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Free Shuttle Buses Coming To Downtown Dallas

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Downtown Dallas is getting a FREE shuttle to move visitors, residents and office workers to restaurants, convention meetings, and downtown attractions.  It’ll be running in time for the large crowds expected for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.

Plans for the FREE “d-link” shuttle were adjusted before getting final Dallas City Council approval.  

“Ms Greyson very wisely brought up the fact that the shuttle did not stop at the Sixth Floor Museum," Transportation Committee Chair Vonciel Jones Hill told colleagues.

The route was slightly altered to create a stop at the Museum to accommodate the large crowds expected in November for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. 

Todd Plesko, with DART says d-link service will start November 4th.

“And we will have special sort-of branded bus stops, so when people walk up to the bus stop they’ll know it’s the special downtown shuttle," Plesko explained. "The actual bus will have elements of pink in it, like the old Hop A Bus.

But it won’t have bunny ears like the free pink buses that rolled through downtown in the 70’s and 80’s.  D-link buses will run 11 am to 11:30pm, Monday through Saturday. They’ll loop through and around downtown, the Arts District, Victory, Dealey Plaza and the Museum, the Omni Convention Center Hotel and across the Jefferson viaduct to Bishop Arts in Oak Cliff.

John Crawford, President of Downtown Dallas Inc says Dallas is playing catch up.

“I think we’ve kind of been behind the times in terms of having a connector or a shuttle," Crawford said. "But don’t forget that we’re not behind the times in terms of other routes that DART has. So, all of this is connectivity to send the message to people come on down and have fun.”

DART’s Todd Plesko says DART studied successful free downtown connectors in Denver, Philadelphia and Long Beach. And closer to home, Molly the Trolley in Fort Worth. That’s been a free downtown connector since 2009.

D-link is a two-year, $2.5 million dollar free shuttle pilot program. The city of Dallas, DART and Downtown Dallas Inc are splitting the cost.

Credit DART
DART map for d-link, the downtown shuttle

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.