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Next week, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) will mark the 25th anniversary of its inception in 1983, when more than 100,000 North Texans voted in favor of a sales tax to create the agency.

In early 1984, the agency took over bus operations from the Dallas Transit System and began planning for a new light-rail system. That system opened in 1996, after DART launched operations on the first 11.2 miles of the initial 20-mile light-rail starter system.

Today, DART operates a 45-mile light-rail system and is in the midst of a program aimed at more than doubling it by 2018. The agency currently is constructing the $1.8 billion, 28-mile Green Line between Dallas and Carrollton. The agency also plans to build an Orange Line that will branch off of the Green Line to serve Irving and Las Colinas; expand service to Garland and Rowlett; extend the Blue Line to UNT-Dallas; and build a second rail line through the Dallas Central Business District.