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Free Downtown Dallas Shuttle, The D-Link, Has Launched

BJ Austin
/
KERA News
D-Link, the free downtown Dallas shuttle starts service. Buses run every 15 minutes.

A free downtown Dallas shuttle service starts today. It’ll make stops at downtown attractions, as well as the Bishop Arts district in Oak Cliff.

The new, free shuttle service is called D-Link.  Mark Ball with DART says the route through downtown to Bishop Artsand back takes 45 minutes and has about 60 stops.

“There’s all these opportunities where you can hop on board and take a ride and find out what Dallas has to offer,” Ball said, showing off one of the newly wrapped D-Link buses.

The idea is to make it convenient to get to downtown attractions in the Arts District, along Main Street, as well as to the convention center and the Sixth Floor Museum. Ultimately, the hope is that D-Link will bring more people to downtown businesses and attractions.  

“This is an effort by the city of Dallas, Downtown Dallas Inc. and DART to help with the tourism for this area," Ball explained. "There are a number of things in the downtown Dallas area that are here now that were not here just a few years back, like Klyde Warren Park, museums etc. So, with that uniqueness as well as an effort by some of the business people here wanting to do something like that, we’re doing this experiment for a couple of years.”

DART, the city of Dallas and Downtown Dallas Inc are splitting the $2.5 million cost for two years of free shuttle service.   Ball says after that, they’ll assess the service and its success.

Other cities, such as Fort Worth, Denver, and Philadelphia, have successful free shuttles in their city centers and entertainment districts.  

The D-Link buses will be easy to spot.  Part of the bus is a bright magenta, along with the traditional DART yellow. Signage at the stops will feature the same color scheme.  The service will run from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.  

Former KERA reporter BJ Austin spent more than 25 years in broadcast journalism, anchoring and reporting in Atlanta, New York, New Orleans and Dallas. Along the way, she covered Atlanta City Hall, the Georgia Legislature and the corruption trials of Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards.