Public transport looks to expand in McKinney district

Janay Tieken remembers when McKinney was still following the traditional path to public transit.

Under a previous partnership, the city’s streets used to be a part of a fixed bus route network.

But the issue of low ridership, added to McKinney’s more expansive geography, meant the service was financially unfeasible, said Tieken, the city’s housing and community development director.

Since then, the city has switched to an on-demand model that aims to help the elderly, those with disabilities and those with low income get to doctor’s visits or grocery stores. Now, a recent change to the system is aiming to make that program even more expansive.

In January, DART became the Collin County Transit program provider. The transition is a switch from when the Denton County Transportation Authority was providing a taxi voucher program to the McKinney Urban Transit District, which includes Celina, Prosper, Lowry Crossing, Melissa and Princeton.

The agreement with DCTA expired on Dec. 31, and the city of McKinney, on behalf of the district, put out a request for presentations. Around that time, the DCTA and Dallas Area Rapid Transit were expected to provide a joint proposal, Tieken said.

“But DCTA decided for a number of reasons that they didn’t have the bandwidth and were not going to be part of the joint proposal,” Tieken said. “So DART graciously and very luckily pivoted and was able to be the lead and provide the pieces that DCTA was going to provide.”

Ryan McCutchan, program manager with DART, said the shift will bring changes for riders that aim to expand services and make the fare system more concise.

For one, he said, DART is providing expanded service hours under the new program: weekdays, the program will run from 6 a.m. through 8 p.m. In addition, the program expanded weekend services to include Sundays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (The service runs at the same times for Saturday).

Previously, services ended at 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the program did not run on Sundays. That change comes as DART saw a high demand of requests who may want to go to church on Sunday, McCutchan said.

In addition, the program will include a mix of “dedicated” vehicles that are used by DART as well as “non-dedicated” vehicles through Lyft services.

“The Lyft fleet, we feel, will be very dynamic and be able to help the program grow as more prospective riders join the Collin County Transit program,” McCutchan said.

In March, McCutchan said DART was currently testing the Lyft component, with hopes to add it to operations in mid-April.

Changes also include making the fare system more simplistic: members who need rides within the McKinney Urban Transit District will pay a flat $3 fee for a one-way trip, while a trip to anywhere else in Collin County is a $5 flat fee for a one-way trip.

Previously, the fare system was dependent on how long someone’s trip was.

“So every time somebody booked a trip, they might have a little bit different fare,” McCutchan said. “But with this new program, with there only being two fares, we really wanted to make a really clear and concise way of paying for the system under the two-fare system.”

The program eligibility still includes seniors, riders with disabilities and low-income riders, making the service a targeted effort to help people who meet those eligibility requirements. McCutchan said DART’s plans included specific marketing in order to grow the transit program for those riders.

In January, McCutchan said there was a good amount of demand for such a program. By Jan. 28, the program had already provided 865 rides, with about 32 riders per day. Trips averaged about 18 minutes and 6.6 miles, he said.

“I think we will continue to see ridership go up as we add new eligible riders to the system,” he said at the time.

By early March, ridership had totaled to 2,335. Average daily ridership was 35, and average travel duration was 19 minutes. The average travel distance was seven miles.

Today’s on-demand services in the MUTD is a long way down the road from where the city was a few years ago, when fixed-route buses were still traversing McKinney’s streets.

“Rather than running empty buses around the city all day, this has been a much better and more focused approach to providing transit services,” Tieken said.

Of course, it’s not as visible, she added, and a lot of folks will probably be inclined to say “We don’t have transit in McKinney.”

“Yes, we do,” she said.