The State Fair of Texas and DART Extend Special Offer for Columbus Day School Tickets
Due to high winds and downed rail lines on DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), the State Fair of Texas® and DART have partnered to offer students and teachers with Columbus Day school tickets the opportunity to come say “howdy” to Big Tex® on the final Saturday and Sunday of the 2014 State Fair of Texas.
State Fair President Mitchell Glieber said, “We know the inclement weather and rail delays on Columbus Day impacted some students’ and teachers’ ability to get to the State Fair, so we’re happy to partner with DART to extend them this opportunity to attend on our final weekend.”
The State Fair of Texas is pleased to offer over 1.6 million free tickets this year to students and teachers at schools located within a 100-mile radius of the event. On Columbus Day, 23 independent school districts were invited to use their tickets for this year’s Fair, including: Allen, Arlington, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Duncanville, Ennis, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Grapevine-Colleyville, Highland Park, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Irving, Kaufman, Lewisville, Mabank, Midlothian, Northwest, Prosper, Richardson, Terrell, West, and Whitney.
As a result of high winds on Monday, October 13, DART passengers were diverted to a bus shuttle between Victory and Baylor University Medical Center stations and Union and Mockingbird stations. Due to loss of power to overhead power lines, travel to and from the State Fair of Texas was affected. The transit agency had to shut off the power to its downtown Dallas corridor to inspect the damage. To support the State Fair’s extension of the Columbus Day school tickets, DART has offered free roundtrip rides to fairgoers traveling on both DART bus and rail this weekend. This offer excludes the Trinity Rail Express (TRE).
This offer is limited to students and teachers with the special tickets. Other family members traveling with them will need to purchase DART passes either on board a bus, rail station ticket vending machine or by using the GoPass mobile ticketing app. This offer does not apply to the Trinity Railway Express, DCTA or Fort Worth T.
Information about riding DART to the Fair, as well as fare information for guests without the special student and teacher passes, is available at www.DART.org/StateFair.
This extension and free ride offer is presented only for school districts that were scheduled to attend the Fair on Columbus Day, with the date of October 13, 2014. This offer applies only to Saturday, October 18 and Sunday, October 19, 2014.
Eligible students and teachers must present their yellow Columbus Day Fair ticket, with the date of October 13, 2014, at the DART station for their free ride to the Fair. Fairgoers must present their ticket at the gate to enter the Fair, and hold on to their ticket stub in order to present it to DART for their return free ride. Fairgoers who do not hold onto their ticket stub for their return ride, will have a purchase a DART pass.
The 2014 State Fair of Texas, themed “Deep in the Heart of Texans,” comes to a close this Sunday, October 19.