Students of SMU are offered many perks, not only on campus but also at many places around Dallas. One opportunity offered to SMU students is cheap use of the DART train. If you think back to AARO, you probably remember that unlimited use of the DART is included in every student’s tuition and that you must simply pay a one-time fee of five dollars in order to receive a card that you are told you must renew once a year.
Last week, Eta Iota Sigma, the Christian sorority on campus planned a social event at the Dallas Museum of Art. In order to save money on the highly increased rates of parking in the downtown arts district we decided to take advantage of the DART. For many of the girls it was their first trip on the DART and we were reminded by the girl in charge to bring our DART passes. Unfortunately, there were several girls among our group that didn’t realize their passes had expired.
There isn’t a fee to renew your pass; it’s free if you take your card to Park n’ Pony. But now that their offices have moved, it isn’t all that convenient to go there; the older girls in our group just didn’t get around to it. The freshman girls, on the other hand, were told at AARO that their cards would be good for a whole year, and several of them assumed that this meant a school year rather than a calendar year.
I’ve ridden the DART many times, and of those times I’ve only encountered the fare enforcement officer once. I didn’t expect to see them at all on the two stops between Mockingbird and Pearl, so when four of them boarded the one car that we were riding in, I was surprised. My DART pass is up-to-date because I was able to get it while Park n’ Pony was located in the Commuter Lounge, but of our 20 girls, nine of them were asked to hand over both their expired cards and their drivers’ licenses and to exit the train at the next stop.
The woman that checked our section caught two of our girls with expired passes and failed to ask the man in front of us for his ticket, which I noticed he never bothered to reach in his pocket for. She yelled up to the woman at the front of the car, asking her how many expired passes she found. The woman yelled back, “Six,” and we all got off and stood in the Cityplace station while nine girls were written $75 tickets.
Some of the girls attempted to explain to the officers the agreement that SMU has with the DART. Then every one of them offered to pay for the $3 day pass, but these women would not let them off. While the four of them were writing tickets to these young women, who were willing to pay, I watched many people take one look at us and realize they could board the train without a ticket.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not writing this to complain or say that these girls shouldn’t have to pay for their tickets. But it seems that perhaps it would make more sense to make these passes good for four years, or at least a full school year. Or maybe rather than giving these large fines, they should have let these well-behaved students buy a ticket. It just seems ironic that we were trying to save money and instead, the DART is now going to make a $675 profit.
Just be warned: don’t board the train without first making sure your pass is up to date. Otherwise something that would be free might end up costing you a hefty sum.
Lauren Smart is a junior creative writing and history double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
