had no clue.

" That’s 75 cents extra," she said. "I mean it’s fine if you’re working and everything, but  this, I don't know, its kind of hard to come up with that much. But when it’s so sudden, like a lot of people got on the bus today,  not hearing about it, or they don’t have phones or television, so you’re not hearing about a lot of these things. And then all of a sudden you've got to pay this amount. Like, 'What in the world?'  Other than that, it’s fine."

Curtis Ford says he rides DART almost every day.

"I’m not upset with it. Just that, got to have something, some means of transportation. So you've got to get around. It's just one of those things."

Michael Barnette rides DART a lot too. In tough times he says these fare hikes hurt.

"It’s difficult. I mean everybody’s struggling, so you know? It’s not easy. It just makes it tougher."

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.