Dallas Area Rapid Transit has been named the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) 2019 Innovation Award winner.
The Innovation Award is given to a public transit agency demonstrating innovative concepts in the provision of public transportation services. Entries this year had to show how their transit system demonstrated excellence within the three-year period of 2016-2018.
The GoPass app, DART’s winning entry, was the first public transit ticket-purchasing app in the nation that involved multiple agencies and different types of transportation by combining efforts between DART in Dallas County, The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (now Trinity Metro) in Tarrant County and the DCTA in Denton County.
“Congratulations to DART for receiving the 2019 Innovation Award. DART is both a technology leader and a shared mobility leader in the public transportation industry,” said APTA President and CEO Paul P. Skoutelas. “DART’s successful GoPass app is the first of its kind in the industry. Now residents of North Texas can use it to not only buy tickets to local public transit systems, but also to use ridesharing options like Uber and Lyft.”
Customers simply download the free app, set up an account using a debit or credit card, and then start buying tickets. The GoPass app helps people plan trips by seeing routes mapped out with listed arrival and departure times. It even shows upcoming events.
Since its initial launch in September 2013, the GoPass app has seen several improvements. In 2016 the corporate annual and college semester passes were added. One year later ride-sharing services were integrated into the app, like DART’s New GoLink micro-transit service that provides customers an on-demand first mile-/last-mile solution.
Last year, the agency released GoPass 2.0, which continued to revolutionize how riders transact with DART. New features and benefits added included fare capping, cash-to-mobile payment option, Apple Pay and GoPass Wallet.
The much-anticipated GoPass 3.0 was released earlier this year. This new version securely positions the app as a mobility manager platform that could be leveraged nationally, providing Mobility as a Service without regard to mode or provider.
