Nearly 34,000 cloth seats will be replaced by vinyl on Dallas Area Rapid Transit busses in the next few weeks, DART said in a statement Tuesday.
The switch will be an attempt to promote a “cleaner experience” on the public busses, since cloth seats are more difficult to clean.
“Cloth seats just are not very sanitary. You never know what you are sitting on,” DART rider Daniela Rodriguez said in the statement.
DART currently has 570 busses, and expect that 90% of seats will be switched out by May 29. Replacing seats on light rail trains will begin at the end of May, and by September 15,000 train seats will be vinyl, DART estimates.
“Vinyl seats have a material life cycle of 10+ years, and more importantly, provide a cleaner, safer, and more comfortable environment for our riders,” said Marvin Hurt, AVP of Fleet Engineering at DART.
