Iowa’s Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) provided 3,753,065 rides across all transit services in Fiscal Year 2025 (July 2024 – June 2025), an increase of nearly 7% from the previous year.

About 95% of DART’s ridership is on its fixed bus routes, which increased slightly more than 7% to 3,579,974 rides last year. 

DART carried an average of 17.6 passengers per hour of service on its fixed bus routes, making it the most efficient of the agency’s services.

“We are pleased to see demand for our service continue to grow across the metro,” said Amanda Wanke, DART CEO. “Each trip on DART benefits everyone in our region, getting workers to jobs, shoppers to stores, people to healthcare, and students to schools. DART connects people to places that keep our local economy moving."

Adapting to Where People are Going Today

While ridership continues to increase, DART is also undergoing a significant redesign of its bus network to better align service with changes in where and how people travel today. 

DART’s current network mainly serves those who commute from suburban communities to downtown for work, but modern work patterns are creating increased demand for consistent service throughout the day and on weekends. 

The agency will present a proposed new bus network for public input in September.

Iowa State Fair Ridership

DART provided more than 263,000 shuttle rides over the 11 days of the 2025 Iowa State Fair. 

On Wednesday and the second Thursday, total trips beat the day-specific ridership on record with preliminary totals of 24,889 rides and 24,188 rides, respectively. 

The State Fair accounts for a significant increase in DART ridership in August, but is a small percentage of total ridership over the year.