If you have been one of the lucky passengers to catch a ride on a newly outfitted Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Green or Red Line Light-Rail Vehicle (LRV), you’ve got a sneak peek at DART’s latest update because those shiny blue seats are new and improved!

DART has been upgrading the seating in its LRV fleet with new padding and a premium vinyl finish. The new seats are sleeker, softer, and easier to clean, helping DART continue to drive home the importance of a superior customer riding experience.

 The LRV seating upgrade plan will see more than 16,000 seats, including spare ones created for inventory replacement, in the DART fleet refurbished. In total, the seating on 163 of the oldest LRVs – including the 95 that have been in service for over 20 years – will have the old cloth seats replaced with premium vinyl.

“One of the biggest things we learned coming out of the pandemic was the need to have surfaces that are easy to clean and sanitize,” said Darryl E. Spencer, P.E., DART vice president of engineering and technical services development. “These new seats will allow us to provide a cleaner, safer, and more comfortable ride as we continue to modernize our system.”

DART is in the process of a Systems Modernization Plan that will help the agency achieve its strategic goals of providing a quality customer experience, creating seamless travel experiences, and delivering fantastic spaces that add value to the community. While technically not part of the modernization plan, the vinyl seat upgrades show that DART is committed to delivering better customer service and an improved ride experience right now. Rest assured that the next generation LRVs will be outfitted with this upgraded material.

The new seats are a big hit with riders so far, with 90 percent of those taking an available in-vehicle survey saying they preferred the new vinyl seats to the fabric ones and 95 percent claiming the seats felt cleaner and more hygienic. Riders can take the survey and provide DART feedback by scanning the QR code found on the seatbacks of the upgraded LRVs.

There are currently over twenty retrofitted LRVs with new vinyl seats now rotating between service on the Orange, Green, Red and Blue Lines. DART projects to have over twice that many completed and in operation by Easter Sunday and will have the entire fleet of older LRVs retrofitted and running in service by June.

To learn more about DART Capital Projects, please visit Capital Projects (dart.org).  

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