DART offering free rides all week to celebrate new routes

Dallas Area Rapid Transit launched its new bus network Monday with a freebie.

DART is offering free bus and light rail rides all week and reduced fares for the rest of the month to celebrate the new routes.

They are supposed to provide better access to employment and education destinations. 

The reworked bus routes also offer on-demand pickup options in more areas.

"We are going five days for a lot of our routes, up to seven days a week. Between the hours of 5 a.m. to midnight for all local routes. But also for our core frequent routes, those 15-minute routes that are so vital to our area, it goes from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m.," said Gordon Shattles, DART’s director of external relations.

After this week, rides will be half price if customers use a contactless method of payment like the GoPass tap card.

That runs through Feb. 14.

RELATED: DART’s redrawn bus routes and updated service plan to begin in January