DART President and CEO Nadine Lee announced today that the Silver Line’s grand opening will be held Oct. 25. The entire DART system will be free to all riders Oct. 25, and the Silver Line will remain free to ride until Nov. 8.
UTD’s DART rail station, located near the testing center, will directly connect the campus to the 26-mile SIlver Line and the entire DART rail system. The completed line will connect Comets to DFW International Airport’s Terminal B, to the Red and Orange lines at CityLine/Bush station, to the Green Line at Downtown Carrollton station and the Orange Line and Trinity Metro at the DFW airport stations. Its 10 stations additionally connect students directly to Coppell, Carrollton and Addison.
“The Silver Line opening is a realization of a promise kept to our riders and our region,” Lee said during today’s announcement. “This state-of-the-art train will improve connections, create new access to jobs, and drive economic growth across North Texas … Most importantly, this line shows our riders that we heard them, and we delivered.”
Most importantly, this line shows our riders that we heard them, and we delivered.
— Nadine Lee, DART President and CEO
DART Board of Directors Chair Gary Slagel said the line is a major investment into building a stronger and more interconnected North Texas. The project, which started in fall 2019, took six years to complete due to multiple delays primarily caused by the pandemic.
UTD students have been looking forward to the line’s debut since construction first began and regularly push for more improvements to DART’s infrastructure. Computer science junior Colin Wong said he joined Comets for Better Transit, a student organization that has fought against DART budget cuts in the past, in his freshman year because he was passionate about creating public transit to connect college students to the community around them.
“I love that DART enables people to get around without having to rely on a car,” Wong said. “It reduces traffic, and at least for me as a UTD student, it lets me quickly go to new places and find great restaurants and stuff without having to drive there or back.”
For me as a UTD student, it lets me quickly go to new places and find great restaurants and stuff without having to drive there or back.
— Colin Wong, Comets for Better Transit member
UTD students make up a core part of DART ridership. In its ridership report from the first quarter of 2025, DART said bus route 883, the UTD shuttle, was its most-ridden route with 4,422 riders on an average weekday. For students like Wong, the train station near UTD’s campus would make connecting to the rest of DFW much faster.
“This is so exciting,” Wong said. “I will definitely be making use of the free service for the grand opening. My goal is to ride it and visit every single stop.”
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After six years, DART’s UTD station debuts with a flourish – The Retrograde
[…] Oct. 25 to Nov. 8, all riders can use the Silver Line free of charge. Students at UTD can additionally apply for free Dallas Area Rapid Transit passes through the […]